Janet, is that all there is?

"All For You," Janet; Virgin, 2 stars.

Janet Jackson, sex-bomb?

From "All For You`s" revealing album cover photo, on which the single-named vocal star is covered (barely) by a towel and nothing else, to the breathy, ooh-and-ahh coos and moans that punctuate many of the songs, Jackson plays up her sensuality as a newly liberated single woman.

The trouble is, beyond striking one provocative, come-hither pose after another (vocally and visually), she doesn`t have a whole lot to say. And where other artists have used their failed marriages to produce personally wrenching, artistically revealing works - think Marvin Gaye`s "Here, My Dear," Roseanne Cash`s "Interiors" or Bob Dylan`s "Blood on the Tracks" - Jackson`s soul-searching seems to stop at her lingerie drawer and/or the nearest singles bar.

Only two cuts, "Truth" and the "Son of a Gun (I Betcha Think This Song Is About You)," seem directly inspired by her recent breakup with her second husband, choreographer Rene Elizondo, who recently filed a $10 million divorce suit against Jackson. The two became a couple in 1987, secretly wed in 1990, then split up two years ago. Not coincidentally, those two songs resonate in ways most of the others don`t, as genuine vehicles for expressing the pain, anger and emotional volatility that comes in the aftermath of failed romance.

"Truth" owes a musical debt to both Smokey Robinson & The Miracles` 1965 hit "Ooh Baby Baby" and the Five Stairsteps` 1970 gem "O-o-h Child," while "Son of a Gun" borrows both its bass line and kiss-off-to-a-cad chorus from Carly Simon`s 1972 hit, "You`re So Vain." Simon, who makes a memorable cameo here, recorded her parts at a different time than Jackson. But their interplay works well, even if Simon raps better than Jackson sings.

The album also harkens back to 1972 with "Someone to Call My Lover," which is based on - of all things - America`s sappy "Ventura Highway." It`s an alarming aesthetic descent from Jackson`s 1997 hit, "Got `Til It`s Gone," which skillfully sampled Joni Mitchell`s "Big Yellow Taxi." At this rate, her next album will resurrect tunes by Melanie and the DeFranco Family.

Jackson gets a slick sound from her longtime production and songwriting partners, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, as well as from such new collaborators as Rockwilder, best known for his work with rappers Jay-Z, Method Man and Redman.

The album`s opening song, the hard-hitting, Prince-inspired "You Ain`t Right," boasts an edgy musical intensity not duplicated on the rest of the album. "All For You`s" title track, which has topped the national pop charts for the past month, is a bouncy ode to lust that finds Jackson suggestively singing about an unnamed guy`s "package" and predicting a night of carnal pleasure.

She explored similarly explicit subject matter on her previous release, 1997`s "The Velvet Rope." But that album was balanced by other songs that revealed the insecurities that even a photogenic superstar like Jackson can have.

Not so, "All For You." The album is bogged down by too many interchangeable talk-dirty ballads (or what Jackson has disingenuously dubbed "baby making" songs) about foreplay, sex and more sex - none more libidinous or overdone than "Would You Mind."

If Jackson had some unique or even mildly interesting insights on sexuality, these panting, pseudo-orgasmic songs might be more than failed attempts at seduction. As is, "All For You`s" shortcomings are best summed up by the title of Peggy Lee`s classic 1969 hit, "Is That All There Is," which said more about empty lust and dead-end romance in a few minutes than Jackson does on an entire album.

(c) Copley News Service

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Author: George Varga