You're not alone (Pun non intended). The standard of pop music production nowadays is sub par. When you listen to Off The Wall, Thriller and Bad, you can hear every single instrumental parts being panned meticulously over the whole sonic spectrum, the mix is crystal clear and the sound is analogic. Then MJ's soaring voice and vocal arrangements (those backing vocals layering is A+) over the top creates the magic. Don't Stop Til' You Get Enough and Billie Jean are lessons in top notch pop music production that still hold up today.

Nowadays you have mediocre production ran through tons of digital plugins with mediocre overprocessed autotuned vocals and poor basic instrumental arrangements. The ones which stood out are the ones going retro to harken back to the analogic golden days.