I used to be a huge Janet fan. Had a pretty strong collection going too but I haven't bought a CD since TVR.

If Janet wants to continue to explore her sexuality, I don't necessarily need to hear about it. I don't really care to know that there's no place warmer than her mouth. Alot of the dance tunes that people love seem watered down or just really aren't that banging. They're just okay IMO. A few of her mid-tempo songs are cool but many sound like fillers.

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[Edited 3/8/05 5:47am]

I've been saying this for quite a while now. Janet's last couple of cd's have been down right boring. She has nothing interesting to say. Her music is pop/dance trash these days. I like her, but I wish she would do something other than show us her tits and the same old dance moves. She's as stale as week old bread.

Janet's recent career could be someone's master's thesis. I think the problem is not that she is following Britney and trying to be young but more so that she is following Kayne and trying to be hip! More than her albums being major problems, her recent collobrations with hip hop artists for street cred have resulted in barely memorable records ("Boyfriend/Girlfriend" anyone....how about the add on raps for "All Nite"?). I think Janet needs to get away from the radio and needs to get back to Janet. I think that shockinly, after TVR (maybe her best record and definately her most personal) she sort of strayed into the pop machine and decided she needed a hit again and the results is that the hits have been coming less furilously. Now of course "Boobgate" stopped any of the singles form DJ from hitting but the mess of collobrations on that album don't make it feel like an album but more like a work in progress. I loved DJ the first time I heard but it's been about a year and while I don't hate it has much as some, I understand why people do hate it more. I think the rut will continue if she does an album where JD is a producer unless he helps her get away from hip hop and get back to Janet.

VoicesCarry said:

Not sure if that's the tracklisting I'd go for but I think that without a doubt the interludes are getting mindless and must go!

Jam/lewis ain't what tthey used to be. can't blame them really. Yeah those crappy baby making songs have to go. Only men can do good slowjams.....

seanski said:

If you ask me, the weakness is all the addtional producers on DJ. Kayne adds little ("I Want You" is a dissapointing single choice and that is his most notable track on there) and I like Dallas usually but he didn't add much more. "Island Life" is a huge let down from Cathy Dennis, a woman who has recorded great hits and wrote some great stuff for Kylie. However, the Babyface track was nice and the Euro producers gave the album a real shot in the arm. I don't think it's just Jimmy Jam and Terry.

thesexofit said:

biased, much?
[Edited 3/8/05 8:13am]

damita jo
my baby
spending time wih you
island life
don't stop
rnb junkie
i want you
like you don't love me
thinkin' bout my ex
truly
slolove

how is damita jo another album about sex? there are 16 songs on the record and only 5 of them are about sex. all of the songs above are about relationships or dancing/having a fun time. i'm sorry but to pass damita jo off as a sex album - whether her producers are saying it or people here are saying it - is an inaccurate and incomplete description of the record.
[Edited 3/8/05 8:23am]

Yeah I know, but it's just my opinion. I just don't dig girl slowjams (not ballads). I just can't think of a really good one when I can listen to Al b sure! or Keith Sweat.

Janet's really just in her "New Power Soul/Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic" phase.

it will pass.

let's pray to god that it will pass

thesexofit said:

I used to look forward to Janet's slowjams the way I looked forward to Prince's slowjams. There may be other women who covered territory like her but I don't know who they are so I always have a Janet slowjam compilation on hand but now there's not much left to the imagination. Maybe Teena Marie?

VinnyM27 said:

JD is only executive producer. No word on whether or not he'll be producing anything on the new album yet.

SassyBritches said:

I'm not sure if DJ is a relationship album. If you ask me, it's her most lost album if you ask me, the only one without a theme or centeral idea of any kind. It doesn't seem to have a purpose...it was just like "Here is an album". I thought "All For You" was at least a response to the breakup of her marriage and how she got over it (for the most part). That's one of the reasons I really liked AFY at first and probably the reason I think I might dig it more than DJ right now. I think the reason people think DJ is a sex album because the sexual songs are SO damn blatant, even more than the AFY sex songs.

VoicesCarry said:

Don't executive producers on CD decide what stays and what goes and make choices about producers, songwriters? I'm not 100% sure but if that's the case, I have an idea this might be a "Janet featuring Da Bart, Lil' Bow Wow, Jagged Edge and....gasp....Mariah Carey" CD...Don't be shocked when at least one of those names comes up!

VinnyM27 said:

Nothing is as blatant as "Would You Mind" - or as awful.

VinnyM27 said:

Seriously, I doubt it. Janet has the ultimate say - it's her album, not his. That is a figurehead name - you know, like actors getting exec. prod. credits on films simply because they signed on. He runs that area of the label now so he gets that credit.

