It took me several hours to write this. If you have time, take several hours to listen and read. Spread it out over a few days, maybe. But trust me, it's worth it.

Hey /r/popheads! Today is Michael Jackson's birthday. As your tireless MJ crusader I have no plan when I start to write this post, except to bring to attention the works of this man - and to recommend you check out more from his music than what you are used to. Michael Jackson was a true visionary, who changed the definition of the pop star, dramatically influencing the visuals, the fashion, the sound and the enigma of pop music. His videos were groundbreaking, his dance and choreography the stuff of legend, his songwriting and collaborations with producers are brilliant, and his voice is a unique instrument of joy, anger, passion, disdain, confidence and insecurity that has gone unmatched. His music morphed from chart-topping, perfectly crafted pop talking of life, love and desire to highly politically and emotionally charged music dealing with loneliness, injustice, greed, unrequited love and a never-ending passion to set it all right.

More than that, he was a very special man. Known to all his friends and colleagues as an exceedingly humble and generous man, well-read and soft-spoken, he became a true humanitarian, fighting for the underdogs in the world. Stories of his support for young AIDS patients, millions of dollars donated to hundreds of causes are lesser known than his love for children, especially those with troubled lives. Having been a performer from a very young age and increasingly being made to act as a grown up when still a child gave MJ the feeling that he never had a childhood and had missed out on a natural youth. He seemed to have made a vow to live the rest of his life carefree, shameless in his 'childish' love for the simple pleasures in life, and was very eager to spread this idea. Having felt the pain of child abuse and isolation as a child, it was his dream to help children worldwide to experience the exact opposite. This noble dream is the stuff of fairy tales, but so was this guy, a larger-than-life figure who loved climbing trees just as much as he loved gyrating on stage with sexy back-up dancers.

Where adoration comes first, controversy follows soon after. His different nature encouraged the wildest ideas to sprout. His withdrawn unwillingness to shed light on his peculiarities accelerated the speculation. After reaching the absolute height of fame, Michael Jackson became the world's biggest target. As vitiligo destroyed the pigments in the skin of the world's most well known black man, as a touch of vanity went a step too far and changed the shape of his face, as his love for childhood was confused for a stunted maturity, as his artistic efforts were increasingly ignored in favour of sensationalist crucifixion, as the most immoral crimes known to man were attached to his name forever, as authorities investigated him for decades (finding nothing), his legacy morphed from simply one of the greatest entertainers of all time, the ultimate game changer, to a freak, a weirdo, a child molester. Stories were thrown at him to see which ones stuck and the public swallowed it willingly.

Painfully, his death changed much, as suddenly the public realized again what it was he had achieved. All too little, all too late.

Michael Jackson helped me discover who I am. His music, his talent, his life has inspired me in countless ways. I admire his ideas, I admire his visions, and I have learned from his life story the highs and lows of pop culture, the heights and depths one man can reach. In June 2009 I had two tickets to his comeback concerts in London in my pocket, ready to witness what would probably have been the greatest day in my life. But it never came to be. We were robbed of the tour, of the music, of the man. This killed me. I was devastated. I realized then that he was not a pop star to me, but an example, something I could hold on to when in doubt, something to aspire to, and when all that fell away prematurely, in such a tragic fashion, that hurt me more than I usually dare to admit.

So that's why I might seem a one-trick-pony sometimes. :)

58 years ago today, Michael Jackson was born as the youngest son in a large family living in arguably one of the most dangerous cities in the United States: Gary, Indiana. To keep their sons off the streets, Katherine and Joseph Jackson encouraged their sons to work on their obvious musical talents.

What began with performing at local night clubs, continued into a Motown contract and instant success as The Jackson 5's first 4 singles all hit #1 on the charts, continued in the group leaving Motown and becoming known as The Jacksons, with the obvious star Michael gaining an increasingly more prominent role as the elusive, mercurial star of the show.

There are six albums to remember from this time which I recommend you check out on your own time:

• Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5
• ABC
• Third Album
• Dancing Machine
• Destiny
• Triumph

But as The Jackson 5 morphed from the cute harmonies and insanely catchy melodies of the Motown music factory to a more funk-driven and mature group in the Jacksons, with Michael writing his first songs, Michael Jackson grew increasingly ambitious.

