Just read the original New York Times review for Bad, and it’s pretty fascinating. It’s hard to think of Jackson’s later-years tranformation as something new, since that’s basically the guy I grew up with, but Stephen Holden did, and his insights are striking. This part in in particular seems sadly on the mark:

Posing as a benign, alien star-child stranded somewhere between Disneyland and the astral home of ”E. T.,” he seems to want to demonstrate that spiritual salvation can only be attained by willfully evading reality and remaining a child. What a profoundly pessimistic message! For his self-transformation into a cartoonlike character of his own invention represents a rejection of the very humanity he has sought to help and enlighten through songs like ”We Are the World” and ”Bad.”

Recommended reading.