Bestsellers > Blackmail, Murder and Mayhem > Blackmail, Murder and Mayhem

On her eighth studio album, Damita Jo--the title lifted from her middle name--Janet Jackson teams up with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis once again on what is perhaps the most feverish album in her two decade long career. Whether she's taking the listener on a torrid excursion in the four song island suite, or boasting of her sexual prowess on "Sexhibition's" word games lyrics, where she tells fans "relax, it's just sex," the singer tries hard--maybe too hard--to establish herself as a sexual avatar with portfolio. But in "Strawberry Bounce," she seems more like a pole dancer in stilettos than a social revolutionary, as she catalogs the way she plans to make her inamorato lose control, and she just sounds silly on "Moist," which extols the female orgasm. Instead, the best moments on the album are when Jackson comes off as saucy and winsome instead of a heavy breather, like on the down-tempo "Thinkin' Bout My Ex," her collaboration with Babyface, which seems lifted right out of her autobiography, and on the athletic Prince clone "Just A Little While." The title track is Jackson's own version of J-Lo's "Jenny On the Block," and she sounds just as insincere as Lopez when she tried to convince us that she was just an ordinary neighborhood diva. Instead, Janet’s much more persuasive when she joins up with hip-hop savant Kanye West on "My Baby," pairing her breathy, little girl vocals to his sharp, focused rap. Then and only then does Damita Jo sound like love can actually trump sex. --Jaan Uhelszki