The few solo albums he recorded for Motown as a kid are pretty nice. It's a part of his career most people forget, although songs from that time are classics: Ben, One Day In Your Life, Got To Be There. I recommend you check out Music And Me as well.

But the success wasn't enough for Michael Jackson. He was a learner, always observing, always eager to improve, and when legendary producer Quincy Jones worked together with him on the all-black remake of The Wizard Of Oz he saw the potential. The two of them teamed up on what would become, until a few years later, the biggest album ever by a black musician:

Off The Wall:

Off The Wall is disco's last stand at the end of the 70's. It showcases a young, exuberant MJ discovering his range and talent to evoke emotion vocally at the age of 21. This album feels completely alive and liberating.

Check out the songs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZorRGrDiMsA Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough starts off the album and you could end it there and it would still be a classic. Smooth, sensual and yet playful and innocent, this is some statement to start the album off with.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X-Mrc2l1d0 Rock With You was written by Rod Temperton and is a perfect example of what this album is all about - a joyful celebration of the night life, of desire expressed in all its subtlety or openness. Check out the harmonies on the chorus!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6P7aQtNpsA Working Day And Night is a frantic, funky song, full of impatience and haste, as the singer tries and tries to win a girl over, but all his efforts seem in vain. I especially love how the sound of his voice tells half the story, regardless of the lyrics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdYwglFL6iM Get On The Floor is a perfect example of what Quincy Jones is all about. The whole of the album is a perfect storm of vocals and production, and almost nowhere better than here. Just listen to the instruments!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDUbMBcXoj8 Off The Wall is the title track, written by Rod Temperton (yeah that guy again) that summarizes the album, a youthful, vibrant song that just can't wait to burst out and get to dancing. Again, I love the variations on the melody from MJ's voice as the song progresses.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6LUPlmua6I Girlfriend was written by Paul McCartney. It's simple, playful and airy, as the singer expresses the wish to make a girl all his own instead of sharing her.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DQJPL9Yuq0 She's Out Of My Life is, as Quincy Jones explained it, the grown-up version of Ben. As legend has it, MJ would burst into tears as he sang the song, so his tears at the end are genuine. On-stage performances played up the melodrama big time, but in all its purity it's a fabulous ballad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnhWML43NI8 I Can't Help It has the smoothest vocals on the album - soaring, stuttering, breathing in a Stevie Wonder-esque fashion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMt-sI_zRH0 It's The Falling In Love is perhaps the most dated song on the album, a duet full of energy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lH_LCHUp6E&gl=BE Burn This Disco Out ends off the album - written by Rod Temperton (this guy, what a collection of songs he's written!) - in style. It has it all - the vocals that soar, the lyrics that want to get it all out there, the flawless production.

Off The Wall was very succesfull, but not enough. Michael Jackson wanted more. He wanted the recognition of the music world, the mainstream music world, which was dominated by white rock music. So he and Quincy Jones worked together again on what would become the best-selling music album in history, do I need to introduce it?

