Janet Jackson’sRhythm Nation 1814
A RUNDOWN OF NOTABLE BOX SETS, COMPILATIONS,
AND REISSUES. BY SARAH RODMANP L AY B A C K
THE
IN 1986 JANET JACKSON
took Control. In 1989 she
formed her own damn
country. (And if we had all
decided to live there in
her shared vision —mission
statement: “It’s time
to give a damn, let’s work
together”—maybe the
state of the world today
would be a little better.)
As part of a series of re-
issues, the recent Rock &
Roll Hall of Fame induct-
ee’s acclaimed fourth
album, Rhythm Nation 1814,
is revisited in a new
two-LP set that restores
interstitial bits and uned-
ited versions to the Jimmy
Jam/Terry Lewis-produced
classic. Thirty years later,
several elements remain
striking. First, that Jack-
son was able to take an
album largely concerned
with dire social issues—
poverty, racism,
homelessness—to the
top of the charts
is remarkable, particu-
larly in the current “shut
up and sing” era in
which those issues perni-
ciously persist. Second,
Rhythm Nation is one
of those albums that in
retrospect plays like
a greatest-hits record
(such was its success,
launching seven top 5
hits). And the spectrum
of sounds is still a thrill,
with a song for every
mood on an album that
still hangs together.
From the giddily
romantic rubber-band
bounce of “Love Will
Never Do (Without You)”
to the lacquered power
chords of “Black Cat”
to the urgent lamenta-
tions of “Livin’ in a
World (They Didn’t Make)”
and the ultimate slice
of dance-floor ecstasy
“Miss You Much,” this is
still a Nation worth pledg-
ing allegiance to.