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All for You

by Janet Jackson

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Unlike those other members of her family, Janet Jackson's albums are still worth waiting for. The best parts of All for You, her first disc since 1997's The Velvet Rope, continue to display the first-class pop-R&B talent who broke through decisively in the mid-'80s with "What Have You Done for Me Lately" and "Nasty." Jackson's longtime cohorts Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis are of course on board, and the production-writing trio demonstrates its mastery of everything from dirty funk ("You Ain't Right") to peppy, radio-perfect ("Come on Get Up" and 2000's No. 1 "Doesn't Really Matter") and hypnotically undulating sounds ("When We Oooo"). While much of All for You is irresistible, its handful of failures are poorly conceived and executed. Most glaring among these is "Son of a Gun (I Betcha Think This Song Is About You)," an unlistenable sequel to Rope's "Got 'Til It's Gone" that substitutes one self-regarding singer-songwriter diva (Carly Simon) for another (Joni Mitchell), thereby wrecking Simon's one golden moment, "You're So Vain." "Son of a Gun" and "Truth" apparently target estranged husband Rene Elizondo, but Jackson is hardly as convincing a revenge artist as she is a sex kitten. In fact, the likes of "Love Scene (Ooh Baby)" and "Would You Mind" out-spice even the carnally obsessed Velvet Rope and Janet. --Rickey Wright