Janet "Miss" Jackson: POX

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1. When I Think of You
2. Nasty
3. Together Again
4. Someone to Call My Lover
5. Control
6. That's The Way Love Goes
7. The Pleasure Principle
8. Miss You Much
9. Runaway
10. What Have You Done For Me Lately?

James Blount (James Blount), Thursday, 22 May 2003 14:35 (twenty years ago) link

Singles only or album tracks?

Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 22 May 2003 15:02 (twenty years ago) link

anything and everything (all mine are singles though)(although I almost included the 'let's wait awhile' followup 'screw it let's do it')

James Blount (James Blount), Thursday, 22 May 2003 15:07 (twenty years ago) link

I like your list just fine, but I'd add "Alright" to it.

Kenan Hebert (kenan), Thursday, 22 May 2003 15:08 (twenty years ago) link

I can't think of 10, but I pretty much liked ALL of The Velvet Rope. My mum works out to Control.

I'd add "Go Deep", fo sheezy.

Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Thursday, 22 May 2003 15:09 (twenty years ago) link

I almost included "Alright" just cuz I shortshifted Rhythm Nation (my second favorite album of hers), but mainly for the Julien Temple 'it's all one shot! cept it's not! and it's really obvious where we pasted it together! video with the Hey! It's the Thirties! With HEAVY D! and VOGUING!. plus the Mill Bros., Cyd Charisse, and duh, Cab Calloway cameos.

James Blount (James Blount), Thursday, 22 May 2003 15:12 (twenty years ago) link

why no love for "Rhythm Nation" the single then? that was not uncool.

Neudonym, Thursday, 22 May 2003 15:28 (twenty years ago) link

(Guilty Pleasure alarm.)
(no particular order alarm.)

If
Empty
Together Again
You Ain't Right
When I Think of You
Runaway
Got Til It's Gone
Funky Big Band
This Time
Alright (sounds the most like it was recorded here in Minneapolis... somehow...)

Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 22 May 2003 15:36 (twenty years ago) link

"Rhythm Nation" is quite literally the only thing of hers I can stomach. Everything else makes me want to open up a vein.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 22 May 2003 15:41 (twenty years ago) link

alex despite your agreeance with me I am sore disappointed at your funhatred. janet was the only force for futurist/scifi funk in this country for a number of years and therefore rules. plus: hot.

Neudonym, Thursday, 22 May 2003 15:43 (twenty years ago) link

Number one: she has no voice, just breathy wheeze that sounds like helium escaping from a dying balloon.

Number two: she's not hot. Sorry, she's as freakishly re-sculpted as her alien brother.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 22 May 2003 15:54 (twenty years ago) link

...and "Rhythm Nation" is only tolerable because of the Sly & the Family Stone sample.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 22 May 2003 15:54 (twenty years ago) link

alex you've a point about Nu-Janet...for me, the Real Janet is the bubbly one dancing in the diner in "What Have You Done For Me Lately" and the buffer one in the "Rhythm Nation" video with the chairs. I shoulda clarified that: "She was hot."

But the voice thing? Come on, man; having a wheezy helium-escape voice is no crime.

Neudonym, Thursday, 22 May 2003 16:46 (twenty years ago) link

she looks like she's been airbrushed in her videos now, and she works the cleavage a little too hard

James Blount (James Blount), Thursday, 22 May 2003 16:50 (twenty years ago) link

She's still massively attractive.

Alex, have you heard "Empty"?

Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 22 May 2003 16:59 (twenty years ago) link

Last night Matos said to me that "Velvet Rope" is Janet Jackon's [insert name of awesome album you know, why can't i remember dammit!] He says he thinks it's her best. Me, I'm a Control freak. I guess I'll take the whole album, does it have 10 tracks? (minus "Let's Wait Awhile")

Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 22 May 2003 17:23 (twenty years ago) link

I think it isn't even a question anymore that Velvet Rope is Janet's Abbey Road/Homogenic/Hejira... what have you. It's clearly her best album... probably her only cohesive one.

Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 22 May 2003 17:35 (twenty years ago) link

no way, with janet there's control and then there's everything else

James Blount (James Blount), Thursday, 22 May 2003 17:42 (twenty years ago) link

I take that back. Next to All for You, they're all pretty cohesive.

Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 22 May 2003 17:43 (twenty years ago) link

sadly I haven't done "Miss You Much" yet at the karoake bar (last night I tackled Englebert Humperdinck's "After The Lovin'" and Bon Jovi's "Livin' On A Prayer").

Alright
Miss You Much
Someone To Call My Lover
Rhythm Nation
When I Think Of You
What Have You Done For Me Lately?
Any Time, Any Place
Black Cat
Nasty
All For You

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 22 May 2003 20:54 (twenty years ago) link

shit, forgot two songs. Here's version two!

Alright
Miss You Much
Someone To Call My Lover
Rhythm Nation
When I Think Of You
Escapade
What Have You Done For Me Lately?
Any time, Any Place
Love Will Never Do Without You
Black Cat

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 22 May 2003 20:57 (twenty years ago) link

You know those songs that absolutely floor you the first listen, and then get even better on the second, third, and even further listens? Then, after being your personal #1 playlist favorite for about three weeks solid, you suddenly find yourself not liking it as much, then being indifferent to it? By a month after the first listen, you actively dislike it?

("I love this song. Man, I really love this song! This is a great... a really good song. I pretty much like th... I like... I do not like this song. How did I ever like this song? Oh, God, change the channel!")

Not to start any fights, but "Someone to Call My Lover" was pretty much that song for me, as far as Janet's singles went.

Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 22 May 2003 21:42 (twenty years ago) link

Deacde is the best still. get the singles together and you're (i'm) happy. can't pick 10 as it entirely depends on my mood.

H (Heruy), Thursday, 22 May 2003 22:14 (twenty years ago) link

This was surprisingly easy, even though I've never heard an album:

When I Think Of You
Control
Nasty
Love Will Never Do Without You
Escapade
That's the Way Love Goes
Together Again
Runaway
All For You
Someone to Call My Lover

I probably couldn't even name 10 more Janet songs, but I like basically every song of hers I've heard.

Vinnie (vprabhu), Thursday, 22 May 2003 22:41 (twenty years ago) link

People are SLEEPING on "Empty", "Go Deep" and "Doesn't Really Matter". I hav a theory that Janet consistently puts out the best fourth-singles-from-an-album in the business ("Control", "Alright", "You Want This", "Go Deep", "Son Of A Gun").

Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 22 May 2003 23:13 (twenty years ago) link

thinking abou it i realized that a huge aspect of my fave JJ songs are the videos

1) Nasty - got Paul aAbdul and the whole jump out of screen moment
2) When I think of you - Nicolas Bros, Cab Calloway, Cyd Charisse and zoot suits
3) That's the way love goes - lounging during the day and a much plumper J.Lo
4) Pleasure Principle - JJ dances with a chair

most everything else will vary

H (Heruy), Thursday, 22 May 2003 23:25 (twenty years ago) link

Son Of A Gun was a fourth single? I thought it was third. Or is Doesn't Really Matter on that album?

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 23 May 2003 01:07 (twenty years ago) link

"Doesn't Really Matter" is on that album, yo. I will admit it's debatable if that counts as a lead single.

Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 23 May 2003 01:11 (twenty years ago) link

either way, you're point still stands. she's a damn consistent singles maker. She needs a more definitive singles collection bad.

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 23 May 2003 01:12 (twenty years ago) link

your point. argh! Why do I always catch these flubs after I post?!?!

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 23 May 2003 01:13 (twenty years ago) link

one year passes...
Doesn't Really Matter
If
Rhythm Nation
All Nite (Don't Stop)
Alright

Shit, I need more Janet albums.

Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 24 December 2004 05:10 (nineteen years ago) link

one year passes...
Not surprisingly, nothing from 20 Y.O. threatened my line-up.

