It feels like the back half of the Eighties is a time where pop artists were trying to show that they were capable of deeper work than radio-friendly tracks about boy-meets-girl. Jackson joins their ranks (including her brother) with a semi-concept album that features songs about social justice issues as much as the usual romance tracks.
Thus we get Livin’ In A World (They Didn’t Make) about children having to grow up in a world screwed up by adults –
“Living in a world that's filled with hate
Living in a world where grown-ups break the rules
Living in a world they didn't make
Paying for a lot of adult mistakes”
which abruptly cuts away from the new jack swing beat with the sound of gunfire and a news report about a school shooting, suddenly elevating it from a reasonable bop to something a lot darker.
This is an album that’s best enjoyed on headphones because the stereo effects are on another level. Not just the random back and forth or one track in each ear like the dawn of stereo, more a sound that encircles the head and creates a tangible soundscape. The music is largely of the new jack swing variety, that mix of funk, hip-hop and pop elements that we saw with Neneh Cherry. There’s also a bit of “quiet storm” soul, especially the final track Somebody Is Tonight, a soulful love song. For my money the album ought to have ended on the barnstorming bit of hard rock that is Black Cat, musically such a stylistic change (that still works) that the return to pop with Lonely feels very jarring and a bit of a let-down. Throughout, the album is interspersed with “interludes” which are a mix of song fragments and spoken word that create a thematic coherency to the album.
It's similar in some ways to Raw Like Sushi, but while Cherry’s album is a manifesto for a strong independent modern young woman, Jackson’s is a more mature affair, addressing not only a somewhat jaded-but-still-hopeful outlook on relationships, but polemic social commentary. And while there were (and still are) some who decry social commentary in pop music, I’ve always felt that this comes from a position of discomfort at the truths being spoken. Being black, female, and a pop-star, Jackson has the trifecta of attributes that some feel can be dismissed, but none of them should mean that her opinion is worth less than that of anybody else.
Socio-political comment aside, is the music any good? Bits of it are excellent. Others, to me, were just a little bit unremarkable pop but, dare I say it, I think it’s a better album than those put out by brother Michael. Heresy!
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