Scream

Illustrator: Matt Taylor .
This compilation was released digitally in September 2017 and on CD and glow-in-the-dark vinyl the following month. Conceived by Sony's catalog label and Michael Jackson's estate, it draws from MJ's Epic catalog, dating back to the Jacksons' Triumph for "This Place Hotel" (1980) and working all the way up to the posthumous, barely dusty Xscape (2014) for its title track. The set is an overview of Jackson's "most electrifying and danceable tracks" with the obvious intent to provide a one-stop Halloween party soundtrack. Some of the selections indeed deal in some level of horror and fantasy -- most obviously "Thriller," Rockwell's MJ-assisted "Somebody's Watching Me," the Jacksons' "Torture," "Dirty Diana," and "Blood on the Dance Floor." For completists, it offers one new track, a "mash-up." ~ Andy Kellman