Damita Jo
| Janet Jackson
Damita Jo
Damita Jo is the eighth studio album by American recording artist Janet Jackson. It was released on March 30, 2004, by Virgin Records. The album takes its title from Jackson's middle name. Its music incorporates rock, electro, house, and hip hop styles, in addition to dance-pop and R&B. Its concept is based on Jackson's alternate personalities; exploring themes involving intimacy, monogamy, love, and dance. Its production is derived from producers including Dallas Austin, Cathy Dennis, Scott Storch, BAG & Arnthor, Arnthor Birgisson, Rich Harrison, T l popmusik, Just Blaze, and Kanye West; in addition to Jackson and Jam & Lewis.-Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Rolling Stone
May 24, 2004. . . . Damita Joe alternates between Jackson trying to play fantasy object and Everygirl, neither of which she really seems to be. Further evidence of the personality crisis comes from the production, which mixes the loyal architects of her sound — Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis — with the producer of the moment, Kanye West. The net result is that Jackson just sounds self-conscious.
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The Guardian
March 25, 3004. The obligatory boring ballads aside, the results are astonishing. Damita Jo's opening salvo is an object lesson in keeping things concise. In fact, the only drawback is the album's lyrical monomania.
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Pitchfork
March 31, 2019. Damita Jo is not just rare for being a piece of mainstream erotica authored by a black woman—it’s also mainstream erotica that isn’t mired in darkness or shame.
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Slant Magazine
March 23, 2004. . . . while Damita doesn’t come anywhere near the troubling, oftentimes disturbing eroticism and unbridled gloom of The Velvet Rope, it certainly makes All For You sound like the second-rate rip-off that it is, and with all the controversy surrounding the singer of late, Damita feels more like an event—a good thing considering Janet is an artist whose image is bigger than her voice, and whose evolution can be charted by the amount of clothing on each album cover.
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theqhblend
March 30, 2014. Damita Jo was a rarity of creativity found in the veteran stride of an artist who could have coasted, but did not.
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IGN
March 30, 2004. Ms. J's eighth album is more miss than hit. Damita Jones could have benefited from better organization and some serious trimming.
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Entertainment
April 9, 2004. Thematically, ”Damita Jo” is essentially the same record she’s been making since 1993’s ”janet.,” her first overtly carnal work. Whatever the reason, ”Damita Jo” suffers from substance malfunction.
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AllMusic
Ironically, for an album with so much sex on its mind, it's not a good make-out record because its grooves are cold and Janet's ceaseless dirty talk spoils whatever mood the music had struggled to create. Once, Ms. Jackson's sexual obsession was indeed sexy and erotic, but by this point, it's not just tired, it's embarrassing.
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Vinyl Culture
February 16, 2018. Damita Jo is not Jackson’s best work, but there are some incredible gems within this album.
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BBC Music
March 30, 2004. Damita Jo heralds no real major leap forward, but it's no pig's ear either. A bit of editing and a couple of killer dance tracks would've made it even better. And although millions will remember what Janet Jackson did in 2004, it won't be for this album.
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musicOMH
March 29, 2004. Damita Jo doesn’t boast many stand out tracks, and it isn’t an album that can be listened to. On the whole it’s a very passive collection of songs.
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Albumism
March 28, 2019. All of Damita Jo’s song scripts are couched in equally fine music which pumps at a firmly funkier pace than what was expressed on her preceding album, All for You (2001).
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Plugged In
Bouncy rhythms, playful vocals and slick production values will draw countless teens into her tacky web of nymphomania.
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That Grape Juice
Ten years later we still express regret and disappointment for the mistreatment of this gem of an album. Still bobbing our heads to the likes of ‘Strawberry Bounce’, we can’t help but wonder how well this album would’ve performed had the blacklist not been so extensive.
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People
April 5, 2004. . . . there is a fresh, more R & B-centric sound to Damita Jo thanks to Jackson’s collaboration with other producers in addition to her longtime team Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis.
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Soul In Stereo
September 11, 2015. Janet obviously has her share of memorable albums but I decided to shout out her overlooked ’04 effort. The reviews were mixed at the time but I really enjoyed this mature, mellow Janet.
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Common Sense Media
With some judicious editing, this could have been a terrific album, but the mish-mosh of musical styles (funk, rock, soul/R&B, even a bit of country-western), no doubt intended to impress us with the artist's versatility, ends up coming across as unfocused. Janet Jackson is way sexier when she's not trying quite so hard.
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Wilson & Alroy's Record Reviews
The album's split fifty/fifty between horny dance anthems and horny slow jams, with the entries in each category virtually interchangeable: "Sexhibition," "Warmth," "Moist," ad nauseam.
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mxdwn.com
May 3, 2004. While the album is successfully Janet, this also means that the songs are repetitive and club-like. This married with the placid mood of Damita make it an excellent background album, but not necessarily one to remember.
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FYE
Without strong rhythmic or melodic hooks, the album's slow grooves blend together and Jackson disappears into the productions, . . . . The end result is a low-key make-out record firmly in the tradition of The Velvet Rope, with a couple of standout tracks -- on the slower side, . . . .
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An American in London
June 16, 2016. The album has been forgotten by now, a footnote in a long and illustrious career. It’s a shame because it’s the perfect example of a solid pop product which has been buried, unfairly, under a pile of unwarranted controversy.
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Uncut
October 1, 2004. Her career may survive, then, though no thanks to this year’s scrappy LP Damita Jo. This gathers all the videos from the last four, the best of which is “That’s The Way Love Goes”, where she maximises her feline moves, timid voice, and gorgeous loping grooves. But she’s definitely in decline.
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d1esel6
January 21, 2015. And even though she promoted the hell out of it, the album still flopped and started to overall downturn in her career. It’s unfortunate because “Damita Jo” is really, honestly, a really good album.
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Hip Online
March 29, 2004. Frankly: Janet Jackson showed her nipple because her new album is so bad there’s no other way we’d buy it. Jackson sings there’s “nothing worse than a man out of touch,” except of course a woman out of touch. Janet are you listening?
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Nicholas Jennings
June 8, 2010. Wacko’s sister’s in a tailspin. . . . .But the massive media boost from Nipplegate cannot save Janet’s sagging career. . . . At press time, Jackson was rumored to be writing a song about her breast-revealing incident, but even that topicality will not prevent this album from going (ahem) tits up.
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Zimbio
Damita Jo was a little too raunchy for many longtime Jackson fans, however.
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JanetLove
Jackson's eighth album (the title, apparently, is her middle names) is a 22-track masterpiece that, if you don't pay enough attention, you might dismiss as frothy dance-pop.
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Robert Christgau
Damita Jo starts off bold--beats from Dallas Austin and input from West again put the saucy assertiveness of "Sexhibition" and "Strawberry Bounce" across. But as the album proceeds it gets realer, mostly whispered softcore by the second half even when it's love songs per se.
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The Los Amgeles Times
March 28, 2004. . . . although Jackson's lack of vocal presence leaves a void at the heart of "Damita Jo," she's enough of a personality to create a few serviceable personas, from haughty stripper to a wide-eyed kid who loves long walks on the beach.
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VOA News
October 29, 2009. Lyrically, the album's main theme is the ups and downs of relationships, along with explorations of her sexuality. There are elements of Janet's sound from the 1980s, along with pop, old-school funk, rock, jazz and even a bit of country.
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SFGate
March 28, 2004. It's smart, funky, bright, lollipop delicious, cutting- edge R&B delivered by master-class producers like Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and Babyface.
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