It's POLL For You -- ILM artist poll #103 -- JANET JACKSON (voting open until July 24, 2020)

once the ballads hit it's too late, but the disco pop stuff is great yeah

yeah the ballads are clunkers for sure. I'm on "Dream Street" now and the first 3 songs are also fire

oh my god this synth breakdown at the end of "Pretty Boy" is sheer euphoria

off the first album, 'come give your love to me' will def get a vote from me

my ballot is, again, already full, but i'm really considering doing this too, what a cool song

OK how the fuck am I supposed to make room for "Moist" and "SloLove"

re: dream street: "don't stand another chance," "pretty boy," "fast girls," all great

"fast girls" is very proto-control

re: "black cat," i forgot, the video version is superior

i am kinda digging rediscovering Janet's ROCKIN THE FUCK OUT tracks,"Trust a Try" is fucking awesome

oh man the remix poll is gonna be even harder than the main one

"rock with u"........... is gonna be in my top ten

strobe lights make everything....

.... SEXier

lol remembering how incredible it was to hear unbreakable for the first time

i *have* to vote for "dammn baby," that is a finely-layered piece of production

janet/jam/lewis 4ever

"shoulda known better," wow, ;_;

this may be beside tim's point about damita jo but "dammn baby" sorta realizes the idea of janet's last train to paris for me

which, really it's the jam & lewis version of mustardwave, but that's how it ends up for me regardless

oh my GOD "night"

how do i get everyone to vote for "night"

I remember five summers ago almost weeping when "No Sleeep" was so damn good.

Same.

Was just thinking that if "Feels So Right" had shown up in, say, the back half of Erykah Badu's "Cain't Use My Phone" EP I'd still be spinning it weekly to this day.

omg TIL Janet released a promo-only single for Pepsi in 1999 that I don't believe has been available anywhere else since?? I wouldn't say it's one of her all time best tracks but I def don't hate it and it came with a Masters At Work remix

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrASTW9DCm8

The post-All For You records aren't doing a whole lot for me these first time through them, but for what its worth, "So Much Betta" (from Discipline) is the only thing I've heard so far that I think is flat-out awful.

*THIS first time through them

oh that's how i feel about "this body" on 20 y.o.. terrible

i like "so much betta"

I used to hate “Rock With U” but I played it the other day and was like “wait this slams, what is happening”

yep

the bridge in "the great forever" is unreal

I wish "Free Xone" had more xones. Xones to infinity.

how do i get everyone to vote for "night"

top ten for me, I promise

One rule
No rules

Okay, after a couple of listens of “Janet Jackson” and “Dream Street” my takeaway is that the s/t is pretty unexceptional and generic but “Dream Street” is like... pretty great?? Which surprised me, bcz my impression was that they were both equally mediocre and filler-y.

i still think dream street is a little patchy but again, the jesse johnson and marlon jackson tracks, whew

also i have tried very hard but there's no way i'm ever going to like "two to the power of love"

it does not make the mistake the debut makes of wandering off into wispy ballad land

Oh yeah it’s definitely patchy and imperfect and nowhere near the tier of Control thru Velvet Rope BUT it is a bigger improvement over the s/t than I thought, like in terms of sonic palette I can see a progression from Dream Street to Control, it’s not like a total schism like Underworld’s first 2 albums or something.

also I love love LOVE “Pretty Boy”’s booming “ONE👏TWO👏ONE TWO THREE FOUR” followed by, like, a pleasant but fairly sedate synthesizer solo that is nowhere near as grand as one would expect from such a count-off

listening to damita jo for the first time and "strawberry bounce"!!!

It is a secret weapon

Strawberry Bounce will likely be in the 20-25 range for me

Strawberry Bounce is probably going to just miss out on my list but there will be a handful of Damita Jo songs in there.

Would it be fair to say that the general consensus is that 20YO is the nadir of her post-Control career?

yes and i agree with the consensus

Yeah, that's quite comfortably her weakest album.

damita jo is her most consistent album. there are no duds! and, like, at least ten perfect songs

"all nite (don't stop)", "warmth" and "slolove" will all be in my top 10 probs

i would argue Velvet Rope as her MOST consistent album.

but some of this may be a "your favorite season of SNL" argument
except Janet is, you know, talented