Love Letter To A Record: Telenova On Michael Jackson's 'Bad'

Music Feeds’ Love Letter to a Record series asks artists to reflect on their relationship with the music they love and share stories about how it has influenced their lives. Here, Telenova‘s Josh Moriarty pays homage to Michael Jackson’s iconic 1987 album ‘Bad’.

It comes as Telenova gear up to release their debut album ‘Time Is A Flower’ next Friday, 16th August off the back of some huge Australian shows supporting Norwegian pop juggernaut, girl in red. Billed as a “sleek alt-pop record, fuelled by a warm darkness”, the record is available to pre-order now right here before the trio embark on a huge national headline run (dates below). While we eagerly await its arrival, you can read Josh Moriarty’s love letter to MJ’s ‘Bad’ down below.

Telenova – ‘Power’

Josh Moriarty: Dear Bad,

You are probably my fave Michael Jackson record although it’s quite hard to really pick a favourite. It might be that you go all the way back to childhood but then again, most of his records do for me too. Maybe Michael was really trying to say something to us, was he really Bad? Was he really Dangerous? Was he Invincible? He was a Thriller, I get giddy watching his music videos and he still has a power over me. Let’s kick things off with track 1.

‘BAD’

This was initially supposed to be a duet with Prince but I remember seeing an interview with Prince about it where he referenced the first line of the song ‘your butt is mine’ and he was saying how it was fraught from the start, who was going to sing that line?? Michael appears in a leather jacket on the cover trying to look tough but we all know he’s a lover not a fighter. I really like the 80’s production, the funk of Thriller and Off The Wall is gone and replaced with midi sounds, it’s the beggining of a new musical landscape for Michael.

‘THE WAY YOU MAKE ME FEEL’

This song has a deep stonk, it’s powerful and incorporates some interesting sound effects. I love the intro tom fill and the smattering of weird noises. The music video is Michael chasing a pretty young thing (PYT) around abandoned streets, it’s creepy in a way only Michael could kinda get away with… But despite that awkward fact, this song still rules, the BV’s are sick and the snare slaps, love it.

‘SPEED DEMON’

This song has a creepy AF video, it’s lifted from the MoonWalker movie from 1988. It features a bunch of claymation people with freaky over-sized heads. and as a kid, it gave me the creeps. If I’m being honest it still does, I just watched it again and had all the same feelings I had as a child. The chorus midi bass is so silly but it works and the ripping synth solo is seriously badddd-ass. It also has some red hot horns and another ridiculous snare. It’s written by Michael and is one of his weirder moments, he hadn’t done anything like this before and I bloody love it. Shout out to the car engine changing gear sound effects in this track too.

‘LIBERIAN GIRL’

As a kid I always thought this was a song about a librarian, bespectacled with a cute pony tail. Took me years to actually realise it was about a girl from Liberia. There’s no way Michael was ever in love with a woman from Liberia but it still pops. It’s super 80’s and I love all the production. The chorus has some super tight harmonies, Michael really turned them up on this record, he almost has another character to his voice for all the backing vocals, for awhile I didn’t even realise it was all him. This is a sick tune, bloody love it.

‘JUST GOOD FRIENDS’

Not my favourite on this record but it’s still a decent track. It’s a duet with Stevie Wonder, they work well together. Again the midi bass is kinda ridiculous but that’s what I love about this record, all the hi-fi sounds of 1987.

‘ANOTHER PART OF ME’

This is one of my all time MJ tracks. The funk is infectious, the guitars rule and the wild hi-fi movie intro is hot. Michael is starting to get into paranoid places, the vocal has got that super pushed angry tone which he did a lot of in the 90’s, constipated Michael. Some good ‘he he’s’ and ‘ow’s’ in this track too. The way he sings ‘part’ as almost ‘pwart’ is super weird but it works, what a monster of a jam, got some sick horns in it too.

‘MAN IN THE MIRROR’

A monster of a tune, I remember it being number one on Video Hits for months when I was a kid, we would dance on the couches every Saturday morning getting down. Apparently they went through about 700 songs getting ready for Bad (even though Michael ended up writing most of them) and this was one of the tunes they chose, excellent discernment. A big old key-change takes it to another level as well as the choir vocals, the message couldn’t have been any clearer! One of the first instances of Michael dropping a ‘Shamone’ too, he takes his outro ad libs to another level on this song.

‘I JUST CAN’T STOP LOVING YOU’

This is a duet with Siedah Garrett (who actually co-wrote ‘Man In The Mirror’), it’s a classic 80’s ballad, electric piano sauced up all over the track. Not such a fan of this one but in the context it works, gotta take a few good with the Bad (pun intended).

‘DIRTY DIANA’

Another hi-fi cinematic intro, it really sets the mood as well as the sample of an audience screaming. Michael sounds desperate on this song, his vocal take is incredible. It’s got a bit of rock n roll guitar kinda like ‘Beat It’, MJ doing his take on 80’s rock. It’s a simple song about a groupie who is willing to do anything to become famous. Maybe this one has a bit more truth to it lyrically, hard to know with Michael though… The Weeknd actually did a cover of this on one of his earlier albums, that guy loves MJ, he’s built a career on impersonating him.

‘SMOOTH CRIMINAL’

Apparently Quincy Jones didn’t love this song but Michael was insistent about finishing it and sticking it on the record. The bass riff is iconic, I think it must be one of MJ’s more well known songs. He was on a mission to make Bad as big as Thriller which is a monumental task, I don’t think Bad did nearly as good but I think I prefer it as a record. The BV’s on this song are so sick, it’s also got him ranting about Annie, who is Annie?? The video is slick with all the criminals dressed up and dancing, it featured in the Moonwalker film too which is essentially one big advertisement for Bad. The funky guitars are so tight, what a jam!

‘LEAVE ME ALONE’

Ah yes, paranoid Michael again, my favourite of the Michael’s. It’s the first time he’s started to express his disdain for the media chasing him and obsessing over him, but it’s disguised as song about a woman who won’t leave him alone. This and ‘Another Part Of Me’ are my two favourite tracks on this record, they both have a pain and a longing to them and it’s the first time Michael has really expressed those feelings, before that he was a darling but on this record he starts to buck the perception of him as a golden boy. The video is a collage of claymation and stop-motion and a homage to all the weird things that appeared about him in the press, he’s standing up for himself through the only means he can really control.

That’s it, what a monumental effort by Michael, following up Thriller was never going to be an easy task but he did it with aplomb and took his music to a different place while still maintaining being a pop star. I love MJ for the way he was always a pop artist but his music got super progressive and bent the rules for what that genre entails. A true misunderstood genius who has become a difficult figure in history due to the allegations he had to defend, regardless of what you believe about him he is arguably the greatest artist of the 20th century and a true luminary.