A Newly Single Ms. Jackson!
All For You (2001)
Some instrumentals in the background as Janet and her dancer Kelly talk. It's pretty funny since Jimmy was recording them without their knowledge as both girls talk about dance routines and Janet does a hilarious Fran Dresher impression! Oh and Janet's "I wish I had a lot of stuff in me now!" I. can't!
2. "You Ain't Right"
Seriously, this track still blows me away simply because of its futuristic production and amazing arrangements. Its a song that could some out now and fit in with the music coming out today! Which is awesome! Apparently, this song is directed toward Renee and I wouldn't be surprised. Even though I can barely understand what Janet is saying, its fascinating to listen to just for the incredible beat and how other sounds are incorporated into it.
(B+)
Seriously, this track still blows me away simply because of its futuristic production and amazing arrangements. Its a song that could some out now and fit in with the music coming out today! Which is awesome! Apparently, this song is directed toward Renee and I wouldn't be surprised. Even though I can barely understand what Janet is saying, its fascinating to listen to just for the incredible beat and how other sounds are incorporated into it.
(B+)
3. "All For You"
Honestly, was there a better pop hit than "All For You" when it came out? I beg to differ. This is an excellent dance-pop song that still to this day is damn near a classic. Sampling "The Glow of Love" performed by Change, Janet once again makes this song her own and the lyrics about a guy too intimidated to ask Janet out are beyond fun. Janet's vocals are in top form and it's not surprising that this became a #1 hit and her biggest single after "That's The Way Love Goes".
(A+)
Honestly, was there a better pop hit than "All For You" when it came out? I beg to differ. This is an excellent dance-pop song that still to this day is damn near a classic. Sampling "The Glow of Love" performed by Change, Janet once again makes this song her own and the lyrics about a guy too intimidated to ask Janet out are beyond fun. Janet's vocals are in top form and it's not surprising that this became a #1 hit and her biggest single after "That's The Way Love Goes".
(A+)
4. 2wayforyou (Interlude)
Janet is apparently fighting with herself. I don't know. It's weird...next track!
Janet is apparently fighting with herself. I don't know. It's weird...next track!
5. "Come On Get Up"
Another dance-pop track and another standout from the album. I just love everything about it from the epic African drums to the infectious beat to Janet continuing to sing her more upbeat heart out. It's so incredibly fun and could have easily been a single. The perfect song for going to the club with your friends and God knows I would have been on that dance floor as soon as this song came on!
(B+)
Another dance-pop track and another standout from the album. I just love everything about it from the epic African drums to the infectious beat to Janet continuing to sing her more upbeat heart out. It's so incredibly fun and could have easily been a single. The perfect song for going to the club with your friends and God knows I would have been on that dance floor as soon as this song came on!
(B+)
6. "When We Oooo"
We're already slowing things down on the album? Ok, why not? When a song like "When We Oooo" comes on, you can't help but take notice. This is Janet showing her sensual side and it's over a wonderful beat as well as beautiful harmonies. It's just so smooth and soothing, I could listen to it endlessly. Love this track!
(A-)
We're already slowing things down on the album? Ok, why not? When a song like "When We Oooo" comes on, you can't help but take notice. This is Janet showing her sensual side and it's over a wonderful beat as well as beautiful harmonies. It's just so smooth and soothing, I could listen to it endlessly. Love this track!
(A-)
7. "China Love"
Yes!! This is another favorite of mine from the album. From the Chinese oriental music over the heavy beat to Janet's sultry vocals, it's a winner for me. It's sensual without going too far and is just a great song from start to finish. I especially love the breakdown and stunning harmonies toward the end. I always imagined what the video of this song would be like with Janet following her lover throughout China during a snowstorm with ancient Chinese robes/outfits displayed during the dance break. It probably would have been awesome video as usual for Janet.
(A)
Yes!! This is another favorite of mine from the album. From the Chinese oriental music over the heavy beat to Janet's sultry vocals, it's a winner for me. It's sensual without going too far and is just a great song from start to finish. I especially love the breakdown and stunning harmonies toward the end. I always imagined what the video of this song would be like with Janet following her lover throughout China during a snowstorm with ancient Chinese robes/outfits displayed during the dance break. It probably would have been awesome video as usual for Janet.
