Board 8 > Rank the Tracks Week 96: Michael Jackson - Thriller (+ Sonata Arctica results)

(+) Yeah! (+)

poll for Steiner's week:

Rise Against - Endgame
vs.
AFI - Sing the Sorrow
vs.
Bad Religion - No Control

Previous results can be seen here:
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks_Set_2

The rules:
1. Listen to the album in full
2. Rank every track on the album
3. For the results, there will be a curve at the top of each list; two additional points between #1 and #2, and one additional point for the next two ranks. This way, the songs that really stick out to someone get an edge that is not immediately negated by someone else putting it lower. In the case of Demon Days, someone's 15th track will get 1 point, 14th 2 points, 4th 12 points, 3rd 14 points, 2nd 16 points, and 1st 19 points. For albums with greater than 15 tracks, everything ranked below #15 will be given 0 points and the scale for the top 15 will be the same as a 15-track album. For albums with more than 20 tracks, you only have to list your top 15 (with 16-20, I still like having the average rank listed)
4. If you want to include comments for individual songs, I will compile them in the results
5. The results will be posted at the beginning of the next topic
6. The deadline to vote is Sunday, January 8 at 8:00 AM EST - though I have recently been leaving them up for longer, so just try to vote by that afternoon
7. You can sign up to be added to the user cycle (a new user will be added to the end of the current cycle as long as there are four weeks remaining) - the next person on the list will choose 3 albums which the other users will vote on for the next topic.
7a. To ensure people are being given an actual choice, the three nominated albums must be by different artists. You can otherwise stick to a similar sound or era.
7b. The tiebreaker for these polls will be whichever is listed first in the poll options - make sure to deliver the results in order of your own preference (which will hopefully have the added benefit of influencing people toward your first choice if they can't decide).
7c. I have added a tiered vote structure - the least popular album will be removed and its backup votes distributed to the other two entrants.
8. Starting with the next cycle, every four weeks will be a competitive week where those listed choose a single album to face off against others.

Michael Jackson - Thriller:
1. Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
2. Baby Be Mine
3. The Girl is Mine
4. Thriller
5. Beat It
6. Billie Jean
7. Human Nature
8. P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)
9. The Lady in My Life

Current cycle::
1/8: neonreaper (Tool - 10,000 Days)
1/15: Steiner
1/22: Snake5555555555 (The Birthday Massacre - Walking With Strangers)
1/29: Jesse_Custer
2/5: RyoCaliente/VeryInsane/FoolFantastic
2/12: ZaziGuado
2/19: firefdr
2/26: Johnbobb
3/5: Steiner/ChichiriMuyo/Great_Paul
3/12: VeryInsane
3/19: FoolFantastic
3/26: Seanchan
4/2: Johnbobb/ZaziGuado/jcgamer107
4/9: Giggsalot
4/16: RyoCaliente
4/23: darkx
4/30: Snake5555555555/Raetsel_Lapin/Seanchan
5/7: neonreaper
5/14: Great_Paul
5/21: jcgamer107
5/28: Giggsalot/MetalmindStats/Jesse_Custer
6/4: ChichiriMuyo
6/11: BlueCrystalTear
6/18: HBJDubs/firefdr

Future cycle:
6/25: MetalmindStats
7/2: HBJDubs
7/9: Raetsel_Lapin

Sing the Sorrow > Endgame > No Control

little surprised Sing the Sorrow was nominated over Decemberunderground (which I've considered nominating a few times) but Sing the Sorrow is also fantastic

Sing the Sorrow > No Control > Endgame

Sing the Sorrow > No Control > Endgame

1. PYT
2. Billie Jean
3. The Girl is Mine
4. Human Nature
5. Thriller
6. Wanna Be Startin Somethin
7. Beat It
8. Baby Be Mine
9. The Lady in My Life

Thriller is practically a greatest hits album on its own. Its kind of ridiculous how many of his best songs are crammed on here.

Bad Religion - No Control > AFI - Sing the Sorrow > Rise Against - Endgame

Bad Religion - No Control > AFI - Sing the Sorrow > Rise Against - Endgame

1 Beat It
2 Thriller
3 Billie Jean
4 Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
5 The Girl is Mine
6 Human Nature
7 The Lady in My Life
8 Baby Be Mine
9 P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)

Thriller might be the greatest album of all time when you consider how many hits came from it. Easily the peak of Michael Jackson's career.

