Janet Jackson - Janet

How do you judge an album?  Do you judge it against your own body of work?  Or against the musical environment of its time?  Or against the impossibly high standards of your brother’s work?  I didn’t want to bring up MJ again – it must be so frustrating being his sister and having all your work judged against something that you had no part in creating – but he will always be the elephant in the room for any review about his siblings’ work. 

So, let’s start from the beginning.  How does this stand up against her own work?  It’s good.  It’s a progression from her previous album.  It feels a bit groovier than the last album.  Yes, it’s a bit too long and in the 90s there was a trend to put in little “skits” between tracks - thank god we don’t have to deal with that anymore – but it doesn’t overstay its welcome. 

How does it rate against the musical environment of the 90s?  It’s a good pop/R&B album.  Is it one of the better ones?  I’m not sure I’m the person to judge that, as it was never my favourite musical genre.  But it’s a pretty good album.

And, finally, how does it rate against her famous brother?  It feels like she finds her own musical territory on this album.  In any other family, she’d be far and away the most successful musician – I don’t mean financially, or in terms of sales – I mean in terms of music.  This is an assured album that expresses what the artist wants.  You can’t ask for much more than that.