Thriller

Pop, rock and funk fuse to create an album that wants it all, and does it all. Thriller is ambition come to life. Every song is crafted to perfection, thought-out and executed brilliantly. The lyrical content shifts from the care-free joys of Off The Wall to pulsating texts on paranoia, romance bursting at the seams, nostalgia almost too ambiguous to express.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Uj3zitETs4 Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' starts something alright - three drums in and you already know this ain't no disco, but a relentless time bomb of a song that never takes a moment's rest. As so many of songs solely written by Michael (which is a much larger amount than people think!) the lyrics express only half of the meaning (people who want to mess with other people's lives), and the vocal expression does the rest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hG9OzYVSg3c Baby Be Mine is energetic and sexy. Listen to his voice squeal and groan and slide effortlessly over these verses! And of course a song as good as this was written by Rod Temperton!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHp0s2wKajw The Girl Is Mine features two of the greastest artists in history, but sparks don't exactly fly: the song is tongue-in-cheek, lofty, adorable, plays it safe and does it well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOnqjkJTMaA&gl=BE + album version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAVX-MlBfew Thriller is the first in the album's 'Holy Trinity' and it is campy, is wild, is different, is everything the album wants to be. Horror imagery to what is ultimately a love song, with sharp vocals, iconic instrumentals, and one of the greatest music videos you'll ever see. I am in love with this song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=BE&v=Ym0hZG-zNOk Beat It was written by MJ in a wish to cross over, and cross over he did, with this timeless song about not giving in to the machoism and peer pressure of being a 'tough guy'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi_XLOBDo_Y&gl=BE Billie Jean is the first song in a series of songs where Michael Jackson no longer simply croons over a woman, but laments her treatment of him. Love is dangerous in the MJ universe and it creates haunting expressions of paranoia and second-guessing, such as in this perfection of pop. Written by MJ, another song in his universe where there is always a reason to distrust others.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J1csvknF00 Human Nature is atmospheric, nocturnal, melancholic, happy and yet sad. It paints a picture of a city at night, of a wish to be free, of the unwillingness to compromise identity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYXqwbtkkeM P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) - but don't sit down yet! The album has one last uptempo banger to offer, and wow it is a treat. The energy and passion is off the charts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cc_KSe6FUoU The Lady In My Life ends off the album with the most mature and sincere expression of romance (oh and did I mention the great Rod Temperton wrote this)

Thriller could have been enough. But for Michael Jackson, it was not. He had been there, and had done that. It was time for something different.

Bad

Bad commercially did not reach the heights of its predecessor, but let's be fair here, nothing ever will. What Bad does, however, is radically change the MJ game. Before this, there was a smooth and haunted pop star, but now we have a synth-driven bad boy, in black leather, eager to redefine himself as a sharp-edged artist. The last collaboration between Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones, with MJ writing most of the songs (9 of the 11)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHdDtuzreVQ + https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Svpzy--K8Q (long video, in two parts) Bad makes it very clear. This is a different album and a different Michael, who grunts, whispers and growls his way through a classic statement of intent. Check out the choreography in the video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzZ_urpj4As The Way You Make Me Feel picks up steam right off the bat - an exuberant call for love with drums like a steam train.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWl3jyQiz3Q Speed Demon is funk rock about wanting to experience the thrill of the chase but ultimately being stopped from it. The slight hint of a more political meaning to the song has been suggested very often, where a police officer condescendingly calls MJ 'boy' as he gives him a ticket.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3V-7DEAgdc Liberian Girl doesn't leave a doubt about its 'racial' content, as MJ describes his love for an African woman in Bad's most simple and carefree track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isaSLsH8l0c Just Good Friends is an energetic duet between two greats, Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vwHQNQ88cM Another Part Of Me is a vibrant song wishing for unity and connectedness in an almost prophetic fashion. Typical MJ: when under a microscope, some of the lyrics are nonsense, but in the bigger picture, vocals, music and words, it all makes sense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_D3VFfhvs4 Smooth Criminal is exhilarating, haunting, calculated and gorgeous - and the visuals that come with the song are legendary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crbFmpezO4A Leave Me Alone is one of the many Jackson songs with double meanings - is he asking the girl in the song to leave him alone, or the world? What's greater here, the harmonies or the beat?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PivWY9wn5ps Man In the Mirror is a masterpiece - touching, heartfelt, filled with soul and dedication.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPmo7owRU6o Dirty Diana is MJ goes glamrock and he does it damn well in this cautionary tale about groupies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHZ1Bii7Uwk I Just Can't Stop Loving You is a rare duet in the MJ discography, but even then it's still clearly the best one.

So, that's Bad. But the 90's are coming. It's time for something new, thinks MJ, so he goes out to reinvent himself - new lyrical content, new sound, new visuals, new producers, new atmosphere. The result is the powerful Dangerous.

