Rhythm Nation 1814

Aw, my friend Jane brought this CD (and only this CD) on a road trip one time, and I did not really like it (the CD, not the road trip), but she was driving, so we listened to it several times. I still don't really like it, but at least I have a good memory associated! The lyrics are kinda silly, but the message is a positive one (basically: prejudice = bad; education = good; also, dance!). I think the second half is stronger than the beginning.

Highlights: 'Love Will Never Do (Without You)', 'Escapade' (Chappell Roan inspo?)

Fond memories on this one. The videos, the dancing, the pop elements. I'm probably biased, but need to give it a 4 for the feels.

Rhythm Nation 1814 is genuinely a top 5 pop album in my eyes. I have heard a few of Janet Jackson's songs mainly at my local bowling alley but i don't believe i have listened to any of her albums in full or knew that she was part of the Jackson family. No matter when the songs are fun and dancey or sad and soulful, they are always really good. Every song just has an unbelievable amount going on and Janet Jackson's vocals being as great as they are helps a lot too. And there is not one bad song within all 20 tracks which i didn't even think would be possible. This is genuinely one of the greatest pop albums in my eyes, it's that good.
Best Song: Miss You Much
Worst Song: Alright

Why so many interludes?

It's.... not very good. If you look past the cheesy synth drums plaguing every song, you will find a legitimately well-produced album, a fair bit more intricate than anything else I've heard from this era. It's just unfortunate that it goes all-in on a sound that's aged like milk since then. The end result is a weirdly novel-yet-dated experience, though not one I really want to revisit. Sorry Janet!

Standouts: Miss You Much • Alright

This album has a ton of bangers with some really excellent beats. It’s also a little heavy-handed and a little preachy, and the love songs are formulaic — but 14-year-old me thought Rhythm Nation Janet Jackson was the most beautiful women in the entire world. It’s - 3 star album that gets a nostalgia bump.

Each song could really be about 45 seconds long. They stop developing after that point. The drum sound is obnoxious. The interludes should've been cut. She does have a great voice.

really enjoyed the first half of this album but the second half wasnt as good

I really wanted to like this more, but honestly, I found it pretty boring.
There are definitely some good songs here — “Miss You Much,” “Escapade,” and “Black Cat” are probably the highlights for me — but as an album, it felt so long. The production started to feel repetitive after a while, and I kept checking how many songs were left. Every time I thought I was getting close to the end, there was somehow still more.
I do appreciate what Janet was going for. The social and political themes are pretty ambitious for a mainstream pop album, and I can understand why this is considered such an important record. But for me, being ambitious and being enjoyable are two different things.
The weirdest part is that I never really felt like the album was building toward an ending. It just kept going and going until eventually it stopped. There are some great individual tracks, but I didn't particularly enjoy listening to the whole thing front to back.
Maybe this is one of those albums where I can appreciate the legacy more than the actual music. Not really for me.

Don’t think this needed to be as long as it was. Really like it at first, it does cheesy 80’s better than a lot of what the rest of the artists spent this decade trying. Some of the best New Jack Swing one could find. The runtime was a bit long though and I didn’t really get many memorable songs out of the album past the first few.

I'll tell you how dorky me and my wife are. If we're having a day out more often than not just before we leave the house one of us will say 'let's go on an escapade' and the other will exclaim 'Let's go!' just like Janet Jackson on this. It's more fun than it sounds?

I remember her singing Black Cat at some awards show. That was back when sexy didn't have to be back because it was just there on your TV.

There is credit due to Janet for attempting a fully realised pop rnb album when that was the domain of (largely male) rock crowd. Would we have Brat without Janet?

That said, it’s a little bland when compared to Raw Like Sushi or Boomania. Beats haven’t aged well.

I prefer the newer stuff

I’m going to make this review based on a blind listen of the album, as it was released in 1989. Not on the woman she is today, but who this album’s artist was.

