The first four tracks here are easy to underestimate as simply part of the popular disco canon of the late 1970s, overplayed to the point you can't even hear them anymore. I encourage you to try to re-hear these with fresh ears.
It's so easy to forget how good Michael Jackson's hit songs are, or, at least, to take them for granted. Recently, I somehow heard "Off the Wall" as if for the first time, and it blew me away all over again. Some spooky undertones, while the chorus is such simple joy. A treat to listen to.
From the bass drop opening, I love "Ladies Night," and especially this version, because of the breakdown at 5:11. As a staple of rom-com montages of women having a good time, it can, again, be easy to take for granted how groovy this song is.
Listen to the thumping drum beat in "Bad Girls" from 1979, and remember the big club kick drum sounds we're used to now didn't exist in a popular way at the time. (The 808 came out in 1980, and the 909 (a cornerstone of the techno movement of the '90s) didn't come out until 1983. This track is a stomper.
As a sort of counterbalance to the first four tracks, I've capped off the list with "As." As groovy as the rest of the list, and what it might lack in four-on-the-floor, it makes up with in epicness.
- Matt
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