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Janet Jackson - Empty


PartySick
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PartySick

Throwback to one of my favorite Janet tracks. Probably my favorite, actually :heart:

It's a song about finding love online, written way back in '97 yet more relevant and relatable than ever before due to how online most of our lives are now.

How could it be that you knew me
My deepest fears, my fantasies
Confide in you what no one knows
But it feels so real

-

I'm rushin' home to turn you on
Sometimes you're there, sometimes you're gone
Wait for hours for your return
So tell me please, am I wasting my time?

Your phrases, descriptive
And through the textured words
With beauty, you post it
And use such colored verbs

-

So tell me, you think that maybe we've gone insane
To find a, a lover and through the words of pain
We've never met, ooh

I can see your face
(When I lick my lips)
I can taste your smile
(When I see your name)
My heart starts to race
(If I can't read your thoughts)
Then I feel empty

It just hits so deep :fatcat: 

We're so open and honest with others online, banking on an anonymity that can't last if something real is to be found and built. We tell virtual strangers things even our closest friends don't know. We find ourselves with feelings for someone that's "just" a name on a screen, curated words, and a voice through a speaker. And when our phones are off and we're left with these feelings and nobody to sit with it feels so damn empty.

Janet's vocal take on this track sounds so vulnerable, like someone discovering a new world, and I guess that's what they were doing in the mid to late 90s as the internet really took off.

And that production? My god. First, let's talk about how this song tows the line from drum-and-bass to RnB to a proto-vaporwave. But it also tells a story that tracks with many people's experiences with online romances. It begins simple, calming, happy, and pretty. By the end, it's built this kind of tension. The sticks tapping away like frantic typing, every now and then the main synths take the front again just to fall back behind the shouting/chanting and heavy kicks.

It's very much like finding romance with someone a thousand miles away and spending your time after the "honeymoon period" trying to recapture the feeling you had when it all made sense. The deeper you go, the more real it feels, the more you have to combat your emptiness.

Name a more iconic team than Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, and Janet f*cking Jackson. I will wait. You can't :bradley:  

Thank you for coming to my TedTalk. I think I may do a full write up for The Velvet Rope album some day for the two of you still reading this. It really is an incredibly special album :holdmyhand:

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PartySick
17 minutes ago, River said:

this album is still so ahead of it's time :giveup:

Easily my most streamed full album since my Janet era began this year

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