Eight albums into her career and comfortably settled into married life -- and, for the most part, herself -- Mary J. Blige continues to prove her versatility and strength, building off 2005's The Breakthrough, but not copying from it. Her increased self-confidence, some of which comes from confessing her all-too-human flaws, makes Growing Pains a mature, polished, and utterly professional set of well-crafted songs. Blige, as always, is in great vocal form: her clear, distinctive voice carries the record with its dips and swoops and cries, but the embellishments never get in the way of melody, never replace the meaning of words with excessive vibrato or melisma. Musically, in fact, the album takes an even greater step toward pop (foreshadowed, no doubt, by the cover of U2's "One" on her previous release), with songs like "Fade Away," which borrows heavily from '80s pop, and "Talk to Me," which is informed by classic soul and uses an Emotions sample underneath the guitars and keyboards, helping to set the overall tone. Blige certainly hasn't lost her title of Queen of Hip-Hop Soul -- the opening, iTunes-sanctioned track, "Work That," is all swagger and affirmation with a great urban beat, the Neptunes-produced "Till the Morning" is funky and warm, and "Stay Down" takes a look back at mid-'90s R&B with rambling lyrical lines, including a fantastic reference to The Jeffersons, but she's opened herself up to more styles here, and successfully. She has been able to do what few others before her have: cater to her crossover audience without losing the essence of what she really is and where she came from, and so all of Growing Pains, from its upbeat beginning to its reflective, personal ending (though the last track, "Come to Me (Peace)" is the only real miss on the entire album), doesn't seem forced or calculated. These are strong songs, songs that keep hooks in mind, and while Blige's lyrics can occasionally border on cheesy -- like on "What Love Is," for example -- the very sincere passion she expresses, both in her voice and her words, is enough to erase, or at least fade, the platitudes, leaving only the emotion, the doubt and the love and the insecurity and the confidence and the talent, making for a very complete and satisfying listen.
Two years after The Breakthrough, Mary J. Blige is back. This time the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul has arrived to reassert her womanhood, with an album centered around female empowerment and the ups and downs of her relationships. Such are the usual ingredients of Ms. Blige's albums, but whereas 2005's The Breakthrough marked the initial celebration of putting her troubled past behind her, with 2007'...
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Two years after The Breakthrough, Mary J. Blige is back. This time the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul has arrived to reassert her womanhood, with an album centered around female empowerment and the ups and downs of her relationships. Such are the usual ingredients of Ms. Blige's albums, but whereas 2005's The Breakthrough marked the initial celebration of putting her troubled past behind her, with 2007'...
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Mary J. Blige released the "official" video for "Just Fine" way back in October. The song features on her newest album, Growing Pains. As she mentions in the intro, she really loves this joint. So much in fact, the singer filmed a second video just for the "Club version" which premiered today: (Technically, embedding is disabled on that vid, so if it isn't working here, jump over to the you...
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VH1's Storytellers will air a new edition tonight featuring R&B queen Mary J. Blige. Mary has over 15 years of material to pick through, so there are sure to be plenty of hit records included. The show airs at 8pm....Here's a new video from Mary J titled "Come To Me" off her latest album.Mary J. Blige - Come To Meby PeteRock
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Today I finally listened to Mary's cd, on my way to work, my body forcing itself to function at its best ability with such restlessness. I went to bed late, christmas shopping for the kids, seeing things on the other side of the fence always makes it more feasable to wonder if the grass truly is greener on the other side. Kids to Grown, my how the world/tables have turned.
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With years of progress music has become my way of theraputically cleansing my heart while I mend it together with strands of hope. Skillfully reminding me of torn seams which leak out emotions that fill my entire body with either pain or happiness. Helping me appreciate everything and everyone who the Lord has deemed to commit in my life because without them, I would not be who I am today.
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| Title | Lyrics | Buy |
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| 1 Work That |
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| 2 Grown Woman |
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| 3 Just Fine |
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| 4 Feel Like a Woman |
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| 5 Stay Down |
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| 6 Hurt Again |
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| 7 Shake Down |
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| 8 Till the Morning |
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| 9 Roses |
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| 10 Fade Away |
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| 11 What Love Is |
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| 12 Work in Progress (Growing Pains) |
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| 13 Talk to Me |
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| 14 If You Love Me? |
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| 15 Smoke |
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| 16 Come to Me (Peace) |
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© 2006-2009 Mog Inc. All Rights Reserved
 "Growing Pains")
