A press listening session for both Mariah Carey’s latest effort and Janet Jackson’s ‘comeback’ album ‘Discipline’ was held here in London recently. The preview below, via DiscoPop, reveals a number of things about each project, including the title of Mariah’s LP, ‘That Chick’. It’s a long, yet interesting read, which should give an indicator about what one can expect from both projects {Thanks L. Thompson}: In London, England, Def Jam boss Antonio “L.A.” Reid was showing off the two female jewels in their crown today with playbacks of the new Janet Jackson and Mariah Carey albums.
Label boss Reid seemed very excited about both of them, although that is his job, and mentioned plans for six singles from Mariah’s That Chick, which hits the stores in April.
Janet Jackson – Discipline
First up, though, was Janet’s Discipline. If you’ve heard the single, Feedback, you’ll have a pretty good idea of what to expect from the album. It’s crisp, danceable R&B lavished with Janet’s trademark velvet harmonies.The stand-out track was probably Tonight, a bubbling club track which can only be Jackson’s response to Rihanna’s Don’t Stop The Music. Reid mentioned that some of the tracks weren’t finished – and this one sounded like it was missing a sample somewhere in the mix. Once that’s added, this could be Janet’s biggest dance success since Together Again.
Love, Love, Love and This Can’t Be Good saw the lyrical return of the sweet singer who first raised her head on Let’s Wait Awhile – all coy and bashful while falling head over heels in love.
But the sleazy siren of 20 YO is also present. Title track Discipline is a gruesome plea for fetishistic S&M sex – with Janet referring to her lover as “Daddy” while asking to be tied up and disciplined. Given that her father is a well-documented control freak who used to beat his kids, this is more than a little uncomfortable.
Speaking of family connections, there’s long been a rumour that Janet and Michael will team up again (as they did on 1996’s Scream) this year. Well, nothing I heard today confirms that rumour – but there is a track called Rock With You that appears to sample the single of the same name from Off The Wall. Could the finished version feature guest vocals by the former King of Pop? I genuinely hope not.
The remaining two tracks, Rollercoaster and Greatest Ex Ever, didn’t really set my world alight – but you never know what’ll happen on repeated listens.
The main thing seems to be that Janet is back on form, vocally and lyrically. The record is very safe and commercial, although I’m not sure where they’ll go for the third single (Tonight surely has to be the second). But as a first step towards career rehabilitation Def Jam has made a strong play for their newest diva.
Mariah Carey – That Chick
Their old diva (in terms of contract, not age, of course) is Mariah, who is riding high after the 7xPlatinum-selling Emancipation Of Mimi.We got to hear 10 tracks from the follow-up, That Chick, which I have to say sounded more polished and commercial than Janet’s effort.
One track in particular is set to make big bucks, and that’s Bye Bye – a torch song for people “who lost they grandmothers”. I guarantee that Simon Cowell will be sick of hearing badly-realised auditions of it by the end of the year.
Lyrics were never Carey’s strong point, mind you, so her paean to loss is summed up with not-very-insightful Hallmark platitudes like “I’d give the world to see your face” and “Life goes on”. Profound, eh?
Still, at least it’s better than when she desperately attempts to prove how bang up to date she is. In Touch My Body, she purrs to her lover: “If there’s a camera up in here then I best not catch this flick on youtube (youtube)”. Not exactly the sexiest boudoir come-on you’ve ever heard, is it?
But there are plenty of good tunes to counter the awesomely bad lyrics. Migrate, about a night out with Mariah while she wears jeans (“yeah, they fit”, she informs us) is sure to be a candidate for heavy MTV rotation, although I hope to God they excise T-Pain’s hopelessly strained vocals. Lovin’ You Long Time, meanwhile, is a strutting uptempo number very much in the style of It’s Like That.
So, what have we learnt from this listening “event”? Well, I wasn’t overwhelmed by the music – despite (or perhaps because of) the fact it was played so ear-splittingly loud that it felt like I was being punched repeatedly in the ears by a cyberman. Both artists have turned in a tuneful, competent set of R&B songs, but I’m not sure that any of them have the charisma or vitality to compete with the Rihannas and Beyonces of this world.
Both albums: 6/10 (scores may go up or down after further listens at levels tolerable to the human ear).
After reading this preview and seeing that ‘she cannot-be-serious’ album title, I’m real anxious to see what Mariah’s album will serve up. Although I’m not looking for her to simply re-create ‘The Emancipation’, that album should stand as an indicator of what people want from her. This kinda has me thinking the album will largely be a collection of ‘Shake It Off’/’Get Your Number’ type tracks – which, IMO, were not the strongest on the last album. Only time will tell, I guess.
