Ever since it was announced that Janet Jackson would be releasing her tenth studio album, Discipline, the musical question at hand seemed to

be: “Will this be her comeback album?” After her last two CD’s, Damita Jo and 20 Y.O. failed to connect with listening audiences, on the grander scale of her salad day staples such as All For You, The Velvet Rope, Janet, Rhythm Nation, and of course, the one that thrust her into the pop diva stratosphere, Control, it seems that Miss Jackson is on the verge of a musical comeback.

I would say “Welcome back, Janet,” but for her gay fans, she really didn’t go anywhere – we stand by our divas through the, ahem, good times and the bad.

ith Discipline, I am happy to report that the woman who has rivaled Madonna and Whitney Houston in terms of chart success, and weathered the FCC furor and fallout of her Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction is back, and she is ready to dance.

The lead single, “Feedback” is by far the strongest track on the CD, proclaiming Jackson to be “flyer than a pelican” and “heavy like a first day period,” I am not sure about the latter lyrical proclamation, but rest assured, the former is very palpable on this CD.

Jackson seems to have put her sexuality that drove recent projects in the back seat, save for the tracks “The 1,” which features Missy Elliot and “Discipline.”

And her penchant these days seems to be of reclaiming a modern day Rhythm Nation, a role in which she enlists her minions to get up and shake it. And that’s easy to do with tracks like: “2Night,” “Rock With U” and “Luv.”

Discipline is also anchored by her trademark interludes and the slow jams, “Can’t B Good,” “Never Letchu Go,” “Greatest X,” and “Rollercoaster,” which lands somewhere between, as a danceable love song.

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