Janet Gets Sexfunky

Is Janet's latest CD all sex and sizzle with no soul?

A Hot (and Hollow) Little Number

By Al Hunter, Jr.
SeeingBlack.com Music Critic

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By all accounts, Janet Jackson is in heat. And nothing gets the marketing juices flowing faster than a fine woman in heat.

It's come down to this for Miss Jackson. Free from the constraints of her secret nine-year marriage to Rene Elizondo, she's ready to break some off for any brother who has "a nice package." Indeed, her new album All For You (Virgin) should include one of those parental warning stickers—for she describes and plays out sex scenes with such gleeful abandon that her lustful forays could be construed by young folk as nothing more than fun rites of passage.

All For You is Janet's first CD since 1997.

But at age 35, Janet has long since passed over. And All For You is about more than just putting out sex-drenched songs. It's about keeping up with the young girls on the scene—Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, Destiny's Child, Jill Scott, Christina Aguilera, India.Arie. It's about re-establishing her position as one of the world's top pop singer/dancer icons. In 2001, Janet Jackson is staking her turf with explicit lyrics and an album photograph where she is covered by a wee bit of white fur. All the while, she perpetuates a child-like awe about dating.

It's hard to tell whether the hottie vibe is working or whether, more likely, Miss Jackson is riding high atop her fierce promotion and hype machine. At last count, the "All For You" single was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart four weeks in a row. She has received tons of press, including magazine covers from Vibe to Jet, and was feted by MTV with something called the mtvICON award. She'll start a world tour in July.

But to these ears, Janet has relied more and more in recent years on studio production magic than her on voice or writing skills to carry her. On this effort, production wizards Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis have held up their end of the bargain. Still, as good as it sounds, it doesn't have the same substance as Control or Rhythm Nation 1814.

Though Jam and Lewis try, there's no hiding the fact that Janet has a thin voice. If she consistently enunciated her lyrics with as much clarity as her moans of ecstasy, I'd take her much more seriously as a singer. I suspect Jam and Lewis, knowing Janet's limitations, try to blend her voice in more with the background, as if it were just another ingredient to the mix rather than the icing on the cake.

As it is, I squint at the lyrics in the liner notes—thank goodness she includes them—to decipher what she's muttering. The hook "all for you" sounds like "this song's for you." The words to "Doesn't Really Matter'' seem to run together. I had the same problem a couple of years ago. For weeks, this one song was all over the radio, but I couldn't understand what the singer was saying. It drove me crazy. Finally a colleague eased my frustration: The song was "I Get Lonely," from The Velvet Rope album. Oh.

Janet's dancing/singing/acting talents have attracted a large and loyal following that will buy just about anything she produces. And if the dancing/singing/acting thing doesn't get them, than her beauty and smokin' body will. She's going to sell a ton of records, have a wildly successful tour, then return home and probably revel in her life as a fine, single woman in heat.

Available brothers, the line forms to the left.

-- May 17, 2001

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