Purchased it today.. Just got through listening to it.

First listen I'm only feeling 8 of the 16 tracks

Work That
Just Fine
Til The Morning
Roses
Work In Progress(Growing Pains)
Talk To Me
Smoke
Come To Me(Peace)

Come To Me(Peace) is like nothing she's ever did before, It reminds of an old 80's track that's escapimg me right now (I'm sure it was a white band) that this song reminds of.. (someone please tell me what song this sounds like)

Tell me how you guys feel about this CD..

PS.. Inotice that Mary used a lot of the same producers named in contributing to Janet's upcoming CD

The Dream,Ne-Yo,Stargate,Tricky Stewart... I hope they did a better job for Janet

why does she always have to FILL her albums us instead of just givin u a good 10 tracks?

Well Ima listen to it soon, just got it @ Tarjet for 10

My boyfriend is out running some errands and was nice enough to offer to pick it up for me. I'll give it a listen tonight.

I plan on getting it tomorrow so I can't say what I think of the album but it seems to be getting pretty good reviews overall.
[Edited 12/18/07 17:57pm]

Don't like it.

I'm not a Mary fan at all, but I did buy "Talk to Me" on iTunes; I like that one track, and I usually don't like her stuff. The co-writer, Eric Hudson, is a former student of mine. (I don't like all his stuff, either, but I always support him). He's a fast-rising songwriter/producer who has quite a resume so far.
Banks, I was glad to see that U mentioned his song.

Poor Gary, hoping to capitalize off her success from the 2005 Holiday season. It is not happening with this rushed project.

I am really having a love/hate thing with the whole album being blended together for some reason because it works on some tracks but on others it doesn't....

oh wow..i bought it this morning and totally forgot about it.

sosgemini said:

If u don't open it it.....u can get a refund.

I think it's an alright record, but it kind of seems rushed. Two years after she gave us one of her most impressive releases, The Breakthrough, I think she and her team kind of ran out of ideas with this project. Like others have stated here, half of the material works and half doesn't. The production here, for one, is definitely more experimental, risker, and modern and her voice is still in unbelievably great, but something is just missing here. A very consistent record, but it just won't be a Grammy worthy stunner as her previous opus was.

Two of my favorite joints here would have to be the Neptunes-produced cut, "Till The Morning" and "Hurt Again". They both have that 1970's chic to them that I just love!

silverchild said:

Til The Morning is a cool track... I will have to listen to Hurt Again (again)when i get home

I sampled some of it, and it seems like a consistent album, but the only 2 songs I really like are just fine, and the busta rhymes duet, I don't even like just fine that much so that's saying something

alphastreet said:

busta rhymes duet, ?

Is this a bonus track on itunes or something, because there is no Duet with Busta on my CD..

banks said:

well I found it on youtube, it sounds new though I'm not completely sure, hold on I'll find the link

oh nevermind.. your talking about the Work That remix featuring Busta

http://www.youtube.com/wa...N8MoCya9Cw yeah this one, it's really nice

I'm going to have to give this another listen, but at the moment I'm not into this on at all!. Even Love & Life, which I thought was her weakest album (but still good), was better than this. Ugh.

I bought my copy (DVD combo) from Target yesterday morning before work. All I've been talking about is "Til The Morning"... that shit is crazy!!! My favorite song on the album. Other mentionables are "Talk To Me" (love the usage of "Key To My Heart" by The Emotions... which is one of my favorite songs)... um.. "Hurt Again", "Feel Like A Woman", of course "Roses", and there's one other I can think of the name. "Work That" has definitely grown on me. I'm like the other person in thsis thread... I thought I was trippin yesterday when I didn't hear Busta Rhymes on the track at all. Then I looked at the tracklisting and he's not there. So I'm reading the thank yous, and she thanks Eve and Lil' Mama... I'm like OH GOD... not another Eve/Mary collabo (which they've all been okay thus far)... but I was more shocked at the Lil' Mama collabo... which later I found these tracks are available on the itunes version. I'm in no rush to hear those at all. "Hello (It's Me)" is the only one I have interest in hearing. Just wanna say I love the album, grasped it much quicker than I did The Breakthrough (which I didn't like at all @ first listen). I appreciate Mary for stepping it up each and everytime she comes out. Okay I'm on my lunch break so let me step out of the office. ::grabs mp3player & queues Growing Pains album::

also wanted to mention Pharrell straight jacked Taana Garner's "Heartbeat" for the rhythm of "Til The Morning"... I could be wrong, but I seriously doubt it.

DirtyChris said:

I can definitