Janet Jackson’s Unbreakable is due October 2—can it arrive fast enough?—and the inveterate musician, dancer, choreographer, actor, style leader, and cultural icon has just dropped the title track. It’s about love! You will swoon!
“Unbreakable,” from her first album since 2008 and a commemoration of the 30th anniversary of Control, has Jackson dipping up and over a funk-amplified hip-hop sample, weaving through her vocal range, including that conversational alto, an easy midrange, and that oh-so-Jackson high end, a not-quite falsetto that spreads out with impeccable harmonies. There’s something very 2005 about the instrumentation—the sample, the rhythm—but it makes complete sense here, and doesn’t sound dated so much as an evergreen throwback. But maybe that’s just a benefit of being one of the most iconic American pop stars of the past four decades? Perhaps.