I said in the last album there’d be a sudden change in style, but perhaps not as much as expected. Yes, Jackson is much more squarely pop/funk/R&B, but tracks like Smooth Criminal have a much harder edge to them compared to his earlier more soulful work – probably why it was covered by Alien Ant Farm in a more metal form.
Musically, Jackson has gone for a more synthesiser-based, harder-beat feel (although there are some ballads that touch on the “quiet storm” style – Liberian Girl and I Can’t Stop Loving You for example). As well as Smooth Criminal there are other Jackson classics on here – the title track Bad, The Way You Make Me Feel, and Man In The Mirror. Which, now I come to listen to it properly, has some great sentiments in it – if you want to change the world, start with yourself, the man in the mirror.
Considering that this is where Jackson’s plastic surgery addiction was becoming very evident, there’s something somewhat ironic about that – Jackson looked at the man in his mirror and thought “That’s no good, it’ll have to change”. Looking at the accompanying videos, he’s starting to look uncomfortably thin as well.
Because of this, (and, I think, the allegations coming out about his activities at Wonderland) the album got quite a lot of backlash and negativity on its release, which to me is a good reason for stepping back from a situation and judging it from a distance, since taken on the music alone, it’s a pretty good development towards a hard-beat funk-pop sound. If my memories are right, though, this is also where his deteriorating physical and mental state parallel a decline in his music, but I’m prepared to be proved wrong.
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