Dangerous

An album with two faces: a heavily produced, urban, new jack swing and hip hop inspired beginning, and an MJ-brand 'epic pop' second half swinging from anger to passion to sadness in the blink of an eye. "An album that can alternately be paranoid, cryptic, sensual, vulnerable, idealistic, bleak, transcendent, and fearful."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=BE&v=JbHI1yI1Ndk Jam is a heart-stopping exercise in new jack swing with lyrics typical for the album, marveling at the modern world and its tendency to mess with your head, and MJ's resolve to not give in and keep his composure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qSfCjVk6Xc Why You Wanna Trip On Me is busy and dramatic. Why would you focus on the exploits of a pop star if there is so much ACTUALLY bad going on in the world?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qLY0vbrT8Q In The Closet is MJ's raciest track, a steamy song about keeping an affair behind closed doors even when it seems to be exploding from desire at every second. Check out Naomi Campbell in the video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlBZbog78p8 She Drives Me Wild is a song built around a metaphor - cars everywhere here, as this new jack swing adventure proclaims a girl to be something special, and MJ wants in on that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeiFF0gvqcc Remember The Time - note it's all black cast in the video, which is no exception for MJ's career is smooth as shit and has the clearest vocals on the album, is according to many dedicated to Diana Ross, the woman he fell in love with as a young star in Motown.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MBhxAO-T1I Can't Let Her Get Away ends off the new jack swing section and does it well - roaring verses, pounding beat, smooth chorus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWf-eARnf6U Heal The World is sugary and cheesy, but don't for a second doubt its sincerity and intent. Amidst the wild emotion, both confident and insecure, is a pop star who wants to see the world become a better place.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IH0N469RF8 Black Or White is a song closer to MJ's heart than you'd think. It really shouldn't matter, he sings, in life and love, what colour you are.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgGVvUhMJ5Q Who Is It is the perfect hybrid between Teddy Riley's new jack swing and Jackson's epic pop, a long, droning and paranoid song about suspicion and doubt. These lyrics are pretty dark and haunting. Epic bass line. One of his greatest songs ever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ7qXHjxj_0 Give In To Me is my favourite MJ song. Dramatic and passionate, fiery and demanding, guitar solos all over the place.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1nK3TMcL7A Will You Be There seems sugary and sweet at first, but man if it isn't another song where MJ just seems like the loneliest man. One of the many long songs that start off as ballads and end off with epic choirs chanting as MJ screams for recognition and support.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6NJ-5MuPmw Keep The Faith has Michael Jackson going gospel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcNamirwTaY&gl=BE Gone Too Soon is a short and sweet ballad inspired by a young boy with AIDS who MJ befriended, and lost, before recording the album. And now, it could be about him as well. "Born to inspire, to amuse, to delight - here one day, gone one night."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-DyQ268AFs Dangerous is funky, industrial, dense, whispery - the woman is no good but he's kinda into it.

MJ didn't have the best of times after this album. Accusations, drug abuse, failed ventures, endless vilification in the press. This led to what is at once the most exemplary album of what Michael Jackson really was, and at the same time the least Michael Jackson-like album out there:

HIStory: Past, Present And Future, Book I (there is no Book II)

