Here is a very positive review from The Times which gave Damita Jo a four out of five star rating! The newspaper edition also prints a previously unseen photo of Janet performing on her UK promo tour.
JANET JACKSON is The Most Looked Up Lady On The Internet. The question is not how did it happen to the sweetest-sounding member of the Jackson clan think of Super Bowl, Justin, wardrobe malfunction but how come it took so long?
It has been more than a decade since Jackson first tried to outrage Middle America. In 1993 she posed for the cover of her fifth album naked from the waist up, jeans unzipped and with a blokes hands on her breasts. But when the CD hit the shops, the shot had been cropped at the shoulders.
What the censors couldnt hide, however, was Jacksons obsession with sex. The album was packed with tracks about her bedroom exploits and even spawned a hit, If, that was an ode to oral sex.
Ever since, Jackson has been doing the dirty in public, although few people noticed and none ever seemed to take offence. Her last album, All for You, in 2001, may have been musically patchy, but there were lots of steamy lyrics and, on Son of a Gun, the standout collaboration with Carly Simon, even hardcore swear words. By then, Jackson was stripping off as often as possible, but at worst, she was seen as a little bit bad. Naughty perhaps, but still nice.
So you can hardly blame her for flashing an impressively decorated nipple. How else was she supposed to make people listen? And if you still cant understand why she did it, Damita Jo might explain. Jacksons eighth album (the title, apparently, is her middle names) is a 22-track masterpiece that, if you dont pay enough attention, you might dismiss as frothy dance-pop. On first listen, admittedly, theres little that gets up and grabs you. Its all perfectly pleasant, slickly produced and toe-tappingly catchy, but theres no new musical ground broken and no songs that sound like a No 1 single.
Two plays later, however, and Damita Jo reveals itself to be something rather special. Suddenly, rather than sounding like a take on Jazzy Jeffs Summertime, the opening title track turns out to be a clever, classy, hip-shaking song with a groove thats hard to get out of your head. Singles are popping up everywhere: the gorgeous, guitar-backed Island Life, with its mid-song strings break, the Evelyn Champagne King sampling, peak-era Prince-style R&B Junkie, and My Baby, featuring the hot new hip-hop star Kayne West.
Her vocals have taken an adventurous turn rather than just sounding sweet, she trips out lines in time to a beat, half-raps, hits high notes like her brother Michael and gasps as though shes singing while, well, having sex.
And while were on the subject (again) theres hardly a song here that Jackson keeps her clothes on for. On Strawberry Bounce, shes teasing a man on his knees, Warmth is an explicit description of the act of arousal and on Moist, well, enough said.
Ironically, these are Jacksons least personal lyrics for years. In the past her albums have had some sort of relationship story. On Damita Jo, she seems to be having random action all over the place on a beach in Island Life, or on a weekend at home in Spending Time with You. Good God, the girl cant even go clubbing without getting X-rated over the vibrations of the bass the superb Herbie Hancock-sampling All Night (Dont Stop).
On its own, of course, singing about sex isnt enough to make a great album. It didnt work on All for You. This time though, Jacksons longtime collaborators, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and those old R&B hands Dallas Austin and Babyface, have all stepped up to the challenge.
Their style may sound a little dated theres no nicking from the Neptunes here. Rather than the sparse beats most R&B stars demand these days, Jackson has encouraged them to throw layers of keyboards, bass, handclaps, brass, strings and backing vocals or raps into the mix. So it doesnt sound like typical 21st-century R&B, but then theres enough of that around already.
Now heres the odd part. Tacked on to the end of the album is an average, uptempo pop song called Just a Little While. And its the first single. Why? Probably because Jacksons nipple caused such a fuss, it was thought too risqué to release a sex song. Talk about missing the point.
Entertainment Tonight was on the set of Janet’s album cover shoot for ’20 Years Old’ and asked her about the weight she put on towards the end of last year. Explaining it was for a film role, Janet said, “I put on the pounds for a film I was to do with Lee Daniels, the producer of ‘Monster’s Ball,’ which a lot of people didn’t know. They wanted a full-figured woman. She’s from the South, a waitress.”
Janet goes on to say that as the start of filming was then pushed back, she had to cancel her role in the movie in order to work on the new album. She reckons that Mariah Carey will now take the role.
Janet’s new album is set to hit stores around the globe on Monday September 25th. Titled “20 Years Old” as a homage to the 20 years since Janet released “Control”, executive producer Jermaine Dupri said, 
The first single to be released from Janet’s upcoming album will feature St. Louis rapper Nelly it has been reported. ‘Call On Me’ taken from the album ’20 Years Old’ is a mid-tempo song that samples S.O.S. Band‘s “Tell Me If You Still Care”, originally produced in the early 1980s by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.