Deep breaths, everyone: JoJo‘s just jumped ship…err, train.
Yesterday, our favorite Beantown bad-ass beauty confirmed to Billboard that she’s decided to scrap her upcoming third studio album, Jumping Trains, and begin anew with an entirely new record. Uh. What?
From Billboard:
JoJo’s third studio release, which was announced in 2007, was originally slated to be titled “All I Want Is Everything” before morphing into “Jumping Trains” in 2011. She released her single “Disaster” later that year and has since scrapped the album and headed back to the studio to begin re-recording.
The singer-actress tells Billboard why she’s decided to move in a new direction. “It didn’t feel right anymore,” she says. “I’ve been working on it for a long time. I’m 21 now and it didn’t feel like me.”
Oh, that’s fine. Really! Nothing’s wrong. No more album. No, I’m fine! Why am I crying? STOP ASKING QUESTIONS.
Okay, look: It’s been over five years since JoJo first started recording new material for her as-of-yet unreleased third studio album. Her music’s evolved significantly. It was pretty clear from the first sexy strums of “Demonstrate” alone that Jo’s since moved on from the pop-rock angst of “Leave (Get Out),” “Too Little, Too Late,” and even her latest single, “Disaster.”
As evidenced with her all-around brilliant 2010 mixtape Can’t Take That Away From Me, Jo’s itching to explore some bolder musical territory–something a little more representative of a 21-year-old JoJo. (A little “all you people look at me like I’m a little girl…” if you will.)
From Billboard:
JoJo says her new album will be a feel-good experience — “something that is musical but still on the cutting edge yet still has an element of nostalgia. It makes me feel the way that hip-hop and R&B in the 90’s kind of makes me feel.” She’s striving for it to be “crazy, sexy, and cool” while representing a different type of young woman.
So, it’s good and bad news: The bad is that it’s back to square one in the studio. The good? While the wait’s been kind of cray (okay, understatement–six years is a really long time), JoJo’s working on an album that represents herself as an artist now–and right now, it sounds like we’re getting some TLC-esque throwback R&B realness.
You see: The thing about being a grown and sexy songstress is that, sometimes, you have to make grown decisions about your career. You can’t take that away from JoJo.