I must say that Janet’s album is looking more appealing to me at the moment. The project just seems a lot more focussed sounding. Saying this, considering Janet, herself, confirmed the album to be mainly ‘uptempo’, the previewer sure did note quite a few syruppy ballads (not neccessarily a bad thing). Again, I’ll reserve (as is logical) full judgement until I’ve heard the album(s) for myself.
My thoughts? That reviewer must’ve been out of their mind to compare Janet and Mariah to Rihanna (Beyonce’s talent is arguable, but Rihanna’s is virtually nonexistent). What has anyone heard from Rihanna since Umbrella? She sucks live. Her CD has sold even less in the U.S. than Janet’s Damita Jo CD which is seen as this major dissappointment. Legends like Janet and Mimi compared to Rihanna? That one gets a Negro Please award.
Lol at rls I agree, as much as I luv Rihanna she has no business being compared to Mariah.Anyway here is another article that I saw on Mariah Daily. By the sound of things Mariah’s album is gonna be Hot. While Janet’s aint gettin the best response. Check it.
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.
Exclusive Review: Mariah’s “That Chick” Is Out Of Control!
Last night in a central London hotel theatre, Def Jam head L.A Reid invited a very exclusive VIP audience to hear the new albums from both his 2 top divas Janet Jackson and Mariah Carey. With stringent rules laid down at the top of the evening about not leaving the room for a bathroom visit, handing over all gadgets and returning song word sheets we knew it was about to go down.
Beginning with Janet’s new material which sees Janet reworking her old sounds from the days of Velvet Rope and Control,” Janet’s material was quite sexually overt and a little gross (“real heavy like my first period”!) but it was really Mariah’s new material that blew everyone away.
Mariah’s new album, tentatively titled That Chick, saw collaborations with T Pain, Young Jeezy and Damien Marley with production by her long time friend and producer Jermaine Dupri, Will I Am, Rodney Jerkins and The Dream.
The new music with catchier hooks and melodies than ever, even sees Mariah taking on an exciting new musical adventure where she sings in Jamaican patois on her Damien Marley duet “Cruise Control” where she references “dramas” and “baby mamas” and like your favorite rap star Mariah throws down new Mariahism (“you love yourself some me!”) soon as the album gets into the public domain.
Urban music lovers in the house were really excited about that track as well as hip-hop banger “Heat” produced by Will I Am, “For Real,For Real”, and “Migrate” where 2007’s hit man T Pain hooks up with Mariah but it was the title track “That Chick” with its double entendres which includes a tip of the hat to Michael Jackson with references to his “Of The Wall Classics” that had pop chart taste makers excited claiming it was the number 1 track on the album closely followed by likely international pop hit “Love You Long Time”.
In typical Mariah fashion there were the legendary ballads “Love Story” and tear jerker “Bye Bye” (an ode to people who have passed away) that will have reality pop contestants singing away for decades to come!
One track titled “O.O.C” summed up the night and the return of Mariah – once the albums out it’s gonna be “Out Of Control!”.
To recap, here are the confirmed tracks from the new, tentatively-titled Mariah Carey album, That Chick:
• “Touch My Body”
• “Migrate” ft. T-Pain
• “Heat”
• “For Real, For Real”
• “That Chick”
• “Cruise Control” ft. Damien Marley
• “O.O.C”
• “Bye Bye”
• “Love Story”
THANX TO MARIAH DAILY
Mariah working with Damien Marley? Who could have seen that. To me, this album is leaning very much off the straight hip-hop tip and she’s venturing out. I, for one, and very excited. Plus she’s supposed to be exploring women’s empowerment themes, as well.
wow these reviews have me wetting my pants here with anticipation!!! The Mariah cd is going to be off the hook and now I can’t wait until April 1. Looking forward to Janet’s too but I know Mariah is not playing this time around. Now if I could just get my hands on a copy of “Migrate”…
@RLS,
Rihanna has more hits after UMBRELLA, shut up and drive went to number 15 on hot 100, hate that i love u went to number 7 on hot 100, dont stop the music is now number 13 on hot 100. so rihanna has three top 20 songs from GOOD GIRL GONE BAD which has past one million three hundred and fifty thousand copies in the USA and near 4 million in the world.
MARIAH AND JANET HAVE BEEN LONGER THAN RIHANNA AND BEYONCE, but they werent comparin their talent,etc they were makin reference to the success beyonce and rihanna have had in 2007.
STOP ACTIN LIKE if JANET is SUPERTALENTED WHEN SHE IS NOT. BEYONCE SINGS WAY BETTER THAN JANET.