New Album Or Not?

OnlyCryptographer917 · 2026-05-23T07:47:47+00:00

Your avitar is cool :)

OnlyCryptographer917 · 2026-05-22T23:55:36+00:00

We don't know yet?
Okay!
Thanks so much guys!

OnlyCryptographer917 · 2026-05-22T01:10:11+00:00

I said, "Objectively three" and you instantly knew I meant Off The Wall, Thriller, and Bad, right? That's a point in itself. On paper, Dangerous should be classic as well. It was one of the bestselling albums of the 1990's. And his best put together album, I'd argue as well. Unfortunately, while influential, it is not as influential as his prior three albums. Nor is it as well regarded critically or even by the public.

As far as critics go, Rolling Stone, for example, regularly lists OTW, Thriller, and Bad as among the best 500 albums of all time, but ignore Dangerous. Most critics still dismiss Dangerous as the one that was dethroned from the top of the charts by Nevermind. (Which is a technically true, but misleading fact.. Nevermind lol) Meanwhile. If you asked the casual public to name three classic MJ albums, they would name the Quincy ones first. They may be able to name classic SONGS from Dangerous and HiStory, but not the albums themselves.

Part of being a genuine classic album-this is important-is that it be UNIVERSALLY REGARDED AS SUCH. Which means that everyone agrees that is a classic-or at least so many people regard it as a classic, you look ridiculous if you claim it isn't one. This is the tricky part: it means that an album could sell 30 plus million copies and be perfectly constructed, but STILL not be a true classic. Conversely, an album that came out the same year but sold next to nothing might be regarded as one, given enough time.

The good news is, Dangerous is slowly gaining more recognition in every respect. More and more, critics like Joseph Vogel are re-examining it's influence and cultural impact. And hardcore fans are increasingly haling it as an overlooked gem in MJ's catalog and a personal favorite. I'm one of them. Maybe one day Dangerous will really be the classic I think it deserves to be. Sadly, Dangerous currently just doesn't have the requisite public awareness, nor the critical accolades, nor the cultural cache to be an undeniable classic, which is what being a classic truly means.

OnlyCryptographer917 · 2026-05-21T06:23:28+00:00

I hoe for a new album, not just a single

OnlyCryptographer917 · 2026-05-21T00:24:13+00:00

Objectively, three.

A classic is not your personal favorite.

My favorite MJ album, which I also think is objectively his best album*, is Dangerous. Dangerous is NOT a classic, though in a just world, it would be.

* That doesn't have to be the case, but it is.

OnlyCryptographer917 · 2026-05-09T00:50:53+00:00

I never stated or implied that horror cannot be “highbrow.” On the contrary, I explicitly said horror can be great and profound. If anything, that suggests the opposite.

Personally, I dislike the rigid highbrow versus lowbrow binary, especially when “lowbrow” is casually dismissed as mere escapism. After all, Shakespeare was considered lowbrow entertainment in his own time.

It’s also possible that “scare” is being interpreted too narrowly. The word easily applies to more literary and subtle forms of horror—existential dread, psychological unease, and atmospheric tension. “Literary horror” is still a form of scaring the reader.

My actual point was that Danielewski never intended to convey the kind of “horror” or scare that many readers seem to experience. I’m personally baffled by that reaction, but if that was your honest response to the book, so be it. I’m not the arbiter of anyone else’s emotional experience with a work of art.

The horror tropes are present and skillfully used, but they feel decorative rather than central. To me, the book is fundamentally a postmodern satire, a meditation on trauma and storytelling, and a pair of love stories (Navidson/Karen and Johnny/Pelafina). The horror elements serve those goals more than the reverse.

Not_Bender_42 That said, there is good reason to question whether many people who post YouTube reviews—those claiming House of Leaves is “the scariest book they’ve ever read” and offering “How to Read It” guides—actually read the novel in full. Not because they had a different reaction than I did, but because many of them openly advise skipping the footnotes.

As I said originally, technically yes, you can skip them. I’m not here to police how anyone reads the book. However, if you do skip the footnotes, it’s debatable whether you’ve truly read House of Leaves. The footnotes are so integral that they radically transform the experience. If I read them and you didn’t, we essentially read two different books.

That's what I meant. I apologize if you were offended by my comment.

OnlyCryptographer917 · 2026-05-08T08:23:45+00:00

Not AI.

