Janet Jackson’s latest release high on sex, low on appeal

Janet Jackson has released her most nasty and sexual album yet with her new project “All for You,” the first disc since her highly successful 1997 album, “The Velvet Rope.”

The new album continues to display the first-class pop R&B talent that we are used to seeing in Janet. However, it is difficult to warm up to and leaves a lot to be desired from the person we love and consider an icon. It surprisingly has its handful of failures.

There is no doubt that she is a wonderful performer, musician, and writer, but she has strayed away from the deep, genuine music that we have come to expect from her. We could always count on Jackson to take us to places where no other artist ever has.

Usually, we can count on some sort of a theme for Janet’s albums; something that we take with us to celebrate, whether it be a broken heart, or a revival of life. This album is all over the place and the only thing you really walk away with is a sense of confusion and disappointment.

It starts out slow and the interludes between songs spark boredom and could have all been left off the CD. Most of them center around sexual innuendoes and things that most parental units would not want their hormone-charged teenager to hear. “All for you,” her latest single, is placed on the third track. There is no arguing that this is a wonderful dance song and up to the millennium beat that listeners are yearning for, but that is practically the only dance mix on the disc.

With her past albums, you could usually count on up-beat dance songs at the beginning and love-emotion songs to conclude the tracks. She has worked with long-time friends, producers and writers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, bringing the long awaited trio back in action. Yet the configuration of the CD is a bit jumbled.

There will be an upbeat dance mix, a slow-emotional, a nasty-sexual, then interludes that do not flow well with the format mood. It gives the listener a hard time finding the right momentum for listening and paying attention.

But low and behold, it is a Janet CD, so there are good attributes. There are songs like “Truth,” where you can see and hear the old hidden emotion as she pours her heart out in the lyrics. There is dirty funk like “You Ain’t Right” and made-for-radio tracks like her current release and the 2000 “Doesn’t Really Matter.” You have the old love song type like “China Love” that brings the listener forefront with emotion.

With repeated listening, the album will probably grow on most of you, especially those who have been Janet fans for over a decade.

It’s really not fair because all-in-all this is a good album that would be accepted with open arms from other artists. Yet society has come to love, respect and expect a lot from Ms. Jackson. She has stood the test of time, and even though “thoroughly impressed” is not the phrase that comes to mind, “good enough to listen to in your car occasionally” does.

She has showed us never to underestimate her spontaneous side, and critics will await and welcome her next feature album.