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This was such a surprise for me. Before listening, I figured I’d like it since I already have loved Janet’s hits. I have always looooved the song “Rhythm Nation” and I remember buying her All For You album when I was a teen.

But THIS. ALBUM. IS. AN. EXPERIENCE!! When I saw the length, I was groaning and thinking it’d be too long. But I love the social justice messages, the fun beats, and, after watching her music videos, her incredible dancing just adds to the whole vibe. She got me to get up and dance when I was convinced nothing would lift my mood today. This is a wonderful album.

This style was indelibly imprinted on me by kids' movies of the 1990s as the soundtrack of dark and terrifying nightclubs in steamy abandoned factories turned rave skatepark where bad guys congregate. Maybe I'm just thinking specifically of the Foot Clan hangout in TMNT? Anyway...

Really fun confluence of post-disco soul, funk, and hip hop merging into a pure pop confection. All the synthetic wizardry that high budget 80s studio magic can conjure are dialed up to 11- delightfully dated. The beats are hyperkinetic and strikingly staccato. It's like the party parts of a Prince album. But like other albums in this tradition, is concerned with surfacing social issues and the ills of American life via pop in a way that never really works, The ballads drag it down, but there's only a couple. Because she doesn't have the full range of the other 80s pop RnB divas, her albums are much more about groove and melody rather than pure vocal virtuosity, and much the better for it.

Average album saddled with non-stop interludes.

Something doesn't sit right with me hearing someone with a net worth of $180,000,000 singing about people who "don't have enough to eat". And doing a choreographed dance along with it. Take away the family name and would this be notable enough to set it apart from the other pop records from the late eighties? Possibly not.

What on earth is this doing on the list? Also, that title makes absolutely no sense. It's kind of like an 80s pop version of "Hypocrisy is the Greatest Luxury", for those who are familiar with that from this list or elsewhere. It suffers from the same big flaw as that album: the lyrics are too on-the-nose and lack depth. However, this album is otherwise a pretty good 80s pop album. It's catchy if insanely dated and has a consistent rhythmic groove that works. The "80s sound" tends to work for me weirdly, as those gated snares just appeal to my lizard brain. There's no denying that Janet has a good voice and an ability to write hooks(if it was her writing the songs, running counter to the pop tradition of having five million songwriters to make the perfect hook). However, the album is slightly bloated. It has too many interludes to pad out a runtime that didn't necessarily need padding out. Yet for all its faults, it's still a good 80s pop album. Unfortunately, a good album does not mean essential listening, and this doesn't cut it for essential. So it doesn't deserve it's spot on the list.

This album is ranked #13 of 26 albums for 1989. Other 1989 albums rated by me:
Disintegration(1/26)-5
Doolittle(2/26)-5
Like a Prayer(6/26)-3
Done by the Forces of Nature(12/26)-4
Let Love Rule(14/26)-2
Fromohio(15/26)-2
Nick of Time(17/26)-2
Djam Leelii(19/26)-4
Moss Side Story(24/26)-2

Hmmm. I know a song or 2 by name. Not really my style. And an hour? Let’s click play and go. Yep, Rhythm Nation is very familiar and good. Oh, I like Miss You Much even better. Not sure an interlude is needed after every song. Ok. It is finished. I’ll admit, I was kinda dreading an hour of this album. But it seemed faster than that. It was well done for the time. The singles are still good. Truly a three and a half star but I just can’t round up to 4.

I remember getting this album from the library on cassette when i was younger.
It represents Janet’s strongest most cohesive collection and is just so damn catchy.

Rhythm Nation, Miss You Much, Escapade and Black Cat are all classic pop songs.

I enjoy the industrial feel that the production brings to these songs and its hard to hear the accentuated beats without picturing the military style dancing.
The tracks post Black cat are just superfluous filler
Overall it’s just a bit too long and this drags it down to just being a good middle of the pack album with some outstanding moments..