Michael Jackson, Off the Wall
Featured Album
Jackson's Off The Wall had the brashness of the truest debut. Released at the close of the ’70s when he was just 21 years old, “Wall” not only established Jackson as a man — instead of the boy he'd been with his brothers — it set the bar high for all of his solo albums to come.
Though the album arrived at the pinnacle of disco — and so incorporated its swirling strings and club-driven beats — the sound Jackson and producer Quincy Jones devised seems in no way tied to its time. Opening cut, “Don't Stop ‘Till You Get Enough,” sets the tone, starting with Jackson lost to his passion in a half-stuttered speech that spews over a bass line punching with funk. From there, strings swing in, a guitar begins its sexy sway and the bass takes flight, Jackson topping them with an orgasmic cry.
There's a low-down quality to the needs expressed here, tempered by an elegance in both Jones'production and Jackson's fleet falsetto. It's forceful and beautiful at once, a balance that enlivened all ten tracks on “Wall.” Jones brought a jazz sophistication to the arrangements, especially in the liquid keyboards of “I Can't Help It” and the sneaky tune of “Rock With You.”
Given the album's rare unification of pop, jazz, funk and disco, it's no wonder it sold over 5 million copies and nabbed an armload of Grammys. It also established the pattern and style most observers felt Jackson perfected on Thriller. To me, however, the freshness of the sound, and the surprise of its maturity, makes Wall even more cherishable than the deservedly worshipped work that followed.
