Uploaded November 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago

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Thanks to your votes in the community tab, the '2024 Restoration' project is no longer exclusive to Queen! Happy 42nd anniversary to none other than the biggest selling album in the history of the world, THRILLER 🦇🧟‍♂️

To any MJ fans who may be here for the first time, WELCOME! The intention of this project is to find the album's best digital source(s), undo all previous remastering work and restore the music to exactly how the artist originally intended to sound! In this case, the USA 1st LP release was our measuring stick, which to this day is still considered by many to be the best-sounding version of Thriller.

No comparisons video this time around sadly! Sharing this installment was a very last minute decision, but the differences shouldn't be too difficult to detect vs existing digital versions of the album. I'm sure we all have our preferred ways of listening to this one already 😉 If anyone's unfamiliar on what the project entails, I'd recommend checking out one of the comparisons I've done for Queen to give you a more in-depth look on the process...

Now, a huge hinderance on most digital releases is severely-squashed dynamics. I set out to find the most reversible source to work with, and there's really only a small handful of options I could find without these issues. The original 1983 CD would've been a good option, but that release wasn't sourced directly from the masters. To maximize the cleanliness of the sound, I deemed the recent MFSL SACD from 2022 to be our best option here. The fade-ins/outs for each track were already perfect, and any other volume fluctuations between this release and the original were fairly minimal, therefore pretty easy to adjust.

The main component requiring attention was obviously the EQ. It varied between songs, so I couldn't just do an overall adjustment to the whole album in this case. Either way, tending to each track individually to match them up with the LP wasn't a huge hassle in the end. The MFSL source was a real treat to work with, as they made a conscious effort to keep most elements as pure as possible. After the EQ was taken are of, we're already done!

To conclude, none of the Michael Jackson albums released in his lifetime are in as desperate need of a digital restoration as Queen (for example). Each of his albums seems to have at least one decent digital version out there! I think Bernie Grundman did a great job remastering this album in 2001 (he mastered the original LP also)! But it's the aforementioned brick-walled dynamics holding it back, something which was likely beyond his control. This 2024 Restoration rights those wrongs, and gives Bernie's work the justice it deserves! Really excited to be able to bring that same glorious USA vinyl sound over to digital for everyone else to enjoy 🙂

The Queen 2024/25 Restoration Collection:
Sheer Heart Attack - youtu.be/YWuGgZHHvII
Innuendo - youtu.be/iF537EjjzcM
The Works - youtu.be/iiq9A1XseL4
Queen II - youtu.be/K1mFRRLRy_c
Hot Space - youtu.be/7AuAEfxuuV8
A Kind Of Magic - youtu.be/0wnsVmHaWnE
The Game - youtu.be/5hCZ4xylu_4
Queen - youtu.be/JHy1XXVdkWM
Jazz - youtu.be/KZca62jaJBU
News Of The World - youtu.be/psxYh1Ne5J4
A Night At The Opera - youtu.be/zfgkTPPIayQ
A Day At The Races - youtu.be/OyNTCm0VPPM
The Miracle - youtu.be/SVPwF7H2eyg
Flash Gordon - youtu.be/fonQaYLQbNc
Made In Heaven - youtu.be/XnpWAvblUc4