This album is something else. Epic orchestration, a ridiculously broad range of subjects, a defiant fist and at the same time a hopeless flailing hand - a statement of despair and rebellion, a wish to be understood and a desire to be different. The music here is Disney-like at one turn, and almost devoid of rhythm the next. The vocals go from saccharine sighs to incomprehensible grunting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P4A1K4lXDo Scream with Janet Jackson starts off the album, which tells a story from start to finish. MJ and Janet roar at the world for its slander and lies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1pqi8vjTLY They Don't Care About Us is an anthem about systemic racism and injustice in the United States. MJ is disenchanted at how minorities are treated. The song is also about himself, as he was not too long ago also hounded by the authorities who subjected him to harsh treatment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEEMi2j6lYE Stranger In Moscow is a haunting melancholic pearl of a song about the loneliness of fame and how it can drive a man insane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZchFrLogMqA This Time Around wants you to know that MJ is done giving up and bending the knee. It's defiant, it's angry, and it's barely a pop song, but the emotion is real and genuine. The Notorious B.I.G. is on this!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=BE&v=XAi3VTSdTxU Earth Song - and in the blink of an eye, anger at his personal life becomes sadness over the entire planet, as this haunting epic describes the environmental destruction of earth and the despair of its inhabitants to put a stop to it. "I used to dream, I used to glance beyond the stars. Now I don't know where we are, although I know we've drifted far."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=026_wXsJFWc D.S. and then we go back to his personal life again. D.S. is a petty, vindictive song, an uneasy listen, and very real - in this song MJ lashes out at Tom Sneddon, the man responsible for the witch hunt he had to face in 1993.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stM8TJK-Zi0 Money is a hypnotic semi-spoken word song about greed and those who do anything for money, even betray those close to them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubR9cXWkXv8 Come Together is an odd choice at this point of the album and at this point in time, as it was recorded for his movie Moonwalker right when Bad came out. But here it is, this steamy cover of the Beatles' classic (and cryptical) song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtmbZbzr680 You Are Not Alone is smooth rnb, a very obvious number 1 candidate - but does it sound convincing to you? In an album so desperate, it should be noted that the protagonist of the song is singing this to himself. He is comforting himself, not his lover. It's MJ who needs love.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puQEcN_iI9o Childhood - if there was ever a song ready to be put inside a Disney movie. A sugary sweet, melancholic ballad that is extremely important to understand the man who sang it. In an effort to reclaim a lost childhood, he admits, he has become a different person, but please do take a second and try to understand him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8kUYr2ZC6U Tabloid Junkie is the apex of the album. Epic, flawless production. Lyrics about sensationalism and hypocrisy. Vocals so filled with anger you can barely understand them.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2qhlcr 2 Bad for some reason has Shaquille O'Neal rapping on it, but regardless, it's like This Time Around's twin: electronic, hectic, defiant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=BE&v=BoOFVh5bNb0 HIStory is the ambitious title track, comparing personal struggle to historical triumph.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjGO-u-Z6kU Little Susie is a testament to Michael Jackson's heart. On an album of anger at the world he finds place for an unsettling and uncomfortable song about a young child who suffers neglect and dies, alone and forgotten. There is no redemption here, nothing to soothe the pain, no happy ending. If you want a happy ending, you...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiKJmBgAfFE&gl=BE Smile - you just have to smile. The album starts with a scream, but ends with a smile. Even in tough times, try to stay happy. Try to look for that ray of sunlight. A strong and meaningful way to end this special collection of songs.

Not that much later, MJ would return to his roots. But, to add some meat to a collection of remixed songs, MJ dug even deeper.

Blood On The Dance Floor: HIStory In The Mix

5 new songs feature on the best-selling remix album of all time, and they dig to the very depths of Michael Jackson's mindset at the time. Industrial, funky, scary, heartfelt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3_NntYhzV4&gl=BE Blood On The Dance Floor is a dance track with whispers about a dangerous woman who is out to ruin your life - where did we hear this before? In the broader sense, this song seems to be about the danger of STD's while pursuing casual sex, but that's just fan's 'canon'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn-n_Y-ISkY Morphine is a pounding, soul-crushing thing. MJ, who notoriously suffered from drug addiction at various points in his life, writes a terrifying track about a drug addict, an enabler and the drug itself, engaging in some sort of 'dialogue' where everyone gets a word in, in a spiral of self-hate and justification. And then the bridge hits, as MJ sings about the powerful sedative Demerol and the feeling of bliss it gives you in the midst of relentless hammering and pain. Yes - Michael Jackson sang a song that allows for such a description. You cannot casually listen to something so painful and prophetic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r59yAGGDXT0 Superfly Sister is a bit cryptical - is it about his sister whose husband was no good? Is it about the hypersexualization of society, losing its traditional values? Is it about preaching modesty? In any case, it's funky, and weird, and different.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2q1ui0 Ghosts is a typical song where scary imagery serves as a metaphor to lash out at jealous types who are out to hurt him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSNPveb8i-Y Is It Scary is the sequel to Ghosts. Very similar lyrical content - but wow, those lyrics. The realness. MJ turns the mirror on himself and the audience. If they truly want him to be a freak, he'll be a freak. But only if they realize that by painting him as a monster, they are monsters themselves. The "truth and purity" is "inside a lonely heart".