Billie Jean
Beat It
Wanna Be Startin Somethin
Thriller
PYT
Human Nature
The Girl is Mine
The Lady in My Life
Baby Be Mine

i know some people want me to write why i chose each album but i just wanted to do a punk week. I recently got SUPER into bad religion which was the real reason i wanted to do that and No Control is the best of theirs with an insane pace and just so much fun. rise against are my favourite punk band and that's the album where they really nail mixing in mainstream sensibilities - could call it more a arena rock album but the punk is still very much present. sing the sorrow is maybe the first punk i heard that was not strictly "pop" punk and i still think the sound is so unique. I don't really love decemberunderground onwards but i can always go back to this.

not sure if i'm meant to vote but no control > endgame > sing the sorrow

This is the best MJ song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98XFOIkM8Ks

The first album I ever had was a dub of Thriller. As a kid I would re-record segments of the album... Beat It was my favorite song and my version of it was eventually 25% song, 50% fake interview segments between me and Michael Jacksons, and 25% me saying annoying things to/about my brother.

Bad Religion - No Control > Rise Against - Endgame > AFI - Sing the Sorrow

bump

Sonata Arctica - Ecliptica results

The participants sorted by deviation from final results:
HBJDubs (10)
Raetsel_Lapin (14)
Janus5k (16)
ZeroSignal (16)
Arti (18)
FoolFantastic (18)
TheArkOfTurus (18)
Great_Paul (22)
neonreaper (22)
Steiner (22)
hotdogturtle (28)
Johnbobb (28)
Seanchan (32)

General Album Comments

Janus5k: one of my favorite albums

Steiner: oh HELL yeah. greatest power metal album of all time

Seanchan: Been a number of years since I've heard this album. I think I talked about this a little when it was nominated, but I was a big fan of Sonata Arctica back during college. I stopped listening to them after Unia, but their albums before that got a lot of rotation.

There's a lot to like about this album, and the general power metal sound. It's fast and frenetic, operatic at points, and just generally big and bombastic. I'm still not sure a lot of these songs lyrically make any sense but at the same time, I don't think it really matters too much.

FoolFantastic: This type of metal is never my jam but I didn't mind this album.

HBJDubs: Incredible album, and one that is very difficult to rank at the top. The top 5 have all been #1 at some point and I'm sure it'll shuffle around again. Kingdom For A Heart and FullMoon were the two songs that got me into power metal, so they'll always have a special place in my heart. But man, the breakdown followed by Kakko screaming the one line near the end of Destruction Preventer is just so good; that part hit me the hardest with this listen so I'm giving the song its due and putting it at #1.

Johnbobb: first impression: this album kinda fuckin rules

Arti: Like Seanchan above, I mostly listened to this album a lot during college, and a lot less these days. I tend to like Sonata Arctica's later albums to this one in particular, but I still feel that it's their third best, behind The Days of Grays and Pariah's Child. It's funny that my listening to Sonata Arctica all started because of an abridged series of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, which used FullMoon in their opening sequence.

HBJDubs: I actually have four of their albums ranked ahead of Ecliptica, but this was my power metal origin plus I felt there was a good chance to have a variety of #1 rankings. I was disappointed by Pariah's Child, but I do like having a fellow The Days Of Grays fan Arti, as that is my favorite album of theirs!

Janus5k: It's very weird listening to the original version of this album when I'm far more familiar with the 15th Anniversary Edition. Overall I think I prefer the enhanced production of the new version, but a couple of songs like Replica and especially My Land work better when they're not being as strict with tempo. In any case, this is one of my favorite albums; while I like a good bit of their newer stuff, it tends to be Too Slow for me whereas this is a pretty good balance. Plus, while I don't often go for power metal ballads, Letter to Dana is a contender for my favorite one ever - Tony Kakko is an incredible vocalist and it really shows there.

Seanchan: Just going to go ahead and mark myself down for highest deviation ahead of time... This is a really great, fun to listen to album...except for Letter to Dana, which I remember skipping a lot back in the day. For me, the 2nd half is a bit stronger than the 1st...outside of the previously mentioned song.

I had to listen to a bit of the 15th Anniversary Edition too, which is apparently a complete re-recording! It's...different? It's more refined, controlled, and produced; lacking in that rawness (both in vocals and instrumentation) that's been seared into my memory from the original release. In a way it's only natural that this would be the result, as 15 years of performing and refining your craft are going to do that. Obviously I prefer the original, but that's only natural as well!

hotdogturtle: Sonata Arctica is a group who I've heard of by name only and knew nothing about (not even genre), so this was my true first experience with them. I can say that this was an enjoyable album.

neonreaper: one of power metals signature albums. Really enjoyed revisiting it!

