What's your Janet Jackson top 20? (2020 edition) (1 Viewer)

I won't pretend I'm a Janet expert but this is how I rank her albums:

1. The Velvet Rope
2. janet.
3. Rhythm Nation 1814
4. Damita Jo
5. Control
6. Unbreakable
7. All for You
8. Discipline


20 Y.O. - I don't know her
Janet Jackson - I don't know her
Dream Street - I don't know her
 
Ooh, very close to mine:


  1. janet.
  2. Rhythm Nation 1814
  3. The Velvet Rope
  4. Damita Jo
  5. Control
  6. Discipline
  7. Janet Jackson
  8. Unbreakable
  9. All for You
  10. Dream Street
  11. 20 Y.O.

Control is let down by a couple of awful fillers (Start Anew should have been on it). 20 Y.O. seriously doesn’t have one redeemable song for me. One of the all time worst records by ANY big star. Even some of the dirge Prince shat out in his Jazz Fusion period at least had one or two listenable tracks.
 
1. The Velvet Rope
2. janet.
3. Rhythm Nation 1814
4. Damita Jo
5. Control
6. All for You
7. Unbreakable (haven't listened to it enough tbh but I remembered enjoying most of it albeit without much standing out)
8. Discipline
9. 20 Y.O. (some terrible JD influence here, and it hasn't aged well, but I like two and a half songs ish)

I haven't heard the first two albums in full. If they are on streaming, maybe I will relisten to the whole discog. I am in a bit of a JANET MOOD since this thread.
 
there are days when i think miss you much is my favourite song ever and today is one of those days.



can't quite believe it still sounds so sharp and tight. tremendous.

also, where are @monsta's janft classics? :evil:
 
ameraal said:
there are days when i think miss you much is my favourite song ever and today is one of those days.



can't quite believe it still sounds so sharp and tight. tremendous.

also, where are @monsta's janft classics? :evil:
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Jesus I need to get on this! It’s like choosing between secret illegitimate children!
 
1. janet.
2. Rhythm Nation 1814
3. Control
4. The Velvet Rope
5. Damita Jo
6. Unbreakable
7. All For You
8. Janet Jackson
9. Discipline
10.Dream Street
11.20 Y.O.
 
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Ellie said:
Yes, same. Maybe it’s my/our age though. I remember hearing about her and Rhythm Nation being shown on TOTP/The Chart Show one time, which was the first time I realised Michael Jackson had a singing sister. I know her first album was in 1982 and of course knew them all later, but when people refer to Janet as one of the 1980s superstars alongside Madonna and Whitney, it doesn’t register as she was far more of star in the 90s. It’s definitely a case of personal perception though as she clearly played concert arenas for the RN1814 tour. I was just too young and more in to New Kids on the Block at the time :eyes:
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I don’t necessarily agree. Control was everywhere at the time and Rhythm Nation 1814 was bigger than the singles suggested over here. The singles all got lots of airplay. I think the fact she didn’t come here to promote (at all? Or much at the very least) could give that perception though.
 
funky said:
Was she in some kind of dispute with the record label during janet? Looking back it’s a bit odd that they only really properly promoted two of the singles, after coming off a strategy of releasing almost the entire album of Control and Rhythm Nation. They also only included 2 tracks from it on the greatest hits a couple years later. Ironic given the album had about 9 potential singles.
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Huh? They released seven singles from .janet, all with fairly big budget videos, she had six US top tens from it, they did a remix album and they also released a couple of additional songs to radio and clubs.
 
Sheena said:
I don’t necessarily agree. Control was everywhere at the time and Rhythm Nation 1814 was bigger than the singles suggested over here. The singles all got lots of airplay. I think the fact she didn’t come here to promote (at all? Or much at the very least) could give that perception though.
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Definitely an age thing. I don’t remember Control at all as I was too young. But True Blue and Whitney’s debut for example which I was also too young to recall when they were out, they continued to reach my age group just a couple of years later, whereas Janet was just about what she was currently doing.
 