Alright
If
What Have You Done For Me Lately
Got Til It's Gone
The Pleasure Principle
Empty
Rhythm Nation
Funky Big Band
And On and On
Someday is Tonight

Eric H. (Eric H.), Saturday, 7 October 2006 15:35 (seventeen years ago) link

escapade
if
nasty
what have you done for me lately
the pleasure principle
rhythm nation
when i think of you
go deep
runaway
whoops now
that's the way love goes

Konal Doddz (blueski), Saturday, 7 October 2006 17:35 (seventeen years ago) link

The Pleasure Principle (Shep Pettibone remix)
This Time
Go Deep
Nasty (Cool Summer Mix)
Escapade
When I Think of You
That's The Way Love Goes
Control
Doesn't Really Matter
Alright

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Saturday, 7 October 2006 18:49 (seventeen years ago) link

1. Together Again
2. Escapade
3. Velvet Rope
4. All For You
5. Let's Wait Awhile
6. Alright
7. Come Back To Me
8. Control
9. The Knowledge
10.State Of The World

She should never have gotten rid of Jam/Lewis, but I guess she is too head over heels in love to realise.

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 7 October 2006 19:15 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm pleasantly surprised by the "Alright" love; it was one of those Top Five hits which got no airplay down here.

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Saturday, 7 October 2006 19:52 (seventeen years ago) link

"Alright" had a really classy video, which may have caused some of my love for it.

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 7 October 2006 23:06 (seventeen years ago) link

all i remember is the synchronised 'let's revolve doughnuts around our index fingers' bit.

Konal Doddz (blueski), Sunday, 8 October 2006 20:01 (seventeen years ago) link

eight months pass...

Head over heels.

Got Control & Rhythm Nation now and wanted to own them even when they came out and still, somehow insanely failed to buy them. I don't know why. I really can't explain it. Talk about guilty pleasures.

I'll have a top ten ready by the end of the week, I promise.

Bimble, Saturday, 9 June 2007 06:42 (sixteen years ago) link

So what do you say, does she beat the shit out of even early Madonna or what?

Bimble, Saturday, 9 June 2007 06:52 (sixteen years ago) link

Oooh, someone doesn't like Janet much -- look at the caption on the picture at the bottom of the Escapade wikipedia entry.

Phil D., Saturday, 9 June 2007 11:27 (sixteen years ago) link

What!? Yeah, that's kinda stupid. She's got a big mouth, so what? Not her fault.

Bimble, Saturday, 9 June 2007 16:12 (sixteen years ago) link

1. When I Think Of You
2. Come Back To Me
3. Control
4. Love Will Never Do Without You
5. Nasty
6. Alright
7. Someone To Call My Lover
8. Black Cat
9. Runaway
10. Let's Wait Awhile

Fitzcarraldo, Sunday, 10 June 2007 18:16 (sixteen years ago) link

i saved up birthday money to buy control and rhythm nation on cassette when they came out! still have those tapes, i must've played them hundreds of times. "get the point? good. let's dance!"

what have you done for me lately
pleasure principle
alright
nasty
miss you much
control
if
rhythm nation
i get lonely
when i think of you

daria-g, Sunday, 10 June 2007 18:52 (sixteen years ago) link

Say You Do
Young Love
Come Give Your Love To Me
Love And My Best Friend
Don't Mess Up This Good Thing
Two To The Power of Love
Fast Girls
Don't Stand Another Chance
Rock 'N' Roll
French Blue

bobby bedelia, Sunday, 10 June 2007 19:25 (sixteen years ago) link

haha awesome
Janet Jackson If Breakdown by 13 year olds

i used to practice that dance, could never get it right..!

daria-g, Sunday, 10 June 2007 19:31 (sixteen years ago) link

i just saw the video for 'black cat'

it's got quite a driving riff behind it!

