BAD

Product Information

As though he were gazing into a mirror and confronting himself, challenging himself and all of us to question our principles and our errant ways. Leave Me Alone", too, although I can't remember if it was on my cassette or not, and it was a pretty scary song, especially with that video that was on MTV all the time, and it seemed strange that it'd be on the same record as the breezy, effortless groove of "The Way You Make Me Feel" (in my head, at least, the best-sounding song on the record). The jacket it's literally the same from 2016, and even the runouts are almost identical to that pressing. Unfortunately, one of the album's most iconic tracks (the closer on this pressing) Smooth Criminal might just sound the most distorted.

For me, Bad is certainly the better album of the two, but it becomes complicated when Off the Wall gets thrown into the picture (as already noted in my review of that album, it's easily his most consistent work, but it doesn't have the highlights later albums did). Finally, my third copy sounded very good, though side B has some inconsistent volume beginning with "Man In The Mirror".Maybe people bought defective copies or it's all in the equipment some are using, but I don't understand the lukewarm comments regarding fidelity. The CD version also contains "Leave Me Alone" which may be a better ending, though brings nothing new to the palette of the album. Who can't admire the brilliance in songs like "Smooth Criminal", "Another Part of Me", and "I Just Can't Stop Loving You"?

Also lots of background crackling noise - which just is confirming my thoughts about this pressing: it's bad.

Remember that list they talk about in High Fidelity, the one named 'Top 5 Musical Crimes Committed by Stevie Wonder in the '80s'? Will show some signs that it was played and otherwise handled by a previous owner who took good care of it.