The press release said she was a mix of the Sneeker Pimps, Bjork and Tori Amos.
They lied.
It also said that JANESKA was the winner of the Pepsi Music Challenge of 2004. This kind of gives you an indication of a) what kind of music she's performing (hint: think of what the general Pepsi drinking public likes) and b) why Pepsi should only stick to making soft drinks.
The song that brought the press release to compare Janeska to Bjork is 'Moonlight.' This is to do with the futuristic keyboard sounds in the background, it seemed like this track could actually be rather good. Unfortunatly whilst Bjork tries to push new boundaries with her sounds and singing, Janeska just sticks with what the public would like and ends up with a rather bland and uninteresting song. The remix of this tune by Linus)turns it into a trance track that would be ace to dance to in the right situation, but which really doesn't fit in with the rest of the funky yet laid back feel of the rest of the album.
The Linus remix of 'On Your Knees' is the perfect track to be danced along to in a hot sweaty club playing house music at 1 in the morning. Fast paced and upbeat this is the best version of the track on the album. The other two samples leave a lot to be desired, moving too slowly and sounding a lot like the poor man's version of Gwen Stefani- which was probably why Janeska won the music awards in the first place.
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The rest of the tracks on the album are very similar to these two. Not in the way they sound, but in the way they are put together. They start off with a catchy keyboard introduction, then the electronic drumbeats then the singing. When listening to the album as a whole the tracks don't follow on from each other, and leave the listener feeling slightly disjointed and unhappy.
Individually the tracks on Janeska's debut are ok. Good even (although this is said with a grudging reluctance). Mixing together R and B, Garage, and Electronica influences, the songs are the kind that you could imagine being played on the radio. Catchy enough, inoffensive and slightly uninspiring, leaving you with the feeling that maybe you've heard the tune before. As an album though 'The Objective' is nothing special, and makes me wonder what the rest of the entrants to the Pepsi Music challenge were like for Janeska to have won.
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