Of thrills...

How do you improve on what is pop perfection?

Michael Jackson's Thriller stands the test of time as one of the best, most complete pieces of work of all time.

If your collection includes Thriller, Dark Side of The Moon, Rumours, Sergeant Pepper, you'd be the aural equivalent of Mondeo Man if it weren't for the rest of the albums that add your idiosyncrasies into the mix and give you a semblance of character. It's the law that you have to have at least one of each in your house - much like a toilet. Because some things, even in music, just appeal across the board.

Thriller cannot fail to lift and energise - you forget how much innovation and flashes of brilliance run through nearly all its tracks until you pull it from the cupboard after a long period of absence.

So now we have accepted that you may just have a copy of the album - the best-selling album in the world ever - languishing in your CD rack, what can you gain from buying the 25th anniversary version?

Um Well, there's some remixed versions of some of the tracks - The Girl Is Mine with will.i.am (a pretty feeble offering even with Paul McCartney, I'm thinking), Billie Jean with Kanye West, plus a couple more.

And oo, I love a good remix, really I do. Problem is, the chances of producing a good remix from a classic track is next to zero. They exist for sure, just as hens' teeth and rocking horse poo exist. In. My. Head.

Oh, and there's a track that didn't make the cut on the original album. For good reason - it's as weak as a day-old kitten.

You do get a bonus DVD of the Thriller, Billie Jean and Beat It videos - way ahead of their time when they were released a whole quarter of a century ago.

To watch Thriller now, complete with all the preamble, where Michael Jackson turns into the monster - it's still scary! You forget how horrific his transformation into that frightening creature was. Almost as frightening as watching his face disintegrate in real life over the past 25 years.

Vincent Price's distinctive plummy tones, the amazing dance of the ghouls, the plot - it's never been matched.

But you can watch the whole 14 minutes on YouTube.

So what's to commend this anniversary edition, exactly? Perhaps you could buy it for the kids, for when they move into their own place and need a capsule CD collection. Just as they won't appreciate you giving them Auntie Freda's set of apostle spoons right now though, so Thriller might fail to inspire your offspring.

Even if it did spend nearly nine months at number one in America.

If you're one of his most ardent fans you may be excited by the fact there's a personal greeting to his fans - if you can call a message to millions personal - and the original demo recording of Billie Jean has been thrown in for good measure.

You'd have to be a huge fan to canter out to Woolies to buy it, however, though if its release just persuades you to dig out your old copy it's done a good turn.

I'd quite forgotten how incredible those videos were - certainly worth another look, even if you do go on YouTube to do it.