Michael Jackson - Michael: Songs From The Motion Picture [Red Opaque]

The soundtrack to Antoine Fuqua's biopic takes the obvious approach and gets away with it: thirteen original masters, sequenced to follow the arc of the film rather than the chronology of the catalog, running from a ten-year-old on Motown to the biggest pop record ever made.

Side one is the Jackson 5 — "I'll Be There," "Never Can Say Goodbye," "Who's Loving You," and a medley of the three singles that made them — and hearing them gathered together makes the case that the group was never a warm-up act for the solo career. Side two pivots on "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough," which is where the story usually says the adult Michael Jackson begins. From there it is Thriller and Bad: "Billie Jean," "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'," "Human Nature," "Beat It."

No remixes and no new material, which is the right call. These are Quincy Jones productions in their original form, and the sequencing does the work a film soundtrack should — it makes familiar records feel like they are arriving in order for a reason.

Limited edition double LP on red opaque vinyl, from MJJ Productions, Epic and Legacy.