Janet Jackson : Releases >>
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Design Of A Decade 1986 To 1996 >>
The Velvet Rope >>
Teaming with her most accomplished collaborators, producer-songwriters Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Janet Jackson delivers what is easily her finest record since Rhythm Nation--and arguably her best ever. Highlights include jams like "You" and "Got 'Til It's Gone", which recontextualises samples from War and Joni Mitchell, respectively; the funky memorial to a dear departed, "Together Again"; and a slinky cover of Rod Stewart's "Tonight's the Night". Best of all, though, is "What About." An accusatory throw-down for a lover who beats and cheats even as he professes his love, it swings angrily between tender quiet and raging bitter funk. --David Cantwell
Janet. >>
Up until this point in her career Janet Jackson had been the good little girl of the family Jackson. 1993's Janet is where she gets all grown up and sexy--gone are the days of "Let's Wait a While", replaced instead by tracks chronicling the joys of being able to "boom boom boom until noon noon noon" ("Throb"). Janet contains something for everyone, from the huge-scale epic "Back" (with orchestral and operatic backing!) to poppier offerings such as "That's the Way Love Goes" and "Because of Love"; from the mushy ballads which she does so well ("Again") to the dance grooves which have you picturing synchronised dance routines in your head ("You Want This", "If"); and she even has a vague stab at folk on "What'll I Do". Janet co-wrote and produced the entire album with long-time collaborators Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and it features a handful of hits, as well as even more of the between-song interludes of which she has always been so fond. This was the album that made Janet a superstar, and on it, you can hear why. --Ronita Dutta
Discipline >>
All for You >>
Unlike those of the other members of her family, Janet Jackson's albums are still worth waiting for. The best parts of All for You, her first disc since 1997's The Velvet Rope, continue to display the first-class pop-R&B talent who broke through decisively in the mid-80s with "What Have You Done for Me Lately" and "Nasty". Jackson's longtime cohorts Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis are on board, and the production-writing trio demonstrates its mastery of everything from dirty funk ("You Ain't Right") to peppy, radio-perfect ("Come on Get Up" and 2000's No. 1 "Doesn't Really Matter") and hypnotically undulating sounds ("When We Oooo"). While much of All for You is irresistible, its handful of failures are poorly conceived and executed. Most glaring among these is "Son of a Gun (I Betcha Think This Song Is About You)", an unlistenable sequel to Rope's "Got til It's Gone" which substitutes one self-regarding singer-songwriter diva (Carly Simon) for another (Joni Mitchell), thereby wrecking Simon's one golden moment, "You're So Vain". "Son of a Gun" and "Truth" apparently target estranged husband Rene Elizondo, but Jackson is hardly as convincing a revenge artist as she is a sex kitten. In fact, the likes of "Love Scene (Ooh Baby)" and "Would You Mind" out-spice even the carnally obsessed Velvet Rope and Janet Janet. --Rickey Wright
Control >>
"Free at last / Out here on my own," Janet Jackson sings on the title track of her 1986 blockbuster, Control, an album about personal liberation, romantic longing, and, of all things, sexual responsibility. After two albums of middling dance-pop that were comfortably in the Jackson family mold, Janet dropped in on the burgeoning Minneapolis funk factory of producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and came up with five top 10 hits, including the opening triad of "Control," "Nasty," and "What Have You Done for Me Lately," as well as the yearning "When I Think of You" and "Let's Wait Awhile," that rare song (considering some of Janet's hits to come) about not having sex. In its own way, Control is the most convincing declaration of artistic independence since Stevie Wonder's "Music of My Mind." --Daniel Durchholz
Rhythm Nation 1814 >>
Janet Remixed >>
Damita Jo: Parental Advisory >>
20 Y.O. >>
