Posted May 5May 5 With Michael Jackson back on top where he belongs, what is your favourite album from the legend?Feel free to vote in the poll and/or rank them below!Got To Be ThereBenMusic & MeForever, MichaelOff the WallThrillerBadDangerousHIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book IInvincibleMichaelXscapeIf you just want to rank studio albums he released while alive do that, or just the post-Off the Wall albums (for a lot of people, this was his big birth as a solo star!), or just simply name your favourites!
May 5May 5 Author I will try ranking them in time but my immediate thought for favourite album is Dangerous It contains my favourite ever MJ song (Give In to Me) and the run of Who Is It, Give In to Me and Will You Be There is one of the most incredible trios in music history for me. Even away from these, the album is PACKED.
May 5May 5 I didn't know half of those before Off The Wall existed! I'm a Dangerous boy myself (and we share the same favourite MJ song!)
May 5May 5 Ben the song still blows my mind that hes actually sing about an actual literal rat in that song 🤯
May 5May 5 My knee-jerk reaction is Bad, the run of ‘Dirty Diana’ -> ‘Smooth Criminal’ -> ‘Leave Me Alone’ at the end of the album alone is top tier for me, yet only scratches the surface of how much of a pseudo-greatest hits it is. But I haven’t heard some of his albums in years so would need to re-listen before doing a proper rank I think!I agree that the singles you pointed out are gems, especially ‘Who Is It’ which would easily be top 3 MJ songs for me ❤️
May 5May 5 Author Bad is second for me. What a phenomenal collection of HITS. I just have a much more emotional attachment to Dangerous so it edges it for me. But both are perfection~
May 8May 8 Bal you beat me to it I just made this thread in the pop forum unaware you’d created this (if a mod can delete it😆).I’m still re-listening to his albums so I won’t vote just yet but I’m genuinely floored by how hit stacked and good his albums from Off The Wall onwards are! Off The Wall was like his debut in the sense of when he become the king of pop!Very excited to rehear my final selection of his albums and picking a favourite could actually be quite tricky!
May 12May 12 On 05/05/2026 at 19:57, Jessie Where said:I didn't know half of those before Off The Wall existed!I'm a Dangerous boy myself (and we share the same favourite MJ song!)I'm also in the "Give In To Me is my favourite MJ song" club Albums wise, I'd have to say as a whole Bad is my favourite, with Dangerous and Thriller in close second and third. What a trilogy of albums they are HIStory is also pretty good, but then there's a bit of a drop off in quality after that. Invincible was a huge disappointment, there were a handful of decent tracks but otherwise it was just long and boring.I'm so glad people are able to separate his musical genius from his flawed personal life and that his music is able to live on!
May 13May 13 Re-listened to the albums he released during his lifetime as an adult and my rank would look like this:01 Bad 02 Thriller 03 Dangerous 04 Off the Wall05 HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I06 Invincible
May 16May 16 I have 2 albums left and then I’ll be going over my rank! Not an awful lot in this as they’ve all been such strong bodies of work as a whole!
May 16May 16 On 05/05/2026 at 20:03, Jade said:My knee-jerk reaction is Bad, the run of ‘Dirty Diana’ -> ‘Smooth Criminal’ -> ‘Leave Me Alone’ at the end of the album alone is top tier for me, yet only scratches the surface of how much of a pseudo-greatest hits it is. But I haven’t heard some of his albums in years so would need to re-listen before doing a proper rank I think!I agree that the singles you pointed out are gems, especially ‘Who Is It’ which would easily be top 3 MJ songs for me ❤️This makes me so happy, Who Is It would be my favourite of his and I still listen to it regularly today <3I voted for Dangerous as it holds the most memories for me, I really like the variety on it and the highs are my favourites of his even if it does have some skips for me as well - it's probably the best example of that early 90s R&B production style as well. The version I have become used to listening to just goesJamWhy You Wanna Trip On MeIn The ClosetRemember The TimeBlack or WhiteWho Is ItGive In To MeWill You Be ThereKeep The FaithDangerousShe Drives Me Wild is definitely filler, Heal the World is well intentioned but awfully saccharin and Gone Too Soon pleasant but ultimately bland. Can't Let Her Get Away is okay, but doesn't add much that the other tracks don't do better.Overall ranking of the albums would be:01 Dangerous02 Bad03 Thriller04 Off the Wall05 History06 Invincible
July 7Jul 7 I still need to hear Invincible again in full and then I’ll know my rank of the “main 6 albums” let’s say. His first 4 albums are hard to separate really as they’re very much of the same and definitely not the MJ we know and love and what had his stamp over them. I’ll give Invincible a spin once I can pull myself away from Madonna and then do my ranking though.
July 11Jul 11 So I have a ranking of the main 6 albums and some thoughts! I just wanna say firstly that all 6 albums are strong in their own way and that there’s 5 brilliant albums here and one almost brilliant album!(I also enjoy Xscape but don’t count it here and the first 4 albums may as well be the same album and I don’t think really contain anything iconic or majorly what we know of MJ in his king of pop era)Bad - all killer, no filler. One of the best pop albums ever. Maybe my fave male artist album of all time. It really is that good. If I was to ever get anyone who’s never heard a MJ album to play one of his albums this is the one I’d choose every time. Dangerous a brilliant follow up album! Love pretty every song on this too and the later half of the album especially slaps. I always used to have mixed feelings on Heal The World which led to me Always saying Bad was my favourite above that but even that songs grew on me a lot and I think MJ was ahead of time on the whole climate love songs in that era. Off The Wall - I think this has more of a hunger to Thriller. This is an artist wanting to show us all what they’re capable of. Love the vocals on this album and how it’s to the point but actually varied for a short album. I think there’s a timelessness to this album too. Thriller - Definitely iconic but for me not his best! I can see why it was so huge but I think there’s a slight feeling of him ever so slightly holding back on this album. Invincible - An album what probably contains the least iconic songs but i do prefer it to HIstory as i don’t think there’s any skips on here. There’s elements of hiphop on the album what I think are ahead of time for when it was released and I think there’s an overall stronger theme on this to what there was on HIstory too where it doesn’t feel as pretentious. Lyrically this touches upon his extreme fame and media struggles more than other albums what made it a powerful listen. HIstory - An album what has some high-highs and passionate and powerful vocals. I think there’s a great 10/11 track album here but there’s just a few too many tracks on the album for me and the covers don’t add anything to the album for me. His only album I’d argue that there could’ve been some cuts made.
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