I grew up almost solely on this album and I'm sure many 80s children can relate to that. A little too young when Thriller was at it's peak it was the relative pop perfection of "Bad" that appealed to this young child and a few million other new inductees. This is not to say it doesn't stand up to repeated listenings by the more critical adult ears though... it very much does.

The title track kicks things off in boastful style, with MJ assuring he's "Bad". This big hit was initially hoped to be a duet with 80s rival Prince however the line "Your butt is mine..." meant the MPLS Genius was less than enthused. ;)

"The Way You Make Me Feel" is a catchy pop effort, recently re-immortalised in his excellent single "Rock My World" (Both concept wise and video scenario).

"Speed Demon" is amongst the more experimental music on "Bad" with it's clunking chain sample and unusual tempo. It all works well however as Producer Quincy Jones doesn't allow duds onto any MJ material.

"Liberian Girl" is an exotic sounding ballad with a celebrity packed video. "Just Good Friends" is a duet with the legendary Stevie Wonder, a brave move as you just know you can't out-do that man! MJ holds his own however in this funky pop tune. "Another Part Of Me" continues this tempo in good style.

"Man In The Mirror" is a very inspiring tune which builds to the familiar gospel finale we expect from MJ's big numbers. "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" is a beautiful love duet with Siedah Garret.

The album ends in very strong style with the final three tracks. "Dirty Diana" is a superb atmospheric song which makes use of great guitar work and crowd samples. It seemed quite spooky when I was younger and remains dark to this day.

My album highlight is "Smooth Criminal" (Like "The Way You Make Me Feel" it's excellent video was also recycled in the recent "Rock My World") it's got a superb bassline and addictive melody. It's a real shame that to many it's more associated with Alien Ant Farm now after their parody cover version.

"Leave Me Alone" begins MJ's disillusionment with the attention he gets (Leading to "Scream" etc) and is a fitting end to the CD album.

Though not even approaching the commercial success of Thriller's sales it still easily slots in alongside it, "Off The Wall" and the underrated "Dangerous" in terms of quality. This is a great compliment in such legendary company.

The re-mastering and bonus tracks only add to the appeal on this re-issue.

Michael Jackson was always going to have trouble with a follow-up to his multi-Grammy award winning, record breaking, revolutionary and 50 million selling "Thriller" album. After all, it was the biggest selling record in history and spent a remarkable 37 weeks at No.1 on the US chart. So along came 1987, and with it, Michael's long-awaited follow up, "Bad." It's a well-known fact that it wasn't as good as Thriller, but it's definitely still an excellent and classic record too - and 25 million sales prove it, even if this was only half of its predecessor. As with all Michael Jackson albums, "Bad" spawned a string of massive worldwide hits which topped the charts worldwide and set new trends, broke records and revolutionized the way the world listens to music. Bad contains an impressive eight singles that were released in the UK.

Bad opens with the superb title track, "Bad." As the second single to be taken from this album, the song peaked at No.3 in the UK and was another massive US No.1 for Michael in September 1987. The beat is heavy on this song, and the vocals from Michael are nasty - they really do give the sense of bad and evil. The verses are subdued, while the chorus is a full-on assault in which Michael proudly declares his 'badness,' perfectly built up with the bridge. "The Way You Make Me Feel" is just an absolute classic. By far one of Michael's best ever songs, the song peaked at No.3 in the UK and was a US No.1 in December 1987. The deep and very tight bassline on this song is absolutely amazing, which runs the entire five minutes of the song. The way the song is arranged is just perfect, and Michael's voice is excellent as it rises and falls. "Speed Demon" is another excellent song, with a clunky beat that captures the imagination. The highlights include Michael's high-pitched vocals halfway through and the car engines revving up. "Liberian Girl" is one of the most laid-back and relaxing songs on Bad, yet it isn't really a mid-tempo song. Michael's subdued vocals are perfectly contrasted with the deep beat and the mysterious woman's foreign chant every so often. Not the best song, but still a good song overall.

"Just Good Friends" is perhaps the worst song on Bad, despite it being rather good. It tries too much to rely on past songs from Michael's previous two albums, in which people speculate a romance over the two, so they publicly declare they are 'just good friends'. The formula worked well on previous albums, but fails here. "Another Part Of Me" is one of the best songs on the album, with its nasty and ear-catching beat. It was a very radio-friendly song, which only peaked at No.15 in the UK. "Man In The Mirror" was Michael's 10th US No.1 single, but charted at a disappointingly low No.21 in the UK. The message behind the song is that if you want to make a difference in the world you should start with yourself, and if you're not happy with yourself, you probably won't be bothered in making that difference. The song has a memorable chorus with a catchy hook, but the verse lacks this. "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" is without a doubt one of Michael's best-ever songs. A UK and US No.1 hit single in August 1987, this remarkable mid-tempo ballad opens with spoken text by Michael, about how much he loves the lady in his life. The song then begins after around 37 seconds with a beautiful tune. The verses that follow have a catchy and smooth arrangement, and the chorus is amazing. Michael also shares the song with Siedah Garrett - her contribution to the song is equally thrilling.

