661. Janet Jackson - Rhythm Nation 1814 (1989)

















Track Listing

1. Rhythm Nation
2. State Of The World
3. Knowledge
4. Miss You Much
5. Love Will Never Do (Without You)
6. Livin' In A World (They Didn't Make)
7. Alright Alright
8. Escapade
9. Black Cat
10. Lonely
11. Come Back To Me
12. Someday Is Tonight

Review

I am actually pleasantly surprised by this album, I wasn't really expecting much from Janet, but after some repeated listenings I would definitely put this in second place of the Jackson's catalogue, right after Off The Wall.

Janet starts off this pretty long album by getting the socio-political music out of the way in the first three tracks, and curiously these are also some of the best tracks in the album. The opener is pretty great.

Then the album meanders a bit, mixing some pretty good tracks and some more indifferent ones, but strangely it never gets dull or bad. So yeah, not a masterpiece of modern music but surprisingly not bad at all. So there.

Track Highlights

1. Rhythm Nation
2. Escapade
3. Alright
4. Miss You Much

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Departing from themes of independence present in Jackson's 1986 breakthrough album Control, Rhythm Nation 1814 is a concept album based on social injustice. Though A&M executives wanted an album similar to Control, Jackson insisted on addressing social issues. Jackson and her producers routinely watched television news reports—predominately from CNN—as a source of inspiration for the album's lyrics. Though Jackson understood she could not change social norms with a single album, she intended to create a socially conscious message strong enough for listeners to take notice of. Capitalizing off the rise of new jack swing, the album incorporates R&B, soul, funk and jazz, as well as use of sample loop and triple swing.

Rhythm Nation: