Rating:
Genre:
R&B
Release Date: 03/09/2004
The first thing to realize about
Epic/
Legacy's
The Essential Jacksons is that it's a collection of
the Jacksons, not
the Jackson 5. Which means that none of the group's hits for
Motown in the early '70s are here -- it's everything that came afterward, when the group signed to
Epic/
Philadelphia International (soon to be just
Epic) and changed its name to
the Jacksons. In other words, it's their
disco and
funk material, highlighted by the singles
"Enjoy Yourself," "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)," "Lovely One," "This Place Hotel," "Can You Feel It," and the post-
Thriller hit duet with
Mick Jagger,
"State of Shock." While this material may not be as irresistible or timeless as the
Motown material -- nor is it as transcendent as
Michael Jackson's solo album
Off the Wall, which was done in this style, only better -- the best of the singles (
"Shake Your Body" and
"Can You Feel It" in particular) stand among the group's best work, and this is the best way to hear it. After all, prior to this collection in 2004, there was no good CD-era compilation of
the Jacksons' late-'70s/early-'80s recordings, and this fills that absence very well, containing all the charting hits, usually in their full-length album versions. As an overview of this often-overlooked era in
the Jacksons and
Michael Jackson's career, this is first-rate.
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
;)
Listen
