Control
| Janet Jackson
Control
Control is the third studio album by American recording artist Janet Jackson, released on February 4, 1986, by A&M Records. Her collaborations with the songwriters and record producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis resulted in an unconventional sound: a fusion of rhythm and blues, rap vocals, funk, disco and synthesized percussion that established Jackson, Jam and Lewis as the leading innovators of contemporary R&B. The album became Jackson's commercial breakthrough and enabled her to transition into the popular music market, with Control becoming one of the foremost albums of the 1980s and contemporary music. The album is also notable for being what originated the style and genre that came to be known as new jack swing.-Wikikpedia
Critic Reviews
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Splinter News
February 4, 2016. Control has nerve, power, and is designed to prove that Janet Jackson was the boss, and going to do exactly what she wanted. Janet needed Control, because for the first part of her career, she had absolutely none.
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AllMusic
Although Janet Jackson had released two records in the early '80s, they were quickly forgotten, and notably shaped by her father's considerable influence. Janet's landmark third album, 1986's Control, changed all that. On the opening title track, Jackson, with passion and grace, declares her independence, moving out of the gargantuan shadow of her brother Michael and on to the business of making her own classic pop album.
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The New York Times
August 8, 2016. “Control” is a work of confidence, cleverness and justifiable irritation. It’s also full of weird, amazing sounds that, 30 years later, it’s easy to take for granted as the way latter-day pop music has always been: polished in a factory to a gemlike gleam.
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Billboard
February 6, 2016. Before she could tackle the world’s problems and play utopian visionary on 1989’s Rhythm Nation 1814, Janet Jackson had to handle her own business. She did so with Control, the career-making declaration of independence she released 30 years ago, on Feb. 4, 1986.
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Slant Magazine
October 30, 2003. Control was every bit the hit machine that her brother’s Thriller was. Nearly every track on the album received some airplay, and the majority of them catapulted straight into the Top 10.
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Rolling Stone
April 24, 1986. Control is a better album than Diana Ross has made in five years and puts Janet in a position similar to the young Donna Summer’s — unwilling to accept novelty status and taking her own steps to rise above it.
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Talk About Pop Music
September 19, 2018. The early days of Janet’s career where clearly under the control of her father, Joe Jackson, but in 1985 she broke way moving to Minneapolis to record with Jam and Lewis (previously band mates with Prince). The result was the autobiographical “Control” and the rest is history. “Control” would go on to sell over ten million copies worldwide.
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PopMatters
June 16, 2016. A masterpiece of self worth-themed contextual pop proves our idiocy for downgrade shaming her to the status of "wardrobe malfunction".
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Festival Peak
February 4, 2016. The princess of American Pop royalty steps out from under the shadow of her famous family to find her true voice, forge her own identity and with the help of purveyors of the Minneapolis Sound Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis craft one of the most influential albums of the past 40 years…
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AXS
October 14, 2014. Control was a blockbuster for a reason; the album is strong from start to finish. The title track (No. 1 R&B, No. 5 Hot 100) affirmed Jackson’s new control over her life, “Nasty” (No. 1 R&B, No. 3 Hot 100) was both ferocious and intense, and “The Pleasure Principle” (No. 1 R&B, No. 14 Hot 100) was more toned down, but still a sonic groover.
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Albumism
February 2, 2016. Nominated for Album of the Year at the 1987 Grammy Awards (Jam & Lewis won for Best Producer), the many-times multi-platinum Control solidified Janet’s musical identity and set the stage for even greater commercial and critical success, . . . .
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Vibe
February 4, 2016. As much as it’s about the sonic ruling of Control, the visuals were the hammer. A beautiful and bouncy Janet was shaping the look of how R&B-tinted pop songs could be experienced visually.
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Wilson & Alroy's Record Reviews
This is one of those records that's been so widely copied, it's hard to remember what a breakthrough it was when it first came out: a pseudo-concept album built around an assertive (if helium-voiced) heroine with minimal, mostly keyboard-based backing tracks that owe about as much to hip-hop as to Prince ("What Have You Done For Me Lately," "Nasty").
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Los Angeles Times
February 4, 2016. Start to finish "Control" is a knockout. Even the cover -- Jackson's stark pose accentuated with colorful brushstrokes, her name atop an abstract exclamation mark -- is a declaration of attitude.
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Robert Christgau
Great beats here, their deepest ever. If her voice ever changes, she may even live up to them--and convince the world she's her own woman. Till then she's just playing, which does have its entertainment value.
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Soul In Stereo
Talk about a breakout record, it’s the album so good that it wiped its mediocre predecessors out of listeners’ minds. Control became a musical AND cultural statement, a declaration of womanhood that inspired a generation of girls to embrace their own destinies.
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AmaruDynasty
February 4, 2016. Control showcased that the youngest of the Jackson clan had all the makings of a star, unlike her other siblings whose names aren’t Michael.
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