| ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age. | |
| PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids. | |
| OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age. | |
| NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age. |
Parents need to know that a few key words and two very sexual songs ("Moist" and "Warmth") earned a parental advisory for this album. There is supposedly an edited version available, which turns out to be nearly impossible to find. Still, this CD is tamer than most labeled with an advisory sticker.
The cover features a coyly posed Janet Jackson, airbrushed and topless, sporting a wink and a smile. The sleek and glossy DAMITA JO is fundamentally a makeout record -- with just enough explicit lyrics to earn a parental advisory sticker. Smoothly perfectionist arrangements set off Janet Jackson's sweet, breathy vocals nicely. But this 22-track CD gets monotonous pretty fast. It's a little too much of Janet trying too hard to be everything for everybody, and a little too much information about her sex life to be genuinely sexy. Janet seems obsessed with showing us all the "real Damita Jo" (her middle name), and in the process seems to forget the art of the tease.
With some judicious editing, this could have been a terrific album, but the mish-mosh of musical styles (funk, rock, soul/R&B, even a bit of country-western), no doubt intended to impress us with the artist's versatility, ends up coming across as unfocused. Janet Jackson is way sexier when she's not trying quite so hard.
Families can talk about why they think Janet is trying so hard to be sexy. How much does an artist's image affect his or her popularity?
| Artist: | Janet Jackson |
| Release date: | March 29, 2004 |
| Label: | Virgin Records |
| Genre: | Pop |
| Parental advisory: | Yes |
| Edited version available: | Yes |