(A)
8. "Love Scene (Ooh Baby)"
And here is where the album starts to lose me. We have 2 very good love songs followed by...this. Sure, "Love Scene" is pretty harmless, but it's mind cripplingly bland! An almost boring love song. Also, is it just me or is the part when Janet says "When you're f#$%king me" kind of a mood killer? She went from sensual to graphic so fast it's like "Janet, we get it. You're horny! You can stop now!" O_o I never really liked the song ever since I bought the album back in '01 and it hasn't aged well with time.
(C-)
And here is where the album starts to lose me. We have 2 very good love songs followed by...this. Sure, "Love Scene" is pretty harmless, but it's mind cripplingly bland! An almost boring love song. Also, is it just me or is the part when Janet says "When you're f#$%king me" kind of a mood killer? She went from sensual to graphic so fast it's like "Janet, we get it. You're horny! You can stop now!" O_o I never really liked the song ever since I bought the album back in '01 and it hasn't aged well with time.
(C-)
9. "Would You Mind"
"Would You Mind"...my god, Janet done lost her mind! O_O She went from teasing her sexuality to making love songs to singing sex songs about bondage to this outright pornographic monstrosity! I'm sorry, I love Janet...deeply! But this is so wrong and gratuitous, that it's laughable. I loved her performance of the song during her "All For You" tour because it was a great performance but the song itself is almost like a parody of a Janet Jackson sex song. The moaning is plentiful, going on for FAR too long. The overuse of the word "cum" ("Make you cum too." "Cum inside of me!") Girl. NO!! God, the lyrics in general...well... It's like Janet took every synonym for the word "sex", quickly put a song together and recorded it with excessively heavy breathing. I just can't take this song seriously anymore. As a kid, I loved it for obvious reasons (because I shouldn't have been listening to it and I felt cool) but this song is anything but. Shoot, Madonna would even find this song distasteful. The song ends with my favorite moment on the album though: "The song ended...what the f#$%? I didn't even get to cum! Did you?" No Janet, I didn't...I really did. not!
(D+)
(D+)
10. Lame (Interlude)
Yeah, Janet, men are lame! Next!
Yeah, Janet, men are lame! Next!
11. "Trust A Try"
Now this is what I'm talking about! THIS is the Janet I love. Going back to her rock roots, "Trust A Try" is an awesome track that once again would have made a better single choice than say "Son of a Gun". A song about the issues of trust, I love how the song opens up with Janet singing quickly over frantic violin playing before that epic rock beat kicks in! It features a phenomenal guitar solo, strong rock vocals from Ms. Jackson and becomes a relentless anthem. This is what the album needed to resuscitate it after being drowned with love songs and mediocre sex ballads!! Janet reminds us she is a versatile artist with great range and should not be toyed with when she's at her best!
(A+)
Now this is what I'm talking about! THIS is the Janet I love. Going back to her rock roots, "Trust A Try" is an awesome track that once again would have made a better single choice than say "Son of a Gun". A song about the issues of trust, I love how the song opens up with Janet singing quickly over frantic violin playing before that epic rock beat kicks in! It features a phenomenal guitar solo, strong rock vocals from Ms. Jackson and becomes a relentless anthem. This is what the album needed to resuscitate it after being drowned with love songs and mediocre sex ballads!! Janet reminds us she is a versatile artist with great range and should not be toyed with when she's at her best!
(A+)
12. Clouds (Interlude)
Janet and Carly Simon talk about clouds in their coffee. Seriously...huh!? [confused]
Janet and Carly Simon talk about clouds in their coffee. Seriously...huh!? [confused]
13. "Son of a Gun (I Betcha Think This Song Is About You)" (Featuring Carly Simon)
Well, I may not agree with it being a single but I can't argue that it's catchy as hell. It has a great beat and Carly Simon's unusually masculine voice actually adds something extra to the track that I'm sure the sample of "You're So Vain" alone wouldn't have sufficed. Whether you believe Janet can be a convincing revenge artist is up to you. It's obvious her divorce from Rene left her bitter and angry as any ex would be so why not talk sh!t about him over a cool beat? Overall, I like it....I just wish I didn't have to review the next track because...boy....
(B+)
Well, I may not agree with it being a single but I can't argue that it's catchy as hell. It has a great beat and Carly Simon's unusually masculine voice actually adds something extra to the track that I'm sure the sample of "You're So Vain" alone wouldn't have sufficed. Whether you believe Janet can be a convincing revenge artist is up to you. It's obvious her divorce from Rene left her bitter and angry as any ex would be so why not talk sh!t about him over a cool beat? Overall, I like it....I just wish I didn't have to review the next track because...boy....
(B+)
Sigh.
14. "Truth" -_-
I am not lying, since 2001 I have been trying to like this song! For 16 years, I have pushed through the opening verse until the 2:00 minute mark. I know the lyrics just fine up until that point, but...I can't. I. can. not. listen to this whole song! "Truth" is awful. It is, for me, Janet's worse song up to this point in her career. It takes pretentious self-loathing to the extreme and I can't stand it! I don't care if this song is directed toward Renee. It sucks and goes on for far too long. I took a nap once during the first verse and woke up to discover the song was still going. My God! Why, tell me! WHY!? This song is what the skip button was made for! Save yourselves Janet fans! Save yourselves!!!
(F)
I am not lying, since 2001 I have been trying to like this song! For 16 years, I have pushed through the opening verse until the 2:00 minute mark. I know the lyrics just fine up until that point, but...I can't. I. can. not. listen to this whole song! "Truth" is awful. It is, for me, Janet's worse song up to this point in her career. It takes pretentious self-loathing to the extreme and I can't stand it! I don't care if this song is directed toward Renee. It sucks and goes on for far too long. I took a nap once during the first verse and woke up to discover the song was still going. My God! Why, tell me! WHY!? This song is what the skip button was made for! Save yourselves Janet fans! Save yourselves!!!
(F)
15. Theory (Interlude)
......still better than "Truth"!
......still better than "Truth"!
16. "Someone To Call My Lover"
Thank you! A song that recaptures the fun filled joy at the beginning of the album. This is a wonderful song and the perfect single for the summer of 2001 when it was released. It has a great production value, an awesome sample of America's "Ventura Highway" and Janet sounds heavenly. The lyrics are just fun, talking about Janet desperately searching for the right guy to be with. It's hopeful, adventurous and such a great pop song! It was a pretty big hit, one of Janet's last big hits unfortunately. But it was worth all the attention!
(A+)
Thank you! A song that recaptures the fun filled joy at the beginning of the album. This is a wonderful song and the perfect single for the summer of 2001 when it was released. It has a great production value, an awesome sample of America's "Ventura Highway" and Janet sounds heavenly. The lyrics are just fun, talking about Janet desperately searching for the right guy to be with. It's hopeful, adventurous and such a great pop song! It was a pretty big hit, one of Janet's last big hits unfortunately. But it was worth all the attention!
(A+)
17. "Feels So Right"
This is a nice pop track that has some genuine sweetness with a bit of naive innocence to it. Janet...innocent? Yeah, right! But still, she pulls it off surprisingly and I like the beat followed by the "That I gotta believe" part. It's about the insecurities of love and whether or not to go further in pursuing that special someone. Overall, it's such a pretty song and while it isn't a standout, it's NOT "Truth"! So this gets boosted up a couple grades for that alone!
(B)
This is a nice pop track that has some genuine sweetness with a bit of naive innocence to it. Janet...innocent? Yeah, right! But still, she pulls it off surprisingly and I like the beat followed by the "That I gotta believe" part. It's about the insecurities of love and whether or not to go further in pursuing that special someone. Overall, it's such a pretty song and while it isn't a standout, it's NOT "Truth"! So this gets boosted up a couple grades for that alone!
(B)
18. "Doesn't Really Matter"
Thank you Janet for putting your #1 hit from the Nutty Professor 2 soundtrack on here! The song is a great pop/R&B song with touching lyrics about being in love with someone for who they are, not what they look like. It's a great message to send out to the public, especially over an awesome beat. It's also nice to see she put the 2000 VMA performance version on the album as I always love when that remix kicks in! Fitting the tone of the album completely (even though that tone has been seriously blurred by this point), its a major standout fro the album!
(A+)
Thank you Janet for putting your #1 hit from the Nutty Professor 2 soundtrack on here! The song is a great pop/R&B song with touching lyrics about being in love with someone for who they are, not what they look like. It's a great message to send out to the public, especially over an awesome beat. It's also nice to see she put the 2000 VMA performance version on the album as I always love when that remix kicks in! Fitting the tone of the album completely (even though that tone has been seriously blurred by this point), its a major standout fro the album!
