Title: Rhythm nation 1814
Artiste: Janet Jackson
Year: 1989
Chronological position: Fourth album
Previous experience of this artiste?: Very little; the odd single really
Why is this considered a classic? I really don't know
My thoughts
One minute (or thereabouts in) ---- Good, great, bad, meh, still waiting or other? Meh
One track in --- Meh
Halfway through --- Good
Finished --- Good
Comments: It's hard not to write this off as generic r&B mores until you realise that Jackson actually started all this, probably alongside Paula Abdul and a few others, and that the music that it today called r&b is copying her. Even so, it's not my kind of music (shock!) and I may find this hard to get through. We'll see.
Yeah, it's kind of as I expected: drifting by in an unremarkable stream of songs that to me all sound pretty similar. "Miss you much" is okay, but about the first one I've really even noticed enough to zero in on. The little interludes are all rather annoying and contrived, and as an album that basically sets out to do what Stevie Wonder did in the recently-reviewed "Songs in the key of life", it's a pale shadow of that classic. "Livin in a world (they didn't make)" is a nice decent ballad with some nice ideas, but "Escapade" just sounds like "What have you done for me lately" with a bit of Prince thrown in (which bit? You decide!). "Lonely" and "Come back to me" are cool little ballads but smack a little too much of her big brother's work.
Favourite track(s): Miss you much, Livin' in a world (they didn't make), Come back to me, Someday is tonight
Least favourite track(s): Pretty much the rest of it.
Final impression --- Sort of as I expected. I don't like Michael's work in general and I didn't think I'd like Janet's. I have more or less been proven correct in my own impression of this album. Not for me.
Do I feel, at the end, A) I wish I had listened to this sooner
B) I'm sorry I bothered
C) I might end up liking this
D) Have to wait and see
E) Bit underwhelmed; was ok but a classic?
F) Definitely enjoyed it, but again would I consider it a classic?
I won't say B, but probably mostly E.