Call on Janet

I go away for just one week and what happens? A new Janet Jackson single gets released to radio... Tsk.

Entitled Call On Me, it's the first release from her new album, 20 Years Old, which is out in the "fall", as they call it in America (where the word Autumn is deemed to be too non-descriptive of deciduous trees. And too difficult to spell.)

Although I missed the first platy, I did manage to find the track on a French-language blog, Patapouf (can you do the fandango?).

First impressions: It's a grower, not a shower. The mood is summery and laid back, but the melody just doesn't seem particularly memorable. The song is clearly a Jermaine Dupri production, and he's dipped his brush into Mariah's sonic paintbucket (ooo-er, etc).

It also has Nelly on it. Nelly is really very bad indeed.

However, Janet's best singles have a habit of getting under your skin - and there's something about those silky harmonies on the chorus that have me coming back for more. I suspect I'll have a "revelation" about this song shortly.

In the meantime, Dupri has posted some pictures from the video shoot on Janet's official messageboards. Apparently, it's going to be the most expensive video of the last three years, which is one of the most meaningless statistics I've ever heard. Janet looks quite nice, though, as you can see at the top of the page.

This has all been rather exciting, hasn't it?

Get the MP3 on Patapouf et ses petits patatrucs (NB: This may have some weird gay imagery that's NSFW, but its French so I can't really be sure).

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