"Dirty Diana" is another absolute classic and a favourite amongst many fans. This is the perfect song to sum up the atmosphere of the album - dark and bad, but in a good way. The verses are rather slow and swaying, before the chorus jumps in with its heavy-rock chorus and Michael's screeching vocals. "Smooth Criminal" is yet another amazing song. The song has a funky beat, with brilliant and flamboyant vocals, along with Michael's classic line "Annie are you ok? So, Annie are you ok? Are you ok, Annie?" The video is legendary and features Michael pulling off some amazing moves in his white suit, and who could forget the scene where he throws a quarter in the club before it lands in the jukebox at the other side of the room? The final song on Bad is the extraordinary "Leave Me Alone." Michael addresses all those critics who have only negative things to say about him. The song is rather different to anything Michael has every done, and works very well. The chorus has layered vocals which give it a perfect sound, while the beat is typical Jackson. The song was never released in the US, but peaked at No.2 in the UK in February 1989. Even more amazing is the video. It is mainly an animated video, with the media's perfect world which has destroyed Michael, but he gets up off the floor, taller than any building or mountain and starts ripping the place to bits.

OVERALL GRADE: 10/10

Michael Jackson is one of the biggest selling male recording artists of all-time. His musical style has run all the way through society. From "Rock With You" to "You Rock My World" and "Billie Jean" to "Black And White," Michael has always been there setting the trends, breaking records and literally ruling the world. He is the best male artist ever, and no one anytime soon will replace him. Therefore, his records are essential in your collection - the most essential are "Off The Wall," "Thriller," "Bad" and "Dangerous." Bad is probably the worst, but still a classic record for anyone's collection.

All the press oversaturation and rumours of bizarre behaviour really hurt Michael Jackson's public image, thus obscuring the fact that Bad, hokey cover and all, is a very strong album and another jewel in Jackson's crown.

Jackson contributes more songs to this album than ever before, penning four out of the album's five record-breaking #1 singles: "I Just Can't Stop Loving You", a duet with the wonderful Siedah Garrett that is probably Jackson's last great ballad performance; "Bad", funky and weird, very catchy, with its signature "How Now Brown Cow" rhythm; the gyrating "The Way You Make Me Feel"; and "Dirty Diana", a metal song with great production and a cacophonous guitar performance by Steve Stevens. The fifth chart-topper, "Man in the Mirror", is an undeniable classic. Taking Jackson's save-the-world sentiment and translating it into poetry, strong melodies and evocative imagery, songwriters Garrett and Glen Ballard created Jackson's best "We Are the World"-type song, complete with an appropriately booming gospel choir and dynamics to spare.

The less popular songs are equally good: The Stevie Wonder duet "Just Good Friends" is heavenly, "Liberian Girl" is breathy and sensual, and "Smooth Criminal" is Jackson at his most hard-hitting, a killer groove with crisp beats, synth work, perfectly placed sound effects, and Jackson's vocals going into manic mode. The lyrics verge on the nonsensical, but the energy is devastating and intoxicating. Even the CD bonus track "Leave Me Alone" is worthy, a funky keyboard riff opening the song which is Jackson's protest for privacy, yet with enough of a sense of humour not to make it too self-pitying. And the music videos (available on the Moonwalker home video as well as ) were groundbreaking -- "Smooth Criminal" a cinematic dance masterpiece with killer choreography and "Leave Me Alone" an animation breakthrough.

Bad was the first English-language album I ever bought (in 1988, at the height of its popularity). Needless to say, I have an unusual affection for it. To be fair, Michael Jackson's music is distinctly a product of the '70s and an emblem of the '80s, accounting for its dated sound in the context of the '90s and in the first decade of the 21st Century. On Bad, though, Jackson was still at the top of his game in songcraft and charisma, making Bad an essential listen.

BAD is a masterpiece of music-making! Its 10 original tracks, from BAD to Smooth Criminal, all have awsome rythmic qualities and all-round great sound! Its bonus track, "Leave Me Alone", is also good for a listen, though it isn't nearly as powerful as the rest of the album's contents. In my opinion, BAD surpasses Thriller in all dimensions including: melodies, rythms, and all-round musical sound. By saying this, of course, Thriller is the second best album of Jackson's. The best song, musically and meaningfully, on BAD is "Man in the Mirror". This track lets us hear Michael's powerful vocal abilities and lets us know that to make the world a better place, people should look to change themselves first. If there is one album that you purchase in the near future, it should be this one. Congrats to Michael Jackson on providing his fans with a great piece of art!

