club. Damita Jo" has the goods to do exactly that." USA Today rated the album three out of four stars, saying Jackson "isn't sweating it musically" despite negative publicity. The critique said Jackson "freely pursues her sexual and love fantasies", noting "If she ever seemed tentative in her erotic explorations in the past, she's completely self-assured here. [...] This is a happy, loving Jackson, as prone to romantic walks on the beach as to roadside quickies." Its premise of split personae was considered "a bit complicated", but clarified "that's who Damita Jo is". Jackson's new collaborators were said to induce a "freshening" effect while maintaining familiarity. Rating it four out of five stars, Blender critic Ann Powers stated the album is "Artfully structured, unapologetically explicit, Damita Jo is erotica at its friendliest and most well-balanced. This hour-plus of Tantric flow even erases the memory of Jackson's clunky Super Bowl breast-baring." Powers added "Her lyrics, though hardly avoiding familiar sex talk, meld common exhibitionism with convincing intimacies. [...] Jackson brings bliss back to a subject that too many dirty-mouthed hotties have made tedious through overexposure." The album was also considered a "soul-baring, bedroom-eyed record" which was "swimming in pop hooks". Alexis Petridis of The Guardian rated Damita Jo four out of five stars, saying "Damita Jo's opening salvo is an object lesson in keeping things concise. Four tracks, each barely three minutes long, go hurtling past in a head-spinning blur of snapping rhythms, buzzing synthesized noise and oddly disconnected samples: cut-up vocals and glockenspiel on Strawberry Bounce, rattling tablas on Sexhibition. Elsewhere, there are impossibly lithe basslines - notably on All Nite (Don't Stop) and I Want You, an intriguing electronic reconstruction of an early 1970s soul ballad." Petridis heralded the record as "not only inventive, but brilliantly constructed", with nagging hooks and "explosive" choruses. Calling pop a "singles genre", Power's said "Damita Jo strike rate is remarkably high. It's triumphant stuff." Warner Bros. Publications declared the album "flirty, sensual, hot pop" in "traditional Janet style", adding "The slow grooves blend together and the seductive vocals express passion." Robert Christgau of The Village Voice said "Damita Jo starts off bold - But as the album proceeds it gets realer, mostly whispered softcore by the second half even when it's love songs per se. Call me immature, but I figure there's never enough good sex in the world. In a culture inundated