Dangerous  – Michael Jackson – 1991

Claimed Sales: 31m

First listen?: Yes

Format Listened?:  Apple Music

Dangerous is such a strange album to come from the biggest artist of all time. Unlike the albums that preceded it, the tightly packed hits of Thriller and Bad, Dangerous is full of overly long dance tracks and clocks in at well over 75 minutes. It’s undeniably Michael Jackson throughout, but the addition of the New Jack Swing style to his repertoire of genres is hit and miss. The opening run of tracks are so similar to each other that three near on 6 minute songs including Jam and Why You Wanna Trip On Me lose all of their potential impact. It isn’t until Remember The Time where Michael the singer emerges; I feel he’s much more suited to these pop verses than the spoken/rapped style of the earlier songs. After this point Dangerous becomes a lot more varied, track like the massively infectious Black and White returning us to the MJ we knew on his previous albums. Give In To Me is a Slash featuring highlight where Michael the rock singer emerges once more. These moments recall the likes of Dirty Diana, while Who Is It has the same drama of Billie Jean. Of the ballads Heal The World falls on the wrong side of inspirational, while the gospel anthem Keep The Faith is a stomping stand out here. The Disney sincerity of Gone Too Soon sat next to the sex fuelled closer Dangerous breaks the album flow that had been built up in the middle section; Dangerous is just a bit too all over the place for me. Tracks are far too long, and when they do finally end the song that follows often sounds exactly the same anyway. It’s an experimental push from an artist following two of the biggest pop albums of all time that could have worked had they reigned it in somewhat. Given the controversy surrounding the singer just a few years following its release too, Dangerous ends up feeling like the final album from ‘King of Pop Michael Jackson’.

Rating: 6/10

Will I listen again?: Probably not.

Best Track: The biggest hits here are great tracks, but for me it was Slash Rock anthem Give In To Me that features the sort of MJ performance I love. Rough and powerful I much prefer this to the RnB surrounding it here.