The Singles Jukebox

And now a lady who we’ve missed much…

[Video][Website]
[7.20]

Alfred Soto: Shrewd marketing to start a comeback with the Janet of “Making Love in the Rain” and “That’s The Way Love Goes” instead of immediately pissing us off with recherché beats attached to a putative fast one. That steady organ is as seductive as her croon. Welcome back.
[7]

Micha Cavaseno: The low-rider bounce of this creeper of a track seems so oddly throwback yet for all its ‘grown and sexy’ vibes it never feels too long in the tooth.
[7]

Josh Winters: Cozy and familiar like your favorite wool sweater, but sensual in essence like a jasmine vanilla candle. I imagine Janet taking breaks from watching the rain drip down her window to slowly vibe with herself in the dim lighting, an act that seems silly when spoken about yet nourishes the soul when performed.
[8]

Cédric Le Merrer: I learned to love slow jams thanks to Janet, Jimmy and Terry. “No Sleeep” is a solid example bolstered by that too rare feeling of things being exactly as they should.
[8]

Josh Love: When you’ve been away this long and are this much of an icon I’m more than willing to let slide a slice of such pure classicism. There are certainly timelier moves Janet could be making that would demonstrate real, admirable risk, but it’s hard to blame any legend for staying in their lane when changing with the times more often gets mocked than lauded for bravery (especially, it seems, if you’re a woman).
[6]

Thomas Inskeep: “Plush,” she says, and she’s right. I am so grateful that Janet, coming back with new music for the first time in six years, a) didn’t feel the need to team with a hot rapper like Wale or Meek Mill (nothing against them) or a fire producer like DJ Mustard, and perhaps more importantly b) did reunite with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, so the three of them can make magic again. This is pretty much exactly what Janet should be doing these days, making slinky, grown, sexy music. She rides a midtempo groove, sexy and summery simultaneously, and sings (and coos) sweet somethings: yes.
[7]

Ramzi Awn: Never has a song sounded more like Janet. Appropriately enough, the tune that plays immediately after “No Sleeep” on Spotify is “That’s the Way Love Goes,” couching the new single as the perfect return to form for Ms. Jackson, somewhere in between the tried-and-true classic and the underappreciated “Someday Is Tonight.” “No Sleeep” features Jackson at her most vulnerable, illuminating the sheer delicacy of her voice, and the indelible imprint of one of America’s greatest musical instruments. Repeat, please.
[9]

Will Adams: Warm and hushed, “No Sleeep” looks better in light of the unfortunate string of Janet singles preceding it. Her whispery tone, despite making sense here, comes off as an overused trick, so it’s nice when she begins to push in the song’s final minute.
[6]

Edward Okulicz: Any given ten seconds of this is kind of pretty, but a few songs aside (“Everytime” is an underrated example) her voice has never sold  intimacy to me; I’ve always loved her as a revolutionary with outsize set pieces like “Escapade,” “Love Will Never Do” or “Nasty.” It’s no doubt a failure on my part as a human being but I’ve always found Janet in slinky-chilled mode as a purveyor of the immaculate but dull. That especially went for “That’s The Way Love Goes” — back in the 1990s I remembered how much more airplay it got than “The Pleasure Principle” and took its boring reign over the music shows on TV near-personally. Now I listen to this song cut from the same cloth and literally cannot understand how it doesn’t put everyone to sleep, and want to give it a really low score in retaliation. But it gets some points because, hey, kind of pretty.
[5]

Rebecca A. Gowns: Imagine the smell of a garden after a rain: lush, verdant, earthy, mineral. The air feels humid, but clean. Open your eyes and it’s twilight, with purple light seeping into everything, as if you could see the aura of every branch. There’s a hush which is broken only by crickets, who slowly grow more bold; their vibrations create a rhythm. And then Janet comes in.
[9]