Thursday 17 January 2008

Mariah and Janet: the return

Def Jam/ Island CEO Antonio "LA" Reid jetted into London yesterday afternoon to present new releases from Ms Janet Jackson and Ms Mariah Carey. Two of the world's most iconic have been busy squirreling in the studio and return with Jackson's Discipline and Carey's That Chick.

Reid identified both artists as having a whole lot of "swagger" - before dropping a little dig to EMI. "That's a music company. Well, it used to be," he grinned before showcasing a bit more bitchiness. Or truth, depending on your POV! "We realised that it would take some work with Janet after her last two EMI album weren't successful. Just like the last Mariah EMI album..."

Once that was done, it was on with the music. Reserving full opinion until we've had the chance to sit down properly with both records, we can however say that we think MC won out. Janet seemed fairly ok - a couple of good club tracks - but otherwise somewhat generic uptempo and slow R&B numbers that sounded like they could have been off-cuts from All For You or Janet. And there was no need for Discipline. To put it bluntly, JJ apologises to her "daddy" for "touching herself" even though he "commanded" her not to. "But I can smell you on my sheets/ Daddy I disobeyed you, now come punish me... I've been bad, make me cry..." and so on and so on. Yuck.

Luckily, Mariah kept it a whole lot cleaner (but not squeaky, that would be dry). The first few tracks were big, but MC really hit hard with absolute banger Migrate featuring T-Pain. Oh my daze. "We sippin' Grigio slow," murmurs Mariah over some serious dirty south bounce. Not too sure about her dropping a bit of patois on the Damian Marley assisted Cruise Control ("Me say no man... tink I'm jokin"), but we'll forgive her such strangeness considering the tune packs heat.

Vocally and sonically, this is yet another outstanding release from the world's biggest selling superstar. Watch out for a full review once the records are in for review. Janet is out February 25 and Mariah drops April 1st.

(RWD magazine)



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