The Bad 25 set is the best MJ release in a very very long time. He is already known as a performer who's show was amazing, but during the Wembley show he was just on it! This is THE definitive Michael Jackson live performance, he seems so into every song it's crazy. I've seen Bad Tour concerts before but there is just something different about the show. The audio is crystal clear, perfect, it is from multitracks that were used to mix the show as it was going. About the video, people complained at first when they heard it would be sourced from a video tape. However, what we do know is that the Estate let everyone know how they did a numerous amount of extensive searches of the film storage warehouses and could not find the film masters. The fact that Michael had someone mix down the video feed onto a VHS tape for his own performance means that that was and is the only currently available source for the show. Another cool thing is that the Estate paid a company that they said is used by NASA to restore videotapes to better represent the source that was put on them. The result is a pretty decent quality film that definitely produces alot more detail than one would imagine. The image is sharp and colors are good for the most part too. This is the exact video feed the jumbotrons got so we have a show with no editing or crowd shots, it is excellent. There are also 2 additional performances from other dates and locations of the Bad Tour in the bonus features. For those that just want the DVD it is sold stand alone.

Disc 1 (Original Bad Album + Leave Me ALone) is similar to the 2001 Special Edition in terms of sound, however the mixing and mastering definitely do sound alot better than before. It is less compressed and it seems more dynamic too. Certain instruments now sound alot better. The mastering could be a bit better but it sounds better than 90% of the CDs out there and Bad is a sonicly high end album.

Disc 2 is where the real fun begins. We have 6 new songs:

Dont Be Messin Around- Previously released on the 2012 I Just Cant Stop Loving You single, groovy relaxed track that has a great tempo

Im So Blue- Ballad that in terms of music, theme, and voice sounds very similar to the Jacksons (self titled album and Goin Places) era style but with a country sound as well. Sounds weird but it works.

Song Groove (Abortion Papers)- This song is awesome, it is an upbeat dance track that is serious at the same time and has really nice background music that is similar to Sega Genesis games (such as Sonic). Only Michael would make a song about Abortion danceable. This is excellent, one of the best.

Free - Very relaxed ballad about being Free and soaring high, a nice track but not one of my favorites.

Price of Fame - This is fantastic, it is my favorite on the set. This is another one that has upbeat synth/drum beats but is paranoid and haunting as well. This is about the hardships that have happened to him and it is very sad to hear how much he was stalked by fans and paparazzi. Michael mentions how people think if he can just sign checks all day long than everything in his life must be fine. Whilst Leave Me Alone portrayed Jackson as angry/fed up with the media this one is scarier and more about him being in fear. I think of this song as Leave Me Alone meets Billie Jean. This is my personal favorite of the new material.

Al Capone - Fans had known about this track and how it had developed into Smooth Criminal for a very long time, however now that it is finally here it is apparent that this track has very little similarities with Smooth Criminal. It seems darker in tone than SC and more synthesized, another one that sounds like Sega Genesis music. Jackson sings really fast in this one, seems to be about Al Capone being on the loose and frightening a town "How could you let him get away" "Cause a mad man's out tonight!". Great track overall, a bit shorter than the other ones. It's short but sweet and very interesting, I prefer it to Smooth Criminal personally.

The rest of Disc 2's tracklist is the bonus songs from the 2001 Special Edition of Bad (Streetwalker, Fly Away, Spanish I Just Cant Stop Loving You) and then as a bonus for the first time on CD the French I Just Cant Stop Loving You, and 3 remixes, 2 of Bad, 1 of Speed Demon. The remixes can be decent at times but sound like generic club beats layed out over songs that do not need it. One of the raps on the "Bad" remix is atrocious. Keep in mind Michael did release the 25th Anniversary of Thriller album in his lifetime which was 4 awful remixes and only 1 unreleased track. The remixes are unnecessary but that is OK because they are right at the end so you don't have to skip over them to hear the good stuff. Also, by the time you are done with the non-remixes on disc 2 you are already 40 minutes into the disc anyways.

Disc 3 is the audio of the Wembley show featured on the DVD, this is actually the first Michael Jackson solo live album release. I haven't given this a listen, but it comes from the same multitracks as the DVD release so Im sure it's excellent quality.

You would think that that would be everything in this 35$ package but it's not. The set is housed in this nice looking black case that seems like a faux leather or vinyl material. Inside you have 2 extensive books that are around 30 or so pages each and have lots of never before seen photos. One is for the Bad Tour, one for the making of the Bad album and music videos. It's awesome to see pictures of people like Martin Scorsese, Robert Deniro, Quincy Jones, Stevie Wonder, and more all talking/working with Michael. The Bad Album and Disc 2 are housed in a gatefold full color front and back case, and the Wembley DVD and CD are housed in their own separate full color gatefold case too. Some parts of the cases have a shiny holographic sheen to them. Also there is a huge dual sided fold out poster underneath all this stuff too. The box looks so little but it is incredible how much stuff they fit in here and how well stylized they did, the packaging and presentation are excellent.

Overall this is an amazing release for Michael Jackson fans, the Estate did a fantastic job with this one. I would've easily been fine paying double what they are charging for a set as nice as this. There is endless entertainment value in here including new songs, the ultimate live video performance, a live CD, books, and of course the original masterpiece Bad album.