I adored Control and had it on vinyl, but then I was into music rather young (I was 8). It really is wall to wall greatness- I even love the ridiculousness of “He Doesn’t Know I’m Alive”.
 
Ellie said:
Definitely an age thing. I don’t remember Control at all as I was too young. But True Blue and Whitney’s debut for example which I was also too young to recall when they were out, they continued to reach my age group just a couple of years later, whereas Janet was just about what she was currently doing.
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one of my earliest music memories is a bootleg vhs with music videos and janet's nasty was on it. it was so exciting. on the flip side, the one one i remember vividly is u2's i still haven't found what i'm looking for - i think it was back to back with nasty. i was always like oh this is nice but i'll rewind/ff.
 
Sheena said:
I adored Control and had it on vinyl, but then I was into music rather young (I was 8). It really is wall to wall greatness- I even love the ridiculousness of “He Doesn’t Know I’m Alive”.
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did we know there's a blood orange/solange take on it? how did i not? bit of an oddity there...



anyway, came to post the (cute) new look cover.

 
A very slight re-jig since August as I've been in a major miss JANET. mood.

1. The VELVET ROPE
2. janet.
3. Rhythm Nation 1814
4. Damita Jo
5. Unbreakable
6. Control
7. Discipline
8. All for You

The top 3 is up there with the very best pop albums by anyone really.

4-6 are good/very good - and yes I realise my CONTROL placement is slightly controversial...

7 & 8 are patchy.


I don't know the others and I don't really feel like I need to.
 
My Top 20

  1. This Time
  2. That's The Way Love Goes
  3. If
  4. The Pleasure Principle (video mix)
  5. What About
  6. Nasty
  7. Throb
  8. Can't Be Stopped
  9. The Great Forever
  10. R&B Junkie
  11. All Nite (Don't Stop)
  12. What Have You Done For Me Lately
  13. Escapade
  14. Together Again
  15. Got Til It's Gone
  16. Rhythm Nation
  17. Feedback
  18. No Sleeep
  19. And On And On
  20. I Want You
 
I think I might change number twenty to 'Rope Burn'. I'd quite forgotten how much I love that track. Next task is the albums ranking, which is never as difficult as the singles.
 
01. The Velvet Rope
02. janet.
03. Rhythm Nation 1814
04. Control
05. Unbreakable
06. Damita Jo
07. All For You
08. Janet Jackson
09. 20 Y.O.
10. Discipline
11. Dream Street
 
i really don't know. there are so many 17s.

01 when i think of you
02 miss you much
03 the pleasure principle
04 that's the way love goes
05 nasty
06 control
07 love will never do without you
08 got til it's gone
09 if
10 and on and on

11 come back to me
12 he doesn't even know i'm alive
13 the best things in life are free featuring mmm luther vandross
14 throb
15 what have you done for me lately
16 this time
17 no sleeep
18 you want this
19 enjoy
20 what'll i do

21 because of love

that's the way love goes is probably in my top three r&b tracks of all time, so imagine how much i like the ones above it!
a lot of janet fullstop tracks could easily be on there how good was that fucking album very innit.
 
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i feel like ever since that audio of her doing tons of background vocals and harmonies i hear them super well and they're super wonderful.

and i always forget and on and on and then it comes on and i am 13 again.
 
i smashed someone to call my lover that summer in the usa. not much of a fan these days. ditto all for you. haven't gone back to that album and damita jo in far too long.
 
