Shit That’s Good! Crap Albums I Love # 57 – Judson Mancebo, Babies Love Michael Jackson
From time to time I like to share some stories about albums I love that are duds – either I’ve found a way in to appreciate it through sheer stubbornness – or I just loved it on first listen
Judson Mancebo, Babies Love Michael Jackson, 2016
Okay, look, I’m not completely right, not ‘well’ in the head all the time. So, yes, I thought it was funny (!) when I saw this CD in The Warehouse, right when they were getting out of stocking albums altogether. So it went in the trolley. A 99c purchase. Shot the cover a few times for Instagram, tucked it in the back of the cupboard. Didn’t even have a working CD player when I bought it — never thought about actually playing it. Why would I? That’s not the joke. Just having it, the cover, that title — the image of it, and images on it — that is (all) the joke!
But I did know — roughly — what this would sound like. Because when the wee lad in this house was actually wee we had a couple of these. First time away in the States when Oscar was just a baby I found a hipster record store that had Lullaby Versions of The Smiths. We played it a couple of times for Oscar during a quiet time. Then, weirdly, ended up listening to it ourselves as calming chill-out music after the baby was in bed. I even took it out for a DJ set and played a track as a closer — again, for a joke.
Then I traded that puppy in, because I didn’t need such silliness.
Until I saw the Michael Jackson one. Because, you know, funny.
I decided, recently, to give it a fucking whirl, cos why not. And man, I kinda like it. Which is also wrong, and totally in keeping with the not totally right in the head bit. I’m also way more into the cheese side of chill instrumentals these days; certainly than ever before. So it fits with that in my life also.
And look, I don’t know who or what a Judson Mancebo is, but he’s made a few of these for a series; so it’s earnest as fuck — not the dark joke I’m convinced it’s meant to be.
Anyway, I’m in. I love this. I listen to it on repeat sometimes for three or four goes at a time and it makes everything else go away, just this weird nursery music with hints of familiar pop songs. It’s like the sort of airport waiting purgatory most ‘normal’ people hate — and I absolutely love.
I know I’m not ‘helping’ my case here by sharing examples. But this is not about that. This is about ‘owning’ such guilty pleasures. I will eventually file this away and never speak of it. We’ll forget, very quickly, that we ever had this conversation. But obviously the better the MJ song the worse it is as a nursery lullaby. The cheesier the ballad in real form, the stronger it is in the crib. That’s some sort of rule I suppose. But it checks out. You do not need any of this, most likely, but you really don’t need lullaby renditions of Beat It and Billie Jean, for instance.
Anyway, I need to change my CD. I need to move on.
But yeah, this joke kinda backfired. And I can live with that. I kinda love that part of it all too. Maybe, that’s the best bit.
No. The best bit is still that fucking cover! 😂 😜 😝
This started a while back when I had my Off The Tracks site, there’s over 50 for you to look through in the back-pages of this here Substack newsletter:
