Just a Little While
"Just a Little While" is a song by American singer-songwriter Janet Jackson, from her eighth studio album, Damita Jo. Written by Jackson and Dallas Austin and produced by the latter, the track is a reflection of Jackson's new-found happiness during the album's recording. It was released to radio stations as the lead single from Damita Jo in the United States on February 2, 2004, by Virgin Records, following a leak ahead of its scheduled release which caused Jackson's record company to rush with a music video and promotion. "Just a Little While" is a pop rock, dance, and new wave song which lyrically showcases Jackson's "signature fashion" of writing sexual lyrics which are "innocent on the surface", expressing the singer's desire to have sexual intercourse with a lover.
"Just a Little While" received mixed reviews from music critics; some of them were enthusiastic towards the track and compared its composition to works by Prince. However, others thought it was not good enough and questioned its position as the album's closing song. In the United States, the song's commercial performance was affected by Jackson's Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy; despite being the most added and played song on radio following its release, Jackson's works were blacklisted on many radio formats and music channels, ultimately peaking at number 45 on the Billboard Hot 100. Internationally, it was more successful, reaching the top 10 in Canada and Spain and the top 20 in Australia and the United Kingdom.
Due to the song's leak, its music video was rush-filmed, being directed by Dave Meyers, and was released exclusively in international territories, not being serviced to music channels in the United States. It portrays Jackson filming a DVD for her boyfriend in a futuristic apartment setting, displaying the singer in multiple outfits. The singer embarked on a promotional tour to promote "Just a Little While" and Damita Jo, performing the song on several television shows including Top of the Pops, Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, and Hey! Hey! Hey! Music Champ. A performance of the track, filmed during Jackson's promotional tour in Europe, was later included on the From Janet to Damita Jo: The Videos compilation in place of the original music video.
Background and release
Recording sessions for Damita Jo began in August 2002, with Jackson initially collaborating with longtime partners Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and concluded in February 2004 after 18 months, the longest Jackson had spent recording an album. She initially considered pursuing other career plans, but then decided to record another album. For only the second time in her career since Control, Damita Jo saw the singer working with other music producers, including Dallas Austin. The pair worked together on the album in Atlanta from late 2003 until 2004, when they decided which songs would make the final cut. Austin considered Jackson one of the easiest artists to work with, as she was "open to anything you put in front of them". The theme for their collaborations was the singer's own sexuality, as she "always shows what's going on with her life through her records", revealing the phase Jackson is in with her own life. He added that at the time of the sessions, Jackson was in a "really good space right now. She's in love. So we tapped into her happiness". Austin described Damita Jo as "easily the most sexy thing she's done", as well as "one of the best records she's made".Although Jam was hopeful that the lead single from Damita Jo would be released before the end of 2003, no single was formally announced until a song titled "Just a Little While" leaked online ahead of schedule in January 2004, causing several radio stations in the United States to play it illegally. The leak prompted Virgin Records to formally deliver the song to radio outlets, announcing its release for the day after Jackson's Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show performance in Houston, on February 2, 2004. Regarding the leak, Jackson commented that the track "was always supposed to be the first single but we weren't prepared to release it". In contrast, Virgin's executive Lionel Ridenour stated that it "was never intended to be the single. It got leaked, and afterward we couldn't pull pop off of it". "Just a Little While" was released as a CD single in Australia on March 15, 2004, while in the United Kingdom, it was released on April 12, 2004, as two CD singles and a 12-inch vinyl single. In addition to the original, an international version known as the "UK Radio Edit" uses an alternate instrumental, replacing guitars with synthesizers, drums, and electronic beats. A newly recorded urban remix with an alternate instrumental, vocals, and revised lyrics was produced by Just Blaze and titled "Love Me"; it was later included on a promotional Japanese 12-inch vinyl release.
Recording and composition
"Just a Little While" was recorded at DARP Studios in Atlanta, during sessions conducted by Austin between late 2003 and early 2004. Written by Jackson and Austin, it was produced by the latter, who also played the guitar and keyboards on the track. Tony Reyes was also in charge of playing the guitar, while providing background vocals along with Jackson. It was engineered by Rick Sheppard, who also provided the MIDI and the sound design for the song, while Doug Harms and Cesar Guevara were the assistant engineers. "Just a Little While" was mixed by Kevin "KD" Davis at Charlice Recording in Los Angeles and mastered by Brian "Big Bass" Gardner at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Hollywood, along with all tracks present on Damita Jo.Musically, "Just a Little While" is a pop rock, dance, and new wave song which "combines frenetic breaks, elements of '80s new wave guitars, and keyboards". Some journalists compared the song to the work of Prince, with Pitchforks Rich Juzwiak highlighting its keyboards which resemble those of his song "Dirty Mind". For his part, Jaume Gill, a writer from Yahoo! Music, felt that the keyboards were similar to those of Jackson's own single "Love Will Never Do ". As noted by Shannon Miller from The A.V. Club, the track's "light rock set a warm, celebratory tone for a woman newly in love", in contrast to her previous albums that were centered on "heartbreak and percolating rage". IGN's Spence D. speculated whether it was the singer's attempt at alternapop, as she was "unleashing an upbeat, rock infused number", while Ian Wade of BBC Music said the track "echoes the quintessential Janet" of her song "Whoops Now". Jackson described "Just a Little While" musically as a "a very poppy song with a lot of guitar. It's a happy, up, fun song".
Lyrically, "Just a Little While" showcases Jackson's "signature fashion" of crafting lyrics which appeared "innocent on the surface yet naughty upon closer inspection" as noted by Billboards Keith Caulfield, noting that it was "about sex, plain and simple". In it, the singer frets about burning her lover out and asserts that her unyielding sex drive will not be a distraction to him, singing, "Maybe I'll just lay around/Play by myself". In a review for the single written by Juzwiak for The Village Voice, he stated that the lyrics were about Jackson just wanting a "zipless fuck", as "like a moth to a flame is Janet's hand to her strawberry ". He also noted that the singer is "so eager to please that even if the quickie she solicits in the chorus doesn't go down, she'll 'touch it on favorite fruit' anyway", alluding to masturbation. As described by the staff The Scotsman, the song "buries its dirty intentions under a catchy melody".
Critical reception
"Just a Little While" received mixed reviews from music critics. Keith Caulfield from Billboard predicted it to be "another immediate radio hit", commending the "festive, guitar-based" track, and stating that "Janet Jackson knows how to make a great single". Jaume Gill of Yahoo! Music described the song as "a treat", as well as Jackson's "best single in five years", and highlighted its "fun, loose production that smells a little like the eighties". The Washington Posts David Segal praised it as a "very catchy first single", while Ann Powers of Blender wrote that "Dallas Austin gives her a snappy single with the guitar-driven 'Just a Little While.'" Neil Strauss of Rolling Stone considered the track "push-button rock & roll", while Rich Juzwiak, writing for The Village Voice declared that it was "her virgin/whore-iest moment yet", as well as Jackson's "most self-sufficient" single. Stephen Thomas Erlewine, senior editor from AllMusic, considered "Just a Little While" a "good dance tune", whereas The New York Timess Kalefa Sanneh qualified it as "a playful new-wave song". Spence D. of IGN called it the album's "most bizarre flip", noting the "raking guitar chords that propel the song along". Tom Moon from The Philadelphia Inquirer felt that the song contained "that primal quality that gets people moving before they can even process the message."Peter Piatkowski from PopMatters described "Just a Little While" as a "fantastic mid-tempo rocker" which "deserved to be a huge hit". The Scotsmans staff said it "trumped" other songs on Damita Jo, adding that it was "likely to hang around the charts and our heads for a while". Similarly, Eric R. Danton of the Hartford Courant felt that its discernible melody, as well its "catchy vocal hook" and "a prominent, up-tempo guitar riff" helped the track "stand out from the dross". The Globe and Mails Robert Everett-Green saw it as "the best thing on the disc", as it "makes you realize just how soporific all the preceding come-ons have been. Maybe somebody finally realized that you could have too much sex after all". In a similar vein, the Ottawa Sun wrote that "Just a Little While" was "the album's most interesting, and energetic moment". For Billboards Michael Paoletta, it "sounds like nothing else" on the album, speculating whether Jackson "may want to use this as a starting point for her next album". David Browne from Entertainment Weekly highlighted the song's "skittish, pared-down guitar opening" as "fresh and surprising", evoking a vibe "sexier than her Matrix Super Bowl Revolutions outfit"; however, he saw the single as "another lighter-than-air trifle in a career filled with too many of them".
For Yahoo! Music's Angus Batey, the track was "so out of place amid the prevailing slew of slushy sex-obsessed detritus it has to be tacked on at the end, after the outro", despite calling it "brilliant". Similarly, Azeem Ahmad from MusicOMH also thought "Just a Little While" seemed "a little bit out of place. Not that the song isn’t good, it just doesn’t fit with previous tracks", and felt it was not "a bad way to close an album". Lisa Verrico of The Times called it "average" and questioned the "odd" placement in the album's tracklist, criticizing its choice as the lead single, as "Jackson's nipple caused such a fuss, it was thought too risqué to release a sex song", saying the decision "missed the point". In a more negative view, Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine called it "a rare misfire for the usually reliable Dallas Austin". It was described as a "serious backfire" by Idolators Anthony Miccio, who thought that Austin was trying to put Jackson's "breathy voice over a guitar riff Pink probably rejected" and wrote that while "Black Cat" showed that she could rock, "Just a Little While" proved that the singer could not "rock sweetly". For Rashod D. Ollison of The Baltimore Sun, it was a "corny rock track", while The Observers journalist Kitty Empire said the single was "so-so". Ernest Hardy of LA Weekly opined that it was "anything other than album filler".