It\u2019s been 20 years since the release of Janet Jackson\u2019s Control<\/i> and 10 years since I began writing for the Daily Vault<\/i>. While I feel each and every one of those years, Miss Janet hasn\u2019t tweaked with her formula much for two decades now: a little voice layering, a lot of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, a beat. And music that sounds like it was recorded yesterday.<\/p>\n
But it may be a time for a drastic overhaul.<\/p>\n
Manipulating the media and exposing Justin Timberlake for the sissy he is is all fine and well, but the point of reeling them in with the hype has always been for the music, not fame or vanity or insecurity. Janet\u2019s sound is getting tired, and it\u2019s no real fault of anyone involved \u2013 Jermaine Dupri, who produced most of this album, fixtures Jam & Lewis, Janet herself — the collaboration just doesn\u2019t have the energy it used to have. Even Janet\u2019s usually fine songwriting is dogged down under an obligation to \u201ckeep it light\u201d this time around, as she announces in the interlude to the album.<\/p>\n
But without the \u201cweight\u201d she leaned on in her previous albums (racism, spousal abuse, children) her tracks lose gestalt and end up sounding unfinished. They don\u2019t take off. Even the (surprisingly few) dance tracks that are supposed to be more energetic, harder\u00a0— \u201cSo Excited,\u201d \u201cShow Me\u201d\u00a0 — tend to drag their feet with nothing to push off from. Janet\u2019s body may be legendary, but she has so much more to reference than that.<\/p>\n
So no. 20 Y.O.<\/i> is not a dance album. It\u2019s more like a groovy R&B atmospheric kind of disc, something you put on in a \u201cThat\u2019s the Way Love Goes\u201d situation. It\u2019s also not any kind of real tribute to Control<\/i>, an album which was like a window into a new world (Rhythm Nation?). Janet\u2019s mythical contract with Virgin\/EMI comes to an end with 20 Y.O.<\/i>, and it\u2019s a good time for her to start something new, something more writing-centered, which is what the best songs from her past couple of albums have been.<\/p>\n
Twenty years is not ten years. It\u2019s not yesterday. Show me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":28693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5814],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-40183","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-janet-jackson","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40183","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=40183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40183"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40183"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}