“Miss Jackson if you’re nasty” announces the release of a
\nDANCE-oriented album and something like ten billion copies fly out
\nof the stores in the first week. Then word gets out that NO, it’s
\nNOT dance-oriented… sales slag immediately and Jackson goes on a
\nhigh-octane world tour, getting injured or sick in just about every
\nother city (it seems) trying to prove how dancey the album can
\nbe.<\/p>\n
Now
\nAll For You<\/i>is very, very good stuff. If, say, Mandy Moore
\ncame up with it she would move up from “divette” to… whatever
\nthey call Toni Braxton. But Jackson is one of the
\nTop-5-Queen-of-the-World-and-the-Moon-Divas who, before her 1997
\nanti-Prozac release
\nThe Velvet Rope<\/i>, had Britney Spears’ current job: make ’em
\nDAI-YANCE.<\/p>\n
The three dance songs are fantastic. There’s the
\nsummer-dance-song masterpiece “Doesn’t Really Matter” (with a truly
\nfunky Rockwilder remix dropped in the middle, brilliant) from the
\nmovie soundtrack of
\nThe Nutty Professor II<\/i>. The title song that drove those ten
\nbillion copies right out of stores is somewhere out in the front
\nfollowed by soon-to-be-club smash “Come On Get Up”, building up a
\nlot of anticipation for the (considerable) remainder of the
\nalbum.<\/p>\n
Then pfffffft.<\/p>\n
There’s a long chunk of what Jackson calls “baby-making
\nsongs”… “When We OOOO”, “China Love”, “Love Scene (Ooh Baby)” and
\n“Would You Mind”… that sound practically indistinguishable from
\none another except “China Love” with its tinkly oriental bells.
\nThey’re NICE, and (not to give anything away) the interlude after
\n“Would You Mind” that finishes the whole thing is hilarious, but
\nthe sequence is a let-down after the raucous opening. Besides, the
\nbaby-making songs on
\njanet.<\/i> are much better. Fans report having developed the
\nhabit of skipping this part entirely when giving
\nAll For You<\/i> a spin.<\/p>\n
There are two “rockers” that sound ready to be remixed into
\ndance songs should they ever be considered for singles release:
\n“You Ain’t Right” and “Trust ATry” plays with electronic textures
\nand does interesting things with Jackson’s voice. I think they’re
\nneat, but they don’t seem to be popular with her older fans. A
\nbizarre-cool song is “Son Of A Gun (I Betcha Think This Song is
\nAbout You)” that samples from Carly Simon’s 1970’s hit “You’re So
\nVain”. Simon and Jackson practically duet as Jackson sings
\nvituperative phrases seemingly referring to her ex-husband Rene
\nElizondo (knowledge of Jackson’s dramatic biography is essential to
\nunderstanding her music) and Simon drops cryptic lines about
\n“clouds in my coffee” and “nothing in the song refers to Mick
\n[Jagger].”<\/p>\n
The album ends with a beautiful ballad titled “Better Days”
\nwhere it’s easy to imagine clouds lifting and light filtering
\nthrough. But you’ve got to wonder; is this it? She blew our minds
\nwith
\nControl<\/i> and the
\nRhythm Nation 1814<\/i> singles but it’s been somewhat
\nplateau-ing from there. The Janet-Flyte Time combo is getting old.
\nWhat’s beyond being Diva on the Moon?<\/p>\n
Cher?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":25930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5814],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-37136","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-janet-jackson","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37136"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37136"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}