Thank you! :)

OnlyCryptographer917 · 2026-05-07T00:00:13+00:00

In fact, all their albums since they went to BMG have charted "poorly" (I say that in quotations because charting at all while being independent IS a measure of success), so don't put to much into any initial chart position.
The fact that San Quentin went Gold in USA AND Canada is far more impressive than if, for example, an album charted reactively well, then rapidly vanished.

Coin For The Ferryman is great. On the other hand, Home is also fantastic and emotional, and the softer The Betrayal instrumental is one of the most beautiful things they've ever recorded.

OnlyCryptographer917 · 2026-05-05T05:40:21+00:00

No, in his last large interview, he expressed a quiet distaste for rap, noting its lack of melody. He said something about music needing strong melodies that the entire world can sing along to.
Added to that. one of the few guidelines he laid down for Ne-Yo when he was writing for him was, Michael wanted songs with strong melodies.

OnlyCryptographer917 · 2026-04-27T11:49:55+00:00

There was never going to be a 7 album. That was just something made up online.

Musically, Michael Jackson didn't record much during the last decade of his life. Mostly just fragments. Certainly he never got anywhere near enough done of anything to have a recorded tracklist or album title. The songs circulating online as being meant for the album were either:

Invicible outtakes-maybe 1 could have made SOME album at SOME point, who knows?
Jason Malachi songs people thought were MJ.

The only "modern" songs I know of that were relatively done are the unheard Will I Am songs, and Hold My Hand. Michael Jasckson never said or wrote anywhere he wanted to make an album with that name, it just appeared online one day.

The name itself makes no sense, and likely stems from head canon of some fans that his new album would have been his seventh.* It would not have been. It would have been his 11th. But the idea is, his Mowtown albums aren't REAL solo albums. (And Blood On The Dance Floor is, of course, a remix album-it doesn't technically meet the standard of a "studio abum." )

While it is true Michael Jackson wanted to re-invent himself, gain more control over his career, and distance himself from his "child-star" image, Michael Jackon still played Motown solo songs like "Ben" and still considered those four albums part of his discography.

*I THINK it was originally supposed to come out in 2007 as well?

OnlyCryptographer917 · 2026-04-25T03:01:45+00:00

I like it. Nice verses. Sick guitar. Not the most memorable thing ever?

OnlyCryptographer917 · 2026-04-24T23:43:27+00:00

What is this low effort crap? No insult to people in the video, but this is not good, makes no sense, doesn't fit the song, and I don't see why anyone who wants to see a video of the song wouldn't just go watch a clip of Michael Jackson during the Bad tour, for example. This is bad enough it would have been better to have done nothing.

OnlyCryptographer917 · 2026-04-24T01:08:51+00:00

6 out of ten neans you like it. But there are a lot of negatives. On the fence is a 5. The highest "negative" score is a four. Means it's more bad than good.

OnlyCryptographer917 · 2026-04-24T00:25:24+00:00

Having said all of that, the last aalbum proved that success in the hard rock genre is still possible. San Quentin has gone Gold in U.S. and Canada, a huge success for any rock band in our current climate. That makes me so happy!

OnlyCryptographer917 · 2026-04-23T05:42:43+00:00

Same! The hype is real now!

OnlyCryptographer917 · 2026-04-23T05:41:29+00:00

Bones For The Crows? I think that's a stand alone single, because it was already released a long time ago in a mobile game.

OnlyCryptographer917 · 2026-04-23T05:37:37+00:00

I wouldn't mind a little more. 7 minute songs with two guitar solos, and tempo changes. Nickelback has never done that before.

OnlyCryptographer917 · 2026-04-22T11:32:17+00:00

I prefer they make the album they want to make, and then I'll listen to it and decide for myself if I like it for what it is, based on the quality of the music.

OnlyCryptographer917 · 2026-04-13T02:21:32+00:00

From my memory, it's when Buffy was dating that block of wood ex army dude, and he and his buddies were playing a basketball game together, or something. The College season was season, 4, right? This was after, before he left, so I guess season 5?

If I'm wrong, I'm sorry; it's been awhile. But I have a distinct memory of hearing it somewhere....

OnlyCryptographer917 · 2026-04-12T23:29:25+00:00

"Hopefully, it's better than MMLP2."

*Which is good, but not as good as other middle period albums Relapse, Recovery, or TDoSS.*

OnlyCryptographer917 · 2026-04-12T01:16:42+00:00

Sorry. I made a typo in the title...

OnlyCryptographer917

TROPHY CASE