Charlie Howard, Monday, 11 June 2007 14:53 (sixteen years ago) link

Yeah, that song is the only one that ruins the Rhythm Nation album for me. I tried to like it, but it's just...so bad and overdone.

Bimble, Monday, 11 June 2007 16:12 (sixteen years ago) link

"Nasty (Cool Summer Mix)"
"Control"
"Escapade"
"Anytime, Anyplace"
"That's The Way Love Goes"
"Runaway"
"Alright"
"The Pleasure Principle"
"Throb"
"When I Think of You"

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 11 June 2007 16:53 (sixteen years ago) link

I admit it. I forgot about the Cab Calloway video. Did you know she had more Top 5 singles on one album than her brother??

Bimble, Monday, 11 June 2007 17:34 (sixteen years ago) link

Although even the Pleasure Principle sounds good to me now, and I'd considered than an inferior single until now.

Bimble, Monday, 11 June 2007 17:36 (sixteen years ago) link

I hope we've all established and agreed that the Miss You Much video is to die for.

Bimble, Monday, 11 June 2007 17:48 (sixteen years ago) link

Y'all need to get your hands on the Control -- The Remixes, which just about trumps the album.

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 11 June 2007 18:36 (sixteen years ago) link

I know, but much as I love you Alfred, I can't handle these things right now.

Bimble, Monday, 11 June 2007 18:41 (sixteen years ago) link

nasty
what have you done for me lately?
best things in life are free
the pleasure principle
black cat
that's the way love goes
rhythm nation
all nite (don't stop)
when i think of you
if

lex pretend, Tuesday, 12 June 2007 23:52 (sixteen years ago) link

Janet songs come and Janet songs may go, but "Alright" will always be real I know.

Eric H., Wednesday, 13 June 2007 01:29 (sixteen years ago) link

That's a song I dismissed at the time as boilerplate, but now absolutely love -- it's Janet Jam-Lewis at their most automatic and irresistable.

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 13 June 2007 01:40 (sixteen years ago) link

three months pass...

I am playing my Janet Jackson DVD and when I played "Nasty" again I realized that I have Janet Fever. I need my Janet every day.

Bimble, Sunday, 16 September 2007 16:02 (sixteen years ago) link

"When I Think of You" video - is she NOT cute?!

Bimble, Sunday, 16 September 2007 16:05 (sixteen years ago) link

Yeah she's got Control, and "lots of it" but she's also got lots (too much) hair!

Bimble, Sunday, 16 September 2007 16:12 (sixteen years ago) link

When have you ever seen a better butt on a woman than The Pleasure Principle video? And she gave it all up didn't she? To look like a skinny waif. Fucking tragedy.

Bimble, Sunday, 16 September 2007 16:15 (sixteen years ago) link

I remember that by the time Escapade came along she was an absolute superstar.

Bimble, Sunday, 16 September 2007 16:20 (sixteen years ago) link

She beats the shit out of her brother, you know it's true.

Bimble, Sunday, 16 September 2007 16:22 (sixteen years ago) link

three months pass...

I'm starting to think "Feedback" is the best thing she's done since Velvet Rope. Am I wrong?

Eric H., Thursday, 10 January 2008 21:19 (sixteen years ago) link

one month passes...

Yeah, since "Someone to Call My Lover" and "All Nite (Don't Stop)" exist.

jaymc, Wednesday, 27 February 2008 16:14 (sixteen years ago) link

"Feedback" is avg Janet at best. "Rock With U" is what's up, tho.

The Reverend, Thursday, 28 February 2008 06:09 (sixteen years ago) link

eleven months pass...

control = best album.
RN = 2nd best.
the rest needs a lot of s/d.

Yellow Carded (titchyschneiderMk2), Monday, 23 February 2009 12:21 (fifteen years ago) link

how jaw-dropping is the velvet rope, seriously? still blows my brain.

also, THIS:

lex pretend, Thursday, 5 March 2009 20:24 (fifteen years ago) link

Yeah, since "Someone to Call My Lover" and "All Nite (Don't Stop)" exist.

