Music Review: 'The Velvet Rope' (1997)

In fact, it's the emotional component of sex, rather than the act itself, that seems Jackson's real concern. That's one of the reasons it's a mistake to judge this album on the basis of its lyric sheet. However much ''Go Deep'' may read like a hymn to hedonism, what it sounds like is a song of pride in which Jackson and crew celebrate not sex but the confidence that allows them to act sexual when they feel the urge. Likewise, the gently throbbing house beat beneath ''Together Again'' keeps this tribute to a dead friend from sounding as lachrymose as it looks on the page.

Jam & Lewis deserve credit for a lot of that; it's their production that most clearly articulates the emotional core of Jackson's songs. It would be hard to imagine ''What About'' having the same impact without the drama implicit in the way their arrangement moves from the quiet-storm tenderness of the verse (''He kissed me he said/I wanna spend my life with you'') and the industrial-strength fury of the chorus (''What about the times you hit my face ... ''). But the album's most affecting moments tend to be its subtlest, as when the chords in the chorus to ''Every Time'' modulate into melancholy as Jackson observes that ''every time I fall in love/It seems to never last.''

In the end, the most daring thing about The Velvet Rope isn't its sex talk but its honesty. Tempting as it may be to compare the album to similarly sultry stuff like Madonna's Erotica, it's much closer in spirit to the unabashed emotionalism of Joni Mitchell's Blue. That's because the most revealing moments here have to do with loneliness and vulnerability, not sexual preference. Maybe that's why ''Got 'Til It's Gone'' takes so much strength from its sample of Mitchell's ''Big Yellow Taxi,'' and why the self-actualization anthem ''Special'' ends with Jackson describing herself as a ''work in progress.'' Personally, I can't wait to see how she comes out. A