great album geared toward the casual fan
We get twelve tracks which display their fine talent and there isn't a dud in the bunch. 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Jackson 5 is a budget priced CD best suited for the casual fan who just wants some of the very best of the artistry of The Jackson 5. In addition, the quality of the sound is really quite good.
"I Want You Back" starts off the album with a great pop music number highlighting Michael's vocals while the rest of the group provides excellent harmonizing for the extra vocals. The number packs a lot of punch and the melody is quite catchy. "ABC" continues in the same vein; Michael sings this to perfection and that funky early `70s music makes this number even better. What a strong number!
Listen also for "The Love You Save" which carries a `70s pop flavor to it as they perform this without a superfluous note; and I like the musical arrangement a lot. "I'll Be There" and "Never Say Goodbye" has The Jackson 5 switching gears pretty quickly so show us just how well they could perform a ballad that was somewhat more serious and more mature sounding as well.
"Maybe Tomorrow" is a good number that I think they still could have replaced with another, stronger hit but many people will enjoy this tender song anyway. The album ends on a strong upbeat note with "Dancing Machine. " "Dancing Machine" has an incredibly good beat to it and it will make you want to jump up and dance wherever you are!
This CD has "eco-friendly" packaging, so you'll have to go to the website listed above to find more information that would ordinarily have been printed in the liner notes.
Overall, this budget priced CD is full of great tunes by The Jackson 5. I recommend this for the casual fan; more diehard fans will already have these songs in their collections.
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The gripping, infectious and electric sounds of The Jackson 5 !!!
" The vocal and musical arrangements showcase the strength of the group and the rhythm of the melody just naturally makes you want to dance. The Jackson 5 burst onto the scene in 1969 with one of the strongest debut songs ever, "I Want You Back. Although Michael Jackson was a rather young boy to be featured so prominently, it never seemed to matter. In fact, his youthful, high-pitched voice makes the lyrics even more powerful in its own way.
The CD continues with three more smash hits for The Jackson 5: "ABC;" The Love You Save" and "I'll Be There. " Again, the strength of the arrangements produces one cracker-jack hit after another. The fact that other artists perform covers of these songs to this day proves that these songs have a unique and powerful appeal.
"Never Can Say Goodbye" is beautifully delivered by Michael and the rest of the group; and the musical arrangement works very well to enhance the beauty of this ballad. Other great songs on this CD include "Got To Be There;" "I Wanna Be Where You Are" and "Dancing Machine. " In addition, Jermaine Jackson does a great job on a cover of "Daddy's Home. " Excellent!
The liner notes offer great color photos of the group as well as an informative essay by Brian Chin. The song credits are there, too.
Unfortunately, the CD clocks in at about 36 minutes even though there are eleven songs. That's 20th Century Masters for you--they simply never put enough music on the disc even when they have plenty of room for more. I will take off one star for that to make this a four star review.
The Jackson 5 remain one of the greatest groups of the 1970s. Their numerous rock and R&B hit songs display their infectious and positive energy. There's also a sense of urgency in the vocals that beckons you to listen carefully. You will enjoy each and every second of this song set as you dance in your living room to these hits.
This is a great CD for Jackson 5 fans or people who want to get more acquainted with The Jackson 5. I also recommend this CD for fans of that unmistakable Motown sound as well as R&B/Soul.
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This is great stuff...
However, it is one of my favorites. I'm not any sort of Jackson 5 fan, and this is their only album that I own. Though it only contains 11 tracks, over half of those are absolutely fantastic, especially "I'll Be There" and "I Wanna Be Where You Are. " Michael Jackson's young voice is nothing short of spectacular, and the songs are fun to sing along with the group. There are several clunkers, and it is strangely unsettling to hear a boy as young as Michael singing what are ultimately relatively intimate love songs. Nonetheless, this album is a blast, and I recommend it highly.
No superlative good enough for this found in my thesaurus
" If a single song can generate this kind of response, imagine the musical content of the entire 21 song record. Below you will find a lengthy analysis of the opening song on this record "I want you back.
This song obliterates me. All the performances are incredible, including, to quote a friend, Michael's astounding, dumbfounding lead vocal.
