Miss Janet’s comeback has been a rather understated affair — the album is out in a week, after all — but each new song from Unbreakable proves that the music will speak for itself.
While the legendary icon is busy tearing up stages across the country on her Unbreakable World Tour, she was kind enough to bless fans with the first real uptempo offering from her new collection on this beautiful, Pope-tastic #NewMusicFriday: “BURNITUP!” with Missy Elliott.
“No Sleeep” might have served up some classic Janet bedroom sensations, but this time around, she’s returning to her other roots — as a dance floor commander.
“BURNITUP!” is exactly what one would hope to come from the woman who brought us countless sweat-inducing smashes over the past thirty years, from “Nasty” to “All Nite (Don’t Stop)” to “Feedback.” It’s an straightforward club joint, pure and simple, all about DJs and dancing and burning it up and such. And the production is, for lack of a better term, hot fiya.
“When the DJ play this, we gon’ dance like no ones watchin’! / Hey Mister DJ, bump the track and won’t you turn it up?”
The hot club bop is the stuff of signature Janet, yet it doesn’t sound like any one song she’s done before (those opening few seconds sound exactly like “Miss You Much” though — nostalgia!). Instead, she keeps her sound feeling fresh, supplying slick beats and a quick pulse as she glides from the floor into the DJ booth. “Brand new sound / Got a brand new style!” Missy Elliott declares.
Missy does her best Missy throughout, bringing the party to the production and making it extra hype, especially as she throws in those commands two-thirds of the way in. If her impassioned cries of “DIS DAT JAM THEN DO YO DANCE” and “MAKEITWORK, MAKEITWORK, MAKEITWORK” don’t make you want to drop it immediately, you’re doing it wrong. Also — kitty cat, meow, meow, meow, meow? Perfect.
There’s even a dramatic breakdown right before the finish line, as Janet burns it up one last time above a sort of holy-sounding, dramatic choir. Hey Pope Francis, you getting down to this shit too?
Nothing’s better than hearing a legend on top of her craft, still setting the room ablaze.
Unbreakable will be released on October 2. (iTunes)
