Michael Jackson Thriller Hybrid Stereo SACD

40th Anniversary Numbered, Special Edition Hybrid SACD from Mobile Fidelity!
Mastered from 1/2"/30 IPS Analog Master to DSD 256!
The Best-Selling Album of All Time Celebrates Its 40th Anniversary: Michael Jackson's Thriller Receives Definitive Treatment on Mobile Fidelity's Hybrid SACD!
Mastered from 1/2"/30 IPS Analog Master to DSD 256 for Superior Sound: Experience the Transformative Songs, Soulful Vocals, Sleek Rhythms, and Vibrant Production as If Hearing It All for the First Time!
34-Times-Platinum Blockbuster Changed Music, Culture, Entertainment, and Society: Includes "Beat It", "Billie Jean", "Thriller", "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'", "Human Nature", "P. Y. T. (Pretty Young Thing)", and "The Girl Is Mine" (with Paul McCartney)
Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time - Rated 12/500!
The best-selling album of all time and a firmly anchored milestone in music history celebrates its 40th birthday. If that's not a good reason to revive the thrill of "Thriller" once again. And all this in a breathtaking quality that allows fans and audiophile collectors to immerse themselves intensively in the brilliant music of Michael Jackson. The long-awaited reissue of the 1982 classic as a hybrid SACD surpasses the sound of previous releases and gives songs like "Billie Jean", "The Girl Is Mine" (with Paul McCartney) or "Beat it" a new sonic dimension.
In contrast to the first release with a mastering by Bernie Grundman, dynamic compression was dispensed with, which makes the album sound much more detailed and listenable. Dancefloor fans will miss the "slam" of the initial release, but the bass is now contoured. Eddie van Halen's guitar solo for "Beat It" is now concise and no longer just somehow. The spatial effects in "Thriller" cleverly appear outside the stereo width of the system and Vincent Price's grave voice is much darker than previously known. At first you have to get used to the fact that the album no longer "jumps out" at the listener but captivates him. The level is significantly lower than in previous versions and it is worth turning up the knob once to enjoy real dynamics.
Putting into perspective the incalculable impact and pioneering significance of the best-selling album of all time - Michael Jackson's Thriller - has never been easy. Though Thriller lays claim to mind-boggling statistics that serve as reminders of how pervasive and indispensable it remains to music snobs and casual listeners alike, its essence always traces back to the greatness, power, and scope of the music. Now, as it celebrates its 40th anniversary, the record that reimagined pop; united audiences; made strides towards achieving racial equality; established the video as an artistic and commercial format; and taught the world how to dance sounds even more invigorating than it did during the advent of the Walkman.
Mastered from the 1/2"/30 IPS analog master to DSD 256, Mobile Fidelity's hybrid SACD does for Thriller what Jackson's unforgettable appearance on the "Motown 25" TV special in 1983 did for his career: It makes the music personal, human, desirable, relatable, imaginative - the definition of cool. This extraordinary reissue does so by presenting the songs in lifelike fashion, zeroing in on the fundamentals with laser focus, and magnifying the brilliance of the production, arrangements, and vocals in ways that let everyone experience Thriller as if hearing the album for the first time.
Surpassing the sonics of earlier reissues and pressings, this hybrid SACD strips away prior limitations and provides a clear, dynamic view of a landmark that crashed through every conceivable barrier and permanently transformed music, culture, and society. The expanse and depth of the soundstage, range of detail, percussive textures, air around the vocals, and natural decay of notes come through with demonstration-grade realism. Put simply, this reissue makes the phenomenon that is Thriller eternal.
Given that no album released during the past four decades even approaches the magnitude of Thriller, everything about it remains important. Numbers - even the "40" tied to its anniversary - don't even tell half the story. The 1982 blockbuster has sold more than 34 million copies in the U.S.; globally, it has moved upwards of 70 million units. Thriller dominated the 1984 Grammy Awards, winning a record-breaking eight trophies and sweeping every major category. It repeated the feat at the American Music Awards. Seven of its nine songs were released as singles; each charted in the Top 10. Perhaps most astonishingly, Thriller topped the Top 200 Albums chart for 37 weeks during a 59-week stretch. Fast forward 24 years, and the album was the biggest-selling catalog title of 2008.
The record's unimpeachable accolades and archival standing help provide another frame of reference. Acclaimed upon arrival, Thriller topped The Village Voice's comprehensive Pazz & Jop poll in 1983. Included in both the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry and the Grammy Hall of Fame, Thriller was ranked by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at No. 3 on its Definitive 200 Albums of All Time. Rolling Stone named it the 12th Greatest Album of All Time. TIME deemed it "the greatest pop album of all time." The Independent called it "the most inspiring album of all time."
Thriller proved as influential as it did inspiring. Its unparalleled success, dazzling style, and sleek architecture changed every facet of culture and entertainment. The reverberations echoed throughout society. Thriller crossed over to mainstream channels and white audiences with a degree that no Black musician managed in decades (if ever); prompted MTV to give Black artists a widespread platform; elevated choreography and dance to higher-level artforms; shattered long-standing racial boundaries; and reconceptualized music via a genre- and color-blind blend of fleet pop, funk, disco, soul, and rock sent up with cinematic panache, oversized ambition, and dynamic energy.
If you're wondering how MFSL did it, you need to know the following: The label's sound engineers used the master tapes with the aim of transferring their sound in the best possible way. What we hear is a mastering of the mix under producer Quincy Jones. What we knew before was the work of Bernie Grundman, who was tasked with turning the mix into a hit album. The album, which set musical, cultural and social standards at the time, broke down racial boundaries and shaped generations of great musicians, can adorn itself with 34 times platinum. So you can say that Bernie Grundman did an excellent job. Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab has now released this album in the way the owners of high-quality hi-fi systems have always dreamed of.
Its effect on multitudes of subsequent artists cannot be overstated. Thriller opened up a new galaxy in which Prince soon strolled. It's the same universe that Usher, Maxwell, and Jamiroquai joined in the '90s and that contemporary headliners like Beyonce, Maxwell, Justin Timberlake, and Bruno Mars orbit today. Their style-blurring identities, R&B-rooted foundations, and interdisciplinary approaches directly link to those on Thriller. Notably, the album's first single - "The Girl Is Mine", a duet and co-write with Beatles legend Paul McCartney - captured the record's unwillingness to cater to a specific race, generation, class, or style. Eddie Van Halen - at the time, the world's premier rock guitarist - performed a similar bridge role by supplying the electrifying solo on "Beat It".
Jackson, Quincy Jones, and company do the rest. Cue up any track on Thriller and the insatiable desire to move takes hold. So do sensations of familiarity, pleasure, fun, and soulfulness. Be it the breathless, bass-laden swagger of the Moonwalking "Billie Jean"; horn-accented, post-disco slide of the gossip critique "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'"; rousing tempo of the lush, sequin-adorned "P. Y. T. (Pretty Young Thing)"; gentle balladry and liquid vocal phrasing of "Human Nature"; vivid hybrid of funk-disco and horror-film drama of the title track; or streetwise strut and rhythmic fantasia of "Beat It", Thriller never lets up.
Mastering for the hybrid SACD was done by Shawn R.Britton using a DSD256 transfer of the original tapes, played on MFSL's own tape machine with modifications by Tim de Paravicini.
"It's close to midnight..."

Features:

• 40th Anniversary
• Numbered, Special Edition
• Super Audio CD
• SACD Stereo SACD Layer
• This Hybrid SACD contains a 'Red Book' Stereo CD Layer which is playable on most conventional CD Players!
• Mastered from the 1/2" / 30 IPS Analog Master to DSD 256

Selections:

1. Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
2. Baby Be Mine
3. The Girl Is Mine (with Paul McCartney)
4. Thriller
5. Beat It
6. Billie Jean
7. Human Nature
8. P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)
9. The Lady in My Life