Janet Jackson readies new album for mid-2006

[Dean Winchester]

New Janet Set Nearly Complete

Producing/songwriting team Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis are finishing up production on Janet Jackson's eight studio album. Without revealing too much, Jimmy Jam promises that the as-yet-untitled Virgin set will boast a small tribute to Jackson's 1986 effort, "Control" (A&M).

"It's a milestone year for us and for the collaboration," Jam tells Billboard.com. "It'll be 20 years since the release of 'Control,' so there's definitely a little bit of a nod to that on the new album."

As previously reported, some of the album was recorded at Jackson boyfriend Jermaine Dupri's studio. Dupri, who is president of Virgin Urban, is also executive producer of the album.

"Hopefully in January we'll be done with her project," says Jam. "We're trying to have a single around February and the album around April or May. It's up to the record company, but we'll definitely have it done by then. We're real close."

The new offering will be the follow-up to 2004's "Damita Jo," which was released amidst the aftermath of Jackson's controversial Super Bowl halftime show. The set debuted at No. 2 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 979,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

I hope this is a decent album. IMO, if you combined the best half of All For You and the best half of Damita Jo onto one package, it would've been one of Janet's best albums ever, but both albums (especially All For You, as the songs were logger) were bogged down by bad filler tracks.