JANET JACKSON
“20 Years Old”
(Virgin)
"20 Years Old" by Janet Jackson
Readers’ Opinions
"Release Therapy" by Ludacris
Janet Jackson starts her new album, “20 Years Old,” with a spoken reminder that over the last 20 years she has done songs about “racism, spousal abuse, empowering women.” Of course none of those topics are what made her a star: sex. Janet (as she now bills herself) has happily devoted most of her career to teasing, pleasing and heavy breathing, and she’s not stopping on “20 Years Old.”
For the first half of the album she challenges men to prove their prowess; then she snuggles up to one man. She’s never as explicit as the female rappers who arrived after her — like Khia, who joins her on “So Excited” — but she’s not shy either. In “So Excited” Janet vows, “If you like it then I’ll do it/I’ll go head to toe.”
Janet and her production and songwriting partners for two decades, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, have long since perfected keyboard-centered grooves and plush but weightless ballad arrangements that let her creamy little coo of a voice whisper right up close.
She has extra collaborators now, including her boyfriend, Jermaine Dupri, the hitmaking producer who’s now president of Virgin Records Urban Music. Perhaps he honed tracks like “Get It Out Me,” a brilliant, pointillistic mixture of 1980’s electro, Indian tabla drumming and vocals arriving from all directions. “This Body,” with lyrics that make the singer a pinup come to life — not far-fetched, since the 40-year-old Janet flaunts her curves on more than one glossy magazine cover this month — is nearly as snappy, pumping along on a ticking beat, a digitized hard-rock riff, a few electric-guitar sounds and countless fleeting synthesizer hooks.
But Janet’s music has settled into a handful of approaches. Along with the dance beats, there are lushly harmonized ballads like “With You” and “Enjoy.” There are tinkly-twinkly tunes like “Call on Me” (with Nelly’s singsong guest rap) and “Daybreak.” And there are slow, breathy seductions like “Love 2 Love” and “Take Care,” where the lyric sheet says, “I need my sweetie pie,” but Janet clearly sings, “I need my sweaty pie.”
On “20 Years Old,” Janet is as crafty and poised as ever. Her flirtations are still a pleasure, but an overly familiar one. She’s done these same slinky moves too often to surprise listeners now. JON PARELES
LUDACRIS
Release Therapy
(Disturbing tha Peace/Island Def Jam)
“You’re going to take me serious on this album, I guarantee it.” That’s what Ludacris told MTV about his fifth major-label album, “Release Therapy.” And the album cover confirms this strategy. Where previous CD’s depicted him holding a flaming $100 bill or getting ready to sink his teeth into a leg (distinctly human, and female), this one shows him with his eyes closed and his fingers folded. It’s the universal symbol, one supposes, for seriousness.
Luckily, he doesn’t seem to be taking his new seriousness too seriously. The album’s first single is “Money Maker,” a floor-shaking (and perfectly frivolous) collaboration with Pharrell; last week it hit No. 2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. And while the anatomical jokes are in somewhat shorter supply and the beats are a bit further stripped down, this is more or less a standard Ludacris album. That is, a pretty good one, especially once you edit out the misfires.
If Ludacris is feeling slightly defensive (he blasts unnamed foes in “War With God”), you can understand why: he sells more records than most of his rivals yet often gets less respect. But then there’s nothing fearsome about him: he’s a charming, seemingly even-tempered former radio personality with a weakness for puns. That’s enough for us; shouldn’t it be enough for him too?
There’s “Woozy,” a playful sex song featuring (who else?) R. Kelly. But nothing is better than “Ultimate Satisfaction,” which gives Ludacris a chance to trade syncopated punch lines with the underrated Albany, Ga., duo Field Mob. Over a buzzy, spaced-out beat, Ludacris finds yet another way to brag about his rims: “Pumping out albums like Reverend Run is pumping out children, here’s another one/So catch me on more 24’s than Kiefer Sutherland.”
The heavy stuff comes near the end: an awful half-sung frustration song, “Slap”; an ill-conceived anti-child-abuse lecture, “Runaway Love.” For a finale Ludacris invites a preacher (Bishop Eddie Lee Long) to join him on a gospel song (“Freedom of Preach”). But even midprayer he’s still mischievous: “Forgive those who don’t think I’m great and wanna see me go/Forgive Oprah for editing most my comments off her show.” That’s more like it. Ludacris can rhyme about anything he likes, so long as he doesn’t leave out the punch lines.KELEFA SANNEH
SCISSOR SISTERS
“Ta-Dah”
(Universal Motown)
Two years ago this over-the-top American band became a British sensation. They scored a left-field smash — a Bee-Gees-ish cover of Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” — and then kept making hits, converting young clubbers and old Elton John fans alike. (The band also converted Sir Elton, who has become a mentor.) By the time the year was done, the self-titled Scissors Sisters debut album sold over 1.5 million copies in Britain, making it that country’s best-selling CD in 2004.
