Damito Jo is Janet Jackson’s middle name, so the concept of this album is to give listeners a glimpse of who she is on the inside, underneath all the glitz and glamour of the diva life. “Do you think I’m that person you watch on TV,” she asks on the short title song. My answer to that question is yes because Damita Jo sounds just like the Janet Jackson we’ve known for years; a talented pop singer whose songs are caught-up in an almost obsessional fusion of romantic love and raunchy sex.
Whether she’s Spending Time With her “baby” on a tropical island or putting on an All Nite dance show at the club, it all comes down to an intimate relationship with a man. She calls it “love” and that just might be the case, but sometimes the word “love” is actually a euphemism for lust. If she’s just being herself on these songs, then Janet Damita Jo Jackson is just a typical American woman if typical American women were this honest when it came to their sexual desires and affairs.
I doubt a typical American woman would sound this sweet singing over Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis music though. All For You might’ve been her best album, but I think this one might be a little better. The Slo Love song, which isn’t slow at all as far as tempo goes, is a delicious groovefest. Just A Little While rocks. I Want You, produced with Kanye West and an old BT Express song sample; a throwback to 1970s soul music; is easily one of the best Janet Jackson songs thus far.
Any guy with a big dick who wants to trade oral sex with this girl should feel Warmth and Moist, a back-to-back face-to-groin song set that begins with Miss Jackson servicing you with her (Warm) mouth. Then it’s her turn, she insists, before lying on her back and spreading her (Moist) pussy to a jazzy piano backdrop. The outside rain is a metaphor for her juices, which, if the music is any suggestion, is about as sweet as it gets. Janet Jackson? Damita Jo? Whoever she is, I like her a lot.
my rating : 4 of 5
2004