VoicesCarry said:

oh to have herb albert and jerry moss back in the mix...they were legends before janet was even born...

thats the problem with todays executives..they havent proven themselves worthy within their own careers...how the hell are they supposed to guide another artist to success?

hell, LA is even fucking up big time....hello hello? didnt anyone consider the fact that LA & Babyface sorta died out as hot producers...

sosgemini said:

Keep Your Eye On Me wasn't a Herb Alpert album - it was a Jam & Lewis album. Talk about letting your producers have free reign.

VoicesCarry said:

ahh..but Alpert was smart enough to give them that reign and it produced a hit album for him.....isnt that my whole point? know who and when to get people involved.....i didnt say alpert and moss created janet's sound..they just knew who to get her involved with....

shit, id take a duet between alpert and janet over half the craptastic artist she decides to work with on her downtime...

VinnyM27 said:

well, to me at least, the majority of the songs seem to say "i am in love." i didn't mean to imply that the album is her "relationship" cd. i don't think the
cd has a theme (outside of the island thing going on) nor do i think all cds need themes. some records are just pop music, plain and simple. what i was trying to say above is that the cd gets labeled as all about sex but its actually the minority of songs thar are about sex...most are about relationships and having fun. so, why did the record get labeled as another sex record? why did the people working with her call it such? did they think it would sell better than if they had said "hey, this record is all about janet in love." it says a lot about the industry if execs and producers would rather push a record as all about sex than all about love.

Stranger On The Shore is my fav off of "Keep Your Eye On Me"...

a non Jam & Lewis track...in fact, half of that album have no involvment from Jam & Lewis..

but sure, its a Jam & Lewis album..

Produces come and go. With very few exceptions. La and Babyface slipt up in 1993 (i think?) as LA went into the business side.

SassyBritches said:

Again, I think the few sex songs on there definately distracted people and they are probably the worst songs on there (IMHO). Add to that Boobgate. Janet could have been singing about politics and it would have been a sex album.

sosgemini said:

When Herb sounds like a guest instrumentalist on a Jam & Lewis production, YES, it is a Jam & Lewis album.

VoicesCarry said:

sure, on the jam and lewis tracks..which is only half of the album.....but thats what herb wanted...and in return he got a hit..i dont understand why your hammering away at this point.....

didn't really like "afy", except for the title track and "when we oooo".

But "damita jo" was a good album. If a person listened to the album with an open mind and didn't take into consideration her age or the SB bull, then i think they would see the album in a different light.

she has some beautiful songs like "island life", smooth jams like "like you don't love me" and senual songs like "moist" is hypnotising, which caters to all.

i've also read that women experience their sexual peak in their 30's, which could explain why janet is all sexed up at the moment. Imagine a alicia keys album in 10yrs time. lol!

sosgemini said:

I'm not hammering away at the point, just saying I find it pretty funny to listen to those tracks. It's as if the background vocalist were singing lead and vice versa on a Mariah Carey record.

Chico319 said:

OOh that's just WRONG!!! LOL true but wrong!! hahahahaha

I've really been forced to question my level of Janet fandom over recent months. I grew up with a copy of Rhythm Nation 1814 in my hands, and can vividly remember the Control videos ruling MTV. I've seen the woman three times in concert, own everything she's put to disc (and most everything she's pressed to vinyl), and even sat through Poetic Justice.

However, after the release of Damita Jo, I really had to sit back and question why I've dedicated so much energy to this woman. Control and 1814 were near flawless albums (He Doesn't Even Know I'm Alive and Living in a World are pretty shitty tracks), Janet had spots of brilliance, and Velvet Rope could've been a great 12 or 13 track album. Her last two albums were both pretty unremarkable and mediocre. DJ had more passable songs that AFY, but the most exciting thing about Janet's CDs of late has been wondering where she's going to put the rainstorm on the album, and what nickname she's going to use for vagina this time around (cootchie, "deep in my love", et. all).

Similarly, I'm not even sure I'll be seeing her next tour unless I know that she isn't going to remake the janet. tour again. She did herself a huge disservice by allowing that new repackaging of Velvet Rope/All For You concerts on one DVD. Now people really will know exactly how similar her shows have been. Janet, I don't need to see you remake your videos move for move every time you put on a concert. I feel like I already know exactly how she's going to do 'Escapade', 'Alright', 'If', 'Black Cat', 'Together Again', 'Rhythm Nation', etc...

Anyway, I'm sure that I'll buy her new album on the day it's released, but unless she puts out something different (and not trend-chasing), this might be the end of the line for Miss Jackson, at least as far as I'm concerned. I'll still treasure my copies of Rhythm Nation and Control, and I'll still be amazed by the videos for Rhythm Nation and Pleasure Principle, but that'll probably be as far as it'll go.