Welcome to the New York Times Popcast, your whispering walls of musical judiciousness.

I'm your host Ben Ratliff. You're listening to No Sleep, which was a forget to be, to get the love we need.

You're listening to No Sleep, which was the first single from Janet Jackson's long

awaited. Unbreakable. New record Unbreakable. First album in seven years.

John Perilis has just reviewed it for the New York Times,

and he has literally just finished his copy

and ran all the way here.

Indeed.

So what do you think?

Was it worth the weight as they say?

Well, I'm a little let down actually.

Okay, why?

Just because it's kind of a safe album. It's not, she did so many great things in the 80s and 90s.

She was so far ahead of the curve. And this one is, it's the kind of album you make when you're growing up and you're trying to figure out how to age gracefully.

To me, it's a hard thing to do.

Is that explicitly the theme of the record or is that just the theme that you're applying to it, you know,

a little above actually she's got a song on it called Well-traveled.

She's got a song on it called Lessons Learned and She's got a lot of advice songs on it, the kind of

big sister advice, be yourself, find your way, don't listen to the critics, that kind of thing.

More than she has the kind of raunchy, erotic experimental songs

that she had all the way up to discipline. Right.

Let's talk a little bit about the achievement of Janet Jackson.

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