Michael Jackson’s Estate Announces Release of New Songs

This November, Michael Jackson’s Thriller will celebrate its 40th anniversary. One cannot deny the album’s cultural impact, as it spawned seven singles, won eight Grammys, and remains the best selling album of all time.

The Michael Jackson Estate will be recognizing this anniversary, their first posthumous release since 2014’s Xscape. The reason for this long, Jackson-less gap is a very important lawsuit for the music industry as a whole. Music consumer and fan of Michael Jackson, Vera Serova, took the King of Pop’s Estate to court California, questioning the legitimacy of three songs on the first posthumous release, an album entitled Michael. Serova (and fans across the world) infer that some songs were sang by an impersonator, not Jackson. The official ruling came just a few months ago. Host of “Faking Michael” podcast, Damien Shields wrote, “In a somewhat anticlimactic end to their eight-year legal battle, just days before the Supreme Court issued its ruling, Sony and the Estate […] were forced to remove [the songs] from digital retailers and streaming platforms around the world.”

Without taking a second to regroup, the Estate announced Thriller 40, a first-of-its-kind box set, featuring demos for songs both on and cut from Thriller, alternate takes, remixes, and the album’s debut on Super Audio CD, to be released on November 18th, 2022. As an exclusive to its digital version, Thriller 40 will absorb various songs released on Thriller 25, which was curated by Michael himself, and features the likes of (the artist formerly known as) Kanye West, Fergie, Will.i.am, and more. As you can imagine, fans are skeptical of the Estate’s objectives, but will nonetheless be celebrating Michael Jackson’s greatest achievement.

This might not be all the year has to offer for Jackson fans, as Sony Music states that “several activations are planned between now and the end of the year to honor Michael’s epic creation.” An afterthought with all of this incoming news, we must remember those iconic videos that painted the pictures we all have so vivd in our head: the zombies, the jackets, and the dances. I kindly remind everyone involved that the “Billie Jean”, “Beat It”, and “Thriller” short films were all shot on 35mm, meaning a remastered, 4k release would be quite easy. Wink wink.

‘Thriller 40’ is available to pre-order and pre-save here.