Check out his movie Ghosts (40 mins) about a prejudiced mayor who wants the 'town freak' to leave. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pW9JYCK0GxI

So, yeah. That man was angry. Seems like the anger was gone, for the most part, and Michael was eager to return to his roots as an r&b and soul singer. That effort, although maimed by a seriously deteriorating relationship with his record label, became:

Invincible

Invincible is the perfect mix between early and late MJ: smooth and careless ballads, lonely expressions of doubt, defiant screams for rebellion, and a hand that reaches out to the problems in the world. The ballad-heavy tracklist tells a story, amidst the songs with other subjects: wanting to get a girl, having the girl, losing the girl.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiWyeblpr4s Unbreakable (which BEGS for a video) starts off the early album's strange infatuation with the word 'break' with the declaration that you can't just keep this man down - he'll rise up and rise again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWjYxR2cs5s Heartbreaker is Timberlake-esque R&B with some minor dubstep influences about, you guessed it, a dangerous woman, and MJ who fell into her trap!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miBfwWHSmb8 Invincible is the title track, a smooth and tasty R&B song about a girl who is playing hard to get.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-gkRz7_eVk Break Of Dawn is as R&B as MJ is ever gonna get. Smooth and seductive song about a passionate relationship.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON7vBGrjpz8 Heaven Can Wait sounds like a song that can't wait to get its message out. MJ's love is impatient and eager to be expressed. The song is said to be about his daughter Paris. "If the angels took me from this earth

I would tell them bring me back to her

It’s a chance I’ll take, maybe I’ll stay

Heaven can wait"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-7ABIM2qjU You Rock My World is the poppiest of pop on the record, and this far into the album it should be clear this is no 90's Michael. This is the updated version of his younger self, looking for new sounds and styles while covering old terrain thematically.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wthgd_Rg1qg Butterflies is a romantic ballad fit for the turn of the milennium and has - as the fans agree - the best falsetto part in his career.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwT9fJ2HKHg Speechless is sweet, sugary and magical, and pure Michael Jackson in its bashful and yet exuberant nature.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHd1rLurxNk 2000 Watts features uncharacteristically low vocals from Jackson on a steamy track ready to hit the dance floor, using musical equipment as a metaphor for sex.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMcBmZw5Kh8 You Are My Life - "Love is the answer to all that I am". This song is MJ declaring his love for his children, whose presence seems to have healed a lot of the hurts in his life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtk5CWOU464 Privacy is a gritty and harsh-sounding song asking the paparazzi to stay away from him, wondering if even the death of Princess Diana (alledgedly being caused by a high speed chase between a driver and a photographer) is not enough to stop them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdsb6zByWfY Don't Walk Away introduces another round of ballads (I love this album but the ballads, I can't hold all these ballads!!) with a sad and forlorn wish to not abandon a relationship, although it seems to have failed already.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=BE&v=mj3MfUR35CM Cry with its somewhat cryptical lyrics expresses an overall concern for the pains of the world and a desire to help get rid of them, together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxNZJjvl2wc The Lost Children is a lullaby-esque song, that is strangely haunting, and so typically MJ, where he sings his worries about children who have gone missing. His son Prince declares his love for "all the lovely flowers" in the end of the track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIJXOZZxnlA Whatever Happens is here to help end the album on a strong note. Carlos Santana and MJ work together for some latin/pop rock for this hot and bothered song about a relationship falling apart despite efforts from both parties to keep it together. My favourite on the album, perhaps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcPy6YFUMXo Threatened ends the album - it's another New Gothic song where MJ takes the shape of a monster to scare away his opponents. The bassline!

Of course, there is so much more. Posthumous releases will keep coming, some disrespectful, other unethical, and some quite pleasing. But all in all, these songs are the meat of his career and should be heard by anyone who claims to be a pophead, I feel. There is so much more to MJ than the 80's fame, most of all.

I can also very much recommend watching these three concerts if you are ever bored and have some hours to spend watching a master of the stage do his thing:

Bad World Tour - Rome, 1988: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrnWlr62E5c (only half of the concert, copyright has been cracking down on this tour)

Dangerous World Tour - Bremen, 1992: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvtiXLGYwjA

HIStory World Tour - Munich, 1996: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0JcJbzTjjw

Thanks if you got this far. Sorry if you didn't. I'm a bit obsessed. :)