Ecliptica track ranking

10. Blank File (Track #1)
Score: 37 (Average Rank: 8.31/10)
Biggest Fan(s): hotdogturtle (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): Raetsel_Lapin, FoolFantastic, ZeroSignal, Great_Paul, Johnbobb (#10)

9. UnOpened (Track #8)
Score: 47 (Average Rank: 7.46/10)
Biggest Fan(s): Seanchan (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): HBJDubs, Janus5k, neonreaper (#10)

8. Picturing the Past (Track #9)
Score: 54 (Average Rank: 7/10)
Biggest Fan(s): Great_Paul, Johnbobb (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): Steiner, Arti, TheArkOfTurus (#10)

7. 8th Commandment (Track #3)
Score: 62 (Average Rank: 6.31/10)
Biggest Fan(s): hotdogturtle (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): Steiner, Johnbobb (#9)

6. Letter to Dana (Track #7)
Score: 82 (Average Rank: 5.46/10)
Biggest Fan(s): Johnbobb (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Seanchan, hotdogturtle (#10)

5. My Land (Track #2)
Score: 87 (Average Rank: 4.85/10)
Biggest Fan(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Arti (#8)

4. Kingdom for a Heart (Track #5)
Score: 95 (Average Rank: 4.46/10)
Biggest Fan(s): Seanchan (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): neonreaper (#9)

3. Replica (Track #4)
Score: 107 (Average Rank: 4.15/10)
Biggest Fan(s): ZeroSignal, Steiner, neonreaper (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Seanchan, hotdogturtle (#9)

2. FullMoon (Track #6)
Score: 114 (Average Rank: 3.62/10)
Biggest Fan(s): FoolFantastic, Arti, Janus5k (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Johnbobb (#8)

1. Destruction Preventer (Track #10)
Score: 121 (Average Rank: 3.38/10)
Biggest Fan(s): Great_Paul, HBJDubs, TheArkOfTurus, hotdogturtle (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): FoolFantastic, ZeroSignal (#7)

I must have missed something about Blank File that made so many people dislike it. I actually had that as my #1 until near the end, when I listened to Destruction Preventer a few more times and promoted it to #1.

Going off memory here, but I feel like it had something to do with the vocals. I remember starting the album up and having one of my visceral "one of those metal albums" reactions which immediately went away with track 2.

Nailed it on my deviation call!

Blank File is saved by the instrumental part near the end. Otherwise, yeah, I can see why it was ranked low.

1: Human Nature
2: Beat It
3: Billie Jean
4: The Girl is Mine
5: P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)
6: Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
7: Baby Be Mine
8: Thriller
9: The Lady in My Life

Human Nature: I'm not entirely sure why, but I love this song tonight. I'm often easily manipulated by lyrics about city nights, but I've never really resonated with this song until *right now*.

The Girl is Mine: It's a very cute and playful song. Usually it's in my top two (and I had it winning a preliminary version of this list), but I'm more drawn to some of the other songs than usual.

Thriller: I do like it, but honestly, I think it's a bit played out and I'm a bit tired of the song now.

EDIT: Do forgive the alternate account. I don't really want to use Raetsel at the moment.

Also, I wasn't going to vote for an album this time, but I suppose I'll just default to the nominator's preference:

"no control > endgame > sing the sorrow"

Sing The Sorrow > No Control > Endgame

Beat It
Thriller
Billie Jean
Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
Baby Be Mine
Human Nature
P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)
The Lady In My Life
The Girl Is Mine

The bottom half is just average stuff imo, not bad but not special; however the rest are all top of the line bangers. This album could have had 15 bad songs and I would still call this a great album because of the strength of the top 4 tracks

Like the recent She's So Unusual this is an all time great pop album. Funny enough, they were released within a year of each other. The difference here is that I don't know if this is truly MJ at his best. Most musicians would be thrilled to have as much success as this one album throughout their entire careers, but it can be argued that maybe Bad is even better. Regardless, this is an album everybody should listen to and, well, if you haven't heard the majority of these songs what rock have you been living under?

Beat It - I can never hear this song without hearing Weird Al. That's a good thing in my book. Just a really, really great track.

Thriller - The title track, the song that we all came here for. If this song doesn't make you want to dance I can't imagine what would. The Vincent Price voiceover is awesome. The music video is still inspiring artists in a post-MTV world. Immortal.

Billie Jean - She's not my lover either. These days I feel this song is a bit over played on the radio, but when I think about how MTV almost didn't play it because MJ was black - it brings a little tear to my eye. Can you imagine how stupid they would have looked if they held their ground. But hey, no one can say Michael Jackson didn't help change the world for the better.

Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' - Fine enough song, but I don't think I know what he's trying to say here. I mean like... "you wanna be startin' somethin', well, well you're a... you're a vegetable!" Mamase mamasa mamakossa indeed, Michael. Yeah, how did anyone ever question if he was "bad" enough when these are his fighting words?

Human Nature - This may seem low ranked but this and up are the songs I will always enjoy. Most musicians wish they had this kind of depth.

P.Y.T. - This song gives me mixed emotions. Trying to ignore allegations against him that were never proven... this song is a banger. However, "trying" is the key word here.