I'll give you the latter, but the former is basically unlistenable to me now.

Nurse Detrius (Eric H.), Thursday, 5 March 2009 22:58 (fifteen years ago) link

four months pass...

Together Again
Let's Wait Awhile
The Body That Loves You
Rock With U
I Want You
Escapade
That's The Way Love Goes
Got Til It's Gone
What Have You Done For Me Lately?
I Get Lonely

so hard to pick just 10 >_<

Monday Nite Tranny Party (The Brainwasher), Monday, 6 July 2009 16:09 (fourteen years ago) link

why did i not put 'this time' in my original 10

lex pretend, Monday, 6 July 2009 18:13 (fourteen years ago) link

one year passes...

so hard to pick just 10 >_<

^

amphetamine enhanced scholar (Drugs A. Money), Tuesday, 18 January 2011 03:38 (thirteen years ago) link

one year passes...

i couldn't do this. i don't know enough janet to have ten. its maybe a project i'm working on though. i've been listening to janet and Velvet Rope a lot. On repeat. they feel like mature work. That's the way love goes in particular feels like this song i've never heard before. or at least properly. like a moth to a flame. those liquid samples, every surface overwritten by a warm sensuality. the slowness of the vocal lines pushing against the beat; slow down there's plenty of time. it could all feel so corny, light a few candles, you know what i mean. my love is blind can't you see my desire. but there's a subtlety to her approach that surprises me. i want to put this next to justify my love, i could be wrong but i feel like chronologically this makes sense, with janet though there's no heavy breathing. the signifiers are dissolved into the viscosity of the beat. i think the video is pretty good at explaining it actually, how the sex is absorbed into a particular sociality. its the same here; nothing overt just the intensification of mood over time. it builds by simply continuing. cumulative and accumulative. how the production just wants you to sink into it and how she holds back. she tends to demur stridency i think. i mean this almost bothers me in how its become a means of recuperating a certain style of RnB vocal in the aftermath of Aaliyah's definitive canonisation but it doesn't really matter to me in the end. ,maybe just because the vocals are so good. always hinting, so sly. that austere code of tricks. on Together again she is so fn good. soft on soft. draped around that, really pretty basic, house beat. the sweetness of it, in heaven we will be together. in the context of a particular, historically defined, AIDS discourse, it seems especially touching. the gentle expansiveness of her phrasing, all distant horizons but still so measured. its a contradiction that's hard to unbundle. sticking with the tempo but gesturing beyond it. i don't like the earlier stuff i've heard as much. we are a part of a rhythm nation. such a boring metaphor, i prefer when she's slipping against herself. layered against herself. she's a good house diva though. a firm touch that insists on a kind of physicality without losing sight of its more ethereal dimensions. i mean i guess she can "command a beat" or w/e but i like her more when she's layered but perpetually displaced. soft on soft. that austere code of tricks.

judith, Tuesday, 14 August 2012 01:56 (eleven years ago) link

nine months pass...

is there a finer way to spend eighteen minutes and fourteen seconds than 'nasty' (cool summer mix) parts 1 and 2 cos i'm saying no tbh

r|t|c, Monday, 20 May 2013 12:42 (ten years ago) link

Spending thirty minutes in Herb Alpert's sun room, watching him play his "Nasty" licks.

A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 20 May 2013 12:43 (ten years ago) link

two years pass...

man, "what'll i do" is TERRIBLE.

scott seward, Tuesday, 29 September 2015 17:18 (eight years ago) link

Such a roadblock in the middle of that album's forward momentum.

Norse Jung (Eric H.), Wednesday, 30 September 2015 19:39 (eight years ago) link

'What'll I Do' is fine in isolation. It's not really a "Janet track", though. It sounds like one of the many not-very-alternative hits on alternative radio ca. 1995.

Sitting In The Ape Chair (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 30 September 2015 19:45 (eight years ago) link

one year passes...

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