(A+)
19. "Better Days"
Janet concludes the album with this uplifting song about embracing positivity and looking forward to better days in the future. It's a surprisingly good song that I kinda wish came earlier in the album instead of right at the end. Couldn't we have ended with "Truth"? But then again, ending the album with failure wouldn't have been the best move. Sorry, no more "Truth" bashing....for now. [blah] Overall, I really like the song, whether I'm singing along or just listening to the music. The ending is also kind of beautiful, if not over dramatic.
(B)
Janet concludes the album with this uplifting song about embracing positivity and looking forward to better days in the future. It's a surprisingly good song that I kinda wish came earlier in the album instead of right at the end. Couldn't we have ended with "Truth"? But then again, ending the album with failure wouldn't have been the best move. Sorry, no more "Truth" bashing....for now. [blah] Overall, I really like the song, whether I'm singing along or just listening to the music. The ending is also kind of beautiful, if not over dramatic.
(B)
20. "Outro"
Well Janet I'm gonna tell you what I think but I do hope everyone did like at least most of the album.
Well Janet I'm gonna tell you what I think but I do hope everyone did like at least most of the album.
Boy does reviewing this one take me back! Back in 2001, when Janet was honored as MTV's Icon, I instantly became a fan! There was just something about the pop diva's work that stuck with me and I was immediately hooked on her music. I studied her dance moves like my life depended on it and memorized her lyrics like I had a test on them the next day. "All For You" wasn't just my first Janet album, it was my first album ever. I loved it! Listened to it everyday and talked about the dirty lyrics with some classmates who were also fans at the time. 14 years later, I still love parts of the album and happily anticipate songs like "All For You", "Come On Get Up", "Someone To Call My Lover", "Doesn't Really Matter" and especially "Trust A Try"! But as a whole, "All For You" isn't a great album. Don't get me wrong, it's a good album with some great songs like "janet." but "janet." had MUCH more of a freshness to it and superior music by far. The album has 3 HUGE flaws: 1) The interludes are once again a waste time and distract, making the album not cohesive at all. Why does Janet include them if she doesn't have anything important or entertaining to say? Why bother? They just annoy, making you proudly hit that skip button! 2) From "You Ain't Right" to "China Love", this was an awesome pop album and a perfect foil for the teen pop acts at the time like Christina, Britney, N'Sync, the Backstreet Boys, etc. But once we get to "Love Scene", all hell breaks loose! The album recovers here and there with some fine work from Janet...only to once again give you the musical equivalent of a lobotomy with "Truth"! I'm sorry, but that song is so incredibly dull that I would have paid to not have it included on the album. Eeeewww!! "Love Scene" leaves me cold and "Would You Mind" is where I draw the line with how much details I know about Janet's sex life! 3) The album would have been improved immensely simply by rearranging the tracks better. While I love "When We Oooo" and "China Love", it's weird that after some great pop-dance tracks, Janet and her team decided to give us 4 consecutive ballads in the middle of the album. It really throws the album off and makes it feel seriously disjointed. It's especially weird considering how Janet always had the dance/pop tracks first, followed by some mid-tempo tracks, then ending the album with ballads on her previous albums. So why she, Jimmy or Terry or whomever decided to pace the album this way was a BIG mistake. It's sad while some people hated the drastic shift in tone between "The Velvet Rope" and this album, I actually enjoyed the upbeat, happy and confident music. While Janet says, at the time, the theme of the album was the highs and lows of love (.....ummm, wasn't that the "janet." album theme??) The true theme of the album is without a doubt freedom post-divorce and the joys of being single again! I'm sticking to that because Janet knows the real concept behind the album, trying to play us! She certainly had a message to send out to ex Renee Elizondo, with multiple songs channeling her anger and sadness toward him. A shame she couldn't channel those emotions to create a better album...ok, I'm sorry. "All For You" isn't a bad album by any means, when it's good, it's Janet at her best, but when it's bad, it's some of her worst! But you know what, I still like it and have a soft spot for it being the first album I ever purchased! Despite its glaring flaws, it still feels like a Janet Jackson album. There is a noticeably dip in quality sure, but I'd gladly take it over what came after!
"Going back to the pop sound that made her a superstar, "All For You" is a gleeful album with some radio-friendly dance tracks and sensual ballads, but the sex songs will leave you more turned off than on and some tracks could have been seriously left out. But this is an admirable effort in Janet's discography."
(B)
(B)
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