The bass part sounds to me as if it came straight from the composer and arranger, but in any matter it's stuffed full with inventive ideas and super fonky! Given the calculated nature of this recording I would expect the arranger to have worked out the bass part note for note. The recording is a careful tapestry of many sounds that blend together to give the overall effect. The intro is a good example. The melody played by the bass is wonderful, but that melody is doubled by other instruments plus other things are woven around that melody, all indicating that the arranger wrote it all out note for note, the bass player serving to faithfully play the arrangement.
(Un)fortunately, any excellence in other portions of this song is obscured by Michael's unbelievable vocal. So much stuff, so much soul, so much range and flexibility. This vocal is way in the unbelievable range for any artist. But to come from a brand new 11 year old is, as my friend put it so well, "dumbfounding. "
*He sounds a little hoarse and that increases the authority.
*The way he uses subtle, rhythmic vibrato on the word "me" in the phrase "won't you please let me back in your heart. " (Hear this on the Amazon snippet. )
*The pause and surprise attack on the word "back" in the same phrase. (Hear this on the Amazon snippet. )
*The screaming with 100% authority.
*The drifting out of tune on the words "now, baby, yeah" in the phrase "Yes I do now, Oh oh baby, yeah yeah yeah yeah, Nah Nah no no. " (Is there a technical term for this "drifting out of tune" vocal technique?) (Hear this on the Amazon snippet. )
*The authority and inventiveness and soul of the scatting on that same phrase and other scats in the song, including the various fun "Huh"s.
*The natural way he does the call and response sections with his brothers.
*The perfect timing all over the place, including jumping on some of the responses a little early.
*The exciting vocal build on the phrase "All I want, all I need, all I want, all I need!" with the fantastic atonal exclamation on the second "all I want. "
And on and on. You could almost analyze every single note the guy sings. The fact that this guy could do this at 11 years old shows beyond any question that singing at this level requires talent given to you directly by God. You can't get it and you can't learn it. God either gave it to you or He didn't. My guess is that some genius worked out most of this stuff and recorded a track for Michael to sing along with during the session. I mean God given talent or not, Michael could not have come up with that stuff on his own, atonal, drifting out of tune, etc. But to even sing along and get these results. . . . incredible. Plus, who was that singing genius that came up with all that stuff?
Other great parts of the song are the pervasive background vocals, the excellent call and response, the subtle, almost inaudible use of strings and background vocalizing, and the various guitar parts that weave an interesting tapestry.
One thing that I think is ground breaking but at the same time takes away from this arrangement is the calculated, restrained drum part. The drum part sounds completely canned, written out and played note for note. It's not exuberant; instead it's carefully restrained. To my ears it sounds too mellow for this joyous, raucous romp. But it's groundbreaking because this style of drumming became prevalent later and today in the 2000s you rarely hear any drum pyrotechnics in favor of a steady drum beat that does not break the flow of the song.
I wonder if all the vocals on this recording are Jacksons? I assume they are and that shows the talent of this family and the quality of this product.
Excellence and analysis of each individual part aside, the real value of this song, besides Michael's vocal which you simply can not retire to the background, is the overall sound. Each part is carefully calculated and blended to create a unique, exuberant, joyful, new, and instantly recognizable sound that's unlike anything that had been heard before. Though each part is worthy of study, perhaps the best way to listen to this song is with a 6 inch speaker through an AM radio in your car. And isn't that the way it was meant to be?
Larry Brown
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Worth a Re-listen
In fact, it seemed like "kiddie rock" to me. I wasn't that interested in the Jacksons during their heyday. And I guess it was in a way, but 30 years on, I'm wondering what's so bad about that. I had recently borrowed a Motown compilation from the library with the ballad "I'll Be There" included on it and was impressed with the overall production. Much of what had sounded a little blurred and tinny over my car radio back in the day sounded polished on my CD player. So I checked out this compilation as well to see if after three decades and multiple scandals, it didn't all deserve another listen.
And it does, by and large. By the 70s, Motown was putting out stuff that was pretty darn polished. There's also no denying that the prepubescent Michael Jackson was pretty darn precocious (apparently--before all that arrested development stuff seems to have set in). He can be a bit shrill here and there, but for the most part, he was already a real pro. Like many listeners who were already a bit older, however, some of that slickness and precociousness seemed a bit strange even then. It would get stranger.
But as music qua music, it holds up pretty well. The Jacksons were bubblegum, to be sure, but a better brand--and with better packaging, if you can forgive those 70s duds--than most.
You can see a complete list of all Jackson 5 discography, or go back to the Jackson 5 tabs
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