The Lady In My Life - This song is just okay. It is very obviously a song of its time, and came before MJ really knew exactly what his strengths were (not this).

Baby Be Mine - Weak sauce. Sounds like a rejected Jackson 5 song that was "updated" for his adult solo career 10 years later.

The Girl Is Mine - The more time that passes the more I realize that Paul is probably my least favorite Beatle. I don't like his post-Beatles output, and his presence here is no different. Rather than elevating the song with his rock god stats he instead makes it the worst track on the album.

1. Wanna Be Startin Somethin
2. Thriller
3. P. Y. T. (Pretty Young Thing)
4. Billie Jean
5. Beat It
6. Human Nature
7. The Girl Is Mine
8. Baby Be Mine
9. The Lady in My Life

The Girl Is Mine is saved from last place because I enjoyed the spoken word back and forth and Pauls sudden I DONT BELIEVE IT made me laugh.

As someone who only participates sparingly in this topic, would it be possible for me to sign up for a week of album nominations? If not, that's completely fine.

Follow-up question: if I can submit album nominations, can they be albums I haven't listened to but would welcome the opportunity to do so?

1) Human Nature
2) Thriller
3) Baby Be Mine
4) The Lady in My Life
5) Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
6) P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)
7) Beat It
8) Billie Jean
9) The Girl Is Mine

Yeah, it's probably sacrilege to rank those major hits beside The Girl is Mine. Though given the choice to listen to anything from this album, it sure as hell wouldn't be Billie Jean, which is playing right now on several-hundred radio stations somewhere in the world. I cherish this entire record, and it's earned its spot at the peak of the pop pantheon.

The Girl Is Mine: Gonna echo the general sentiment here; the Michael/Paul collab tracks aren't so great. That said, this is easily the best of them and the back-and-forth at the end is at least charming. It errs more toward being playful rather than cynical, which makes it a solid fit for the album. An album that happens to be stacked with some of the most prevailing pop music ever recorded.

Busy at the moment, but I'll be back to comment on the others soon.

rwlh posted...

Follow-up question: if I can submit album nominations, can they be albums I haven't listened to but would welcome the opportunity to do so?

lol fuckin hope so

rwlh posted...

As someone who only participates sparingly in this topic, would it be possible for me to sign up for a week of album nominations? If not, that's completely fine.

Follow-up question: if I can submit album nominations, can they be albums I haven't listened to but would welcome the opportunity to do so?

Of course; also, Jesse_Custer is dropping out of this cycle, so I will probably put you in his place for the competitive week while adding your individual week to the end (these will unfortunately be close together, but that's just how it goes)

As for nominating albums you haven't heard, I almost did a week dedicated to three albums that were going to release in the weeks that followed, so that is fine

I wish I liked Thriller more than I do, but I find a solid third of it rather bland. Even just looking at 1982, there are about a dozen albums I prefer.

Billie Jean
Beat It
Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
Thriller
P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)
Human Nature
Baby Be Mine
The Lady in My Life
The Girl is Mine

-hotdogturtle-- posted...

I must have missed something about Blank File that made so many people dislike it. I actually had that as my #1 until near the end, when I listened to Destruction Preventer a few more times and promoted it to #1.

for the record I had it 10th but there wasn't a track on the album I disliked

No Control > Sing the Sorrow > Endgame

1. P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)
2. Billie Jean
3. Thriller
4. Beat It
5. Baby Be Mine
6. Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
7. Human Nature
8. The Lady in My Life
9. The Girl is Mine

A pretty damn solid album, but not truly great all the way front to back. The top of the list are all time radio classics, which carry the album. Then there's the "pretty good" tier, which includes "Wanna Be..." because I think that song is a little too repetitive (though I do like the "mama se mama sa" part). The bottom 3 I'm pretty meh/whatever on, but what are you gonna "doggone" do?

Not that I've heard everything MJ's done, but for me, I think I prefer the Off the Wall (though that's leaning hard on the first half). It just feels a little more cohesive than Thriller for me.

Beat it
Billy Jean
Thriller
Wanna be starting something
PYT
Human nature
Baby be mine
Lady in my life
The girl is mine

I feel like I'm going to keep forgetting to vote in the poll

AFI - Sing the Sorrow > Bad Religion - No Control > Rise Against - Endgame

I wasn't even procrastinating, I just forgot this time.

Thriller
Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
Beat It
P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)
Baby Be Mine
Billie Jean
Human Nature
The Lady in My Life
The Girl is Mine

1. Beat It
2. Billie Jean
3. Thriller
4. Human Nature
5. The Girl Is Mine
6. Wanna Be Startin Something
7. PYT
8. The Lady in My Life
9. Baby Be Mine

I don't think this will be deleted yet but I feel like I shouldn't let it slide - I should have this calculated sometime before noon tomorrow. Sorry for all the delays in results.