Once upon a time, there was a Jackson sibling who wasn’t
\ncompletely dysfunctional, who had genuine raw talent, and had the
\nsavvy to surround herself with the smartest, talented people she
\ncould muster. Janet. We knew her by her first name alone. For years
\nshe delivered smart, concise pop music that saturated the airwaves
\nand TV. Smartly, she hitched her wagon to the brilliant star of
\nJimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, whose production cred is untouchable.
\nTogether they topped every pop and R&B chart and made her a
\nhousehold name.<\/p>\n
After a huge peak with
\nRhythm Nation: 1814<\/i> and its follow-up
\nJanet<\/i>, she looked into her panties and found her special
\ngift, and delved into sex on the next release
\nThe Velvet Rope<\/i> and again on its follow-up
\nAll For You<\/i>.
\nRope<\/i> was musical soft-core porn, albeit danceable porn, and
\nAll<\/i> was actually pretty sexy and had some real soul to it.
\nOK Janet, you’re a dirty girl. We get the point. Sex, you like sex.
\nGreat, fabulous\u2026got it. Note to self: Janet likes sex.
\nApparently the world didn’t care too much, as those two albums
\ndidn’t have nearly the success of her previous work. Did Janet
\nchange tactics? Oh no, she’s back bigger and nastier with
\nDamita Jo<\/i>, the latest tawdry romp through her naughty little
\nmind.<\/p>\n
Airing out her naughty bits to anyone who wants a peek, Janet’s
\nTravis Bickle-like approach is about as sexy as a plastic blow-up
\ndoll. Listeners will also be subjected to more of the spoken-word
\nspam that she uses for filler. This disc is absolutely polluted
\nwith it. She must really love the sound of her own whispering voice
\nbecause this album is peppered with Janet talking and mumbling all
\nsorts of nonsense, like the chatter that cluttered up the otherwise
\nlistenable
\nAll For You<\/i>. I’m sure it is meant to add ambiance, but it’s
\njust tiresome, almost as tiresome as the 22 tracks encompassed on
\nthis ill-conceived mess. Hey Janet, the phonebook is real long too,
\nbut it doesn’t win any awards for creativity. She could have easily
\nchopped this into two separate releases, which would have probably
\nbeen much more enjoyable. As it is, it’s too damn long and lacks
\nthe energy to engage the listener through 22 tracks.<\/p>\n
\nDamita Jo<\/i> (Janet’s middle name and her self-proclaimed
\nsexual alter-ego) is Janet telling us about her sex life. OK Janet,
\nwe know you’re a naughty girl. We saw your boob on TV and all over
\nthe Internet. We know about your little fling with that wussy
\nboy-band refuge (Sorry, I can’t bring myself to use his name). What
\nmakes you think anyone wants to know what you nicknamed your
\ncoochie, or about your preferred oral technique? I’m sure her
\nintent was to titillate and shock, but in the end, it’s simply
\ntawdry and lewd, and completely devoid of any real sexual energy.
\nIs this a desperation move to recover an audience that has moved
\non? I guess if you can’t grab an audience with your talent you grab
\nthem by trying to shock them? Some artists can effectively use
\nsexuality in a creative and entertaining manner. Prince made a
\ncareer out of it, and Madonna did it with considerable success.
\nMadonna’s
\nErotica<\/i> and
\nBedtime Stories<\/i> are infinitely sexier than this garbage.<\/p>\n
If the music were great, there would be some worthiness to this.
\nThe music is not great, despite the talent involved. (Babyface, Jam
\n& Lewis, et al.) The music is middle-of-the-road and
\nforgettable. They try to resurrect some old-school style soul
\nslow-groove, but it’s all slow and no groove. There are a few
\nenergetic moments, but not nearly enough to raise this to the level
\nof
\nRhythm Nation<\/i> or
\nControl<\/i>. Could the 11 people with producer credits be a
\nfactor? It sounds like a case of too many cooks and not enough
\nheart. Along with the utter lack of interesting lyrical content,
\nthis tawdry peep show will be quickly forgotten.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":26879,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5814],"rating":[5616],"class_list":["post-38178","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-janet-jackson","rating-rating-d"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38178","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\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38178"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38178"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}