Something like...
  1. Got Til It's Gone
  2. That's The Way Love Goes
  3. If
  4. Together Again
  5. Escapade
  6. Scream
  7. Love Will Never Do Without You
  8. Miss You Much
  9. When I Think of You
  10. Velvet Rope
  11. This Time
  12. Son of a Gun (featuring Missy Elliott)
  13. Someone To Call My Lover
  14. Runaway
  15. Whoops Now
  16. Go Deep
  17. Feedback
  18. I Get Lonely
  19. All Nite (Don't Stop)
  20. Rhythm Nation
 
still on a janet wave.

having a bit of a come back to me revival.



her "big" ballads have always been saccharine and this one is no exception but it feels right to me and is probably my favourite of the bunch, followed by again.
on that note i never cared for everytime and i remembered really wishing twenty foreplay had stayed a proper ballad for its entire run.

it's still a toss-up between control and janet. for me - two albums brimful of genre and era-defining tracks. absolutely iconic.

the velvet rope hasn't aged great for me, i like rhythm nation very much but parts of it feel a bit overcooked.
unbreakable has some really good songs (no sleep, night, damn baby) - its only downsides in my books are the length (get rid of half of the tracks!) and the visuals/style which were not my cup.

i need to listen to discipline again, i don't think i have more than a couple of times when it came out. it seemed to be diminishing returns + a couple of solid tunes everytime from all for you onwards.
 
so happy to see 20YO bottom of every list. a truly appalling record, what was she thinking?

is it true that she fell out briefly with Jam & Lewis / blamed them for the flop performance of Damita Jo, rather than the Super Bowl circumstances?
 
I also think All For You is mostly shit, to be honest. the title track remains iconic, and I like Come On Get Up / You Ain't Right / When We Ooo (although all 3 are redux of songs she did better before).

but the plasticy pop songs are horrible, her vocals are very un-janet, and then you've got the pure WTF-ery of Son of a Gun... I don't even like Someone to Call My Lover.

overall I like to pretend Damita Jo was the follow-up to Velvet Rope.
 
Yes, that was when I started to go off her around All For You. Even though it was hugely popular in the US, it was such a huge step down from TVR and the album outside of the singles was mostly rubbish.

Damita Jo was a step back up but 20 YO is quite possibly the worst album I’ve heard from any of the big 80s/90s superstars (*have not heard Madonna’s last two albums).
 
All for You has plenty of great moments (the title track, "Someone to Call My Lover", "Trust a Try", "You Ain't Right", "Come on Get Up", "Feels so Right", "Better Days" are all great) but is dampened by a few too many sex tracks and lacks the depth of a Velvet Rope. Damita Jo is her most approachable album of the 2000s. So many bops. So many great mid-tempo R&B moments. It really struck a perfect balance. The issue is it didn't have any hits - irrespective of the Superbowl I'm not sure I could see anything from it taking off majorly. And she was 38 so radio was going to be an uphill battle from that point on, at least in America.

20 Y.O. is of course dreadful but you can see she was pressured to get radio back on board with stuff like "Call on Me" (and then the budget ran out and Khia was called). "Enjoy" is a redeemable moment. I do kind of do enjoy the occasional "Get it out Me", "So Excited" etc if I'm seeking trashy mid-2000s R&B nostalgia but I rarely am.
 
POP! said:
All for You has plenty of great moments (the title track, "Someone to Call My Lover", "Trust a Try", "You Ain't Right", "Come on Get Up", "Feels so Right", "Better Days" are all great) but is dampened by a few too many sex tracks and lacks the depth of a Velvet Rope. Damita Jo is her most approachable album of the 2000s. So many bops. So many great mid-tempo R&B moments. It really struck a perfect balance. The issue is it didn't have any hits - irrespective of the Superbowl I'm not sure I could see anything from it taking off majorly. And she was 38 so radio was going to be an uphill battle from that point on, at least in America.

20 Y.O. is of course dreadful but you can see she was pressured to get radio back on board with stuff like "Call on Me" (and then the budget ran out and Khia was called). "Enjoy" is a redeemable moment. I do kind of do enjoy the occasional "Get it out Me", "So Excited" etc if I'm seeking trashy mid-2000s R&B nostalgia but I rarely am.
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Excuse me I’m in the middle of an important work meeting but I couldn’t help but noticing (while scrolling through your lists) the unjust lack of Whoops Now. :evil:
 
lynette and raspy-y-y-y *.*

i'm still in the janet loop and woke up with a bizarre desire for new agenda.

currently stuck on this:
 
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