Michael Jackson
?HIStory?

Epic Records

This double-disc reissue is the ninth of 10 solo albums by the late ?Moonwalker.? For better or worse, it?s also the one that represents him best. Jackson himself sought to make it an aural self-depiction, by compiling the 15 biggest hits of his ?Off the Wall?-to-?Dangerous? streak (on disc 1) and the 15 new tunes (disc 2) when ?HIStory? was first released in 1995.

The album traces the artist?s ascent to global glory, yet it also accentuates his descent into creative nadir. Surely the likes of ?Stranger in Moscow? and ?Money,? or the more popular ?You Are Not Alone? and ?They Don?t Care About Us? are hardly throwaways, yet the disc 2 tracks show Jackson mostly appropriating the genres of the day (new jack swing and hip hop, mostly), instead of being as fresh as he was with ?Don?t Stop ?Til You Get Enough? and ?Billie Jean.?

?HIStory? as an album title is wordplay: here is Jackson?s musical history and, given the newer songs? media-targeted rage, his side of the story. But strip away the drama, ego trip and tragedy?and for that matter, the post-mortem inevitability of ?MJ,? i.e., Milking Jackson? and ?HIStory?s? best moments do attest that the man in the music player was indeed MJ, or Magnificent Jackson.

Green Day

?21st Century Breakdown? Warner Music
Green Day?s eighth CD is not a sequel to its 2004 smash ?American Idiot,? though both sound loud and ambitious. Rather, ?21st Century Breakdown? marks the band?s internal triumph over external hang-ups.

The trio?deemed too punk for pop lovers, too pop for punks?brilliantly rise above the din, their re-against-the-world dynamic aided by cascading guitar whirrs and crackling drums.

Contrary to its thematic sense of chaos, the album suggests that the band actually has things figured out: how to reconcile being a parent and a punk musician; sing about universal struggles; and fight the system, instead of indulging on slacker woes and pimply angst.