Bad by Michael Jackson

Calling your album ‘Bad’ is something of a hostage to fortune. This was Jackson’s third and final collaboration with the great Quincy Jones - Off the Wall was breezy soul, Thriller was a behemoth (and I’ll say more when it turns up on this list) but this album is very much diminishing returns. The good parts are pretty much all down to Jones, but Jackson’s increasingly weird vocal tics (shamone!) and yelps are distracting to the point of annoyance.

The pointy nosed elephant in the room though, is Jackson himself. It’s clear he was an extremely damaged individual who had an abusive and controlling father, and after the success of Thriller was the subject of intense and intrusive media interest. He also suffered from body dysmorphia and started the process of transforming his appearance in increasingly bizarre and extreme ways.

This does not excuse in any way his behaviour with children, even though the truth of that is still shrouded in out of court settlements and disputes. Was he sad? Definitely, judging by the song “Leave Me Alone”. Was he mad? More than likely. Was he bad? In my opinion, yes, but some fans may disagree. Do I want to listen to this album again? No.