Song of the Day: “Billie Jean (Remix),” Michael Jackson and Kanye West
It’s not quite as exciting as its title should make it. There’s no semi-corny, semi-classic raps from Kanye Tooda, and there’s no small diminuition of the dramatic peaks and valleys of the original; instead, we get “Billie Jean” reinvisioned as a cleaned-up, slowed-down stomper, a rearrangement of the strings and some jungle drums backing the timeless Jacko paranoia. It’s pleasant enough, certainly no abomination, and I can definitively assert MJ isn’t denying a chair is his son. But there’s a vast abscess of emotion here that the mercurial Quincy Jones production had by the boatload; “Billie Jean” is a singularly unimpeachable tune, not to be trifled with lightly. That said, if Kanye doesn’t drop a verse-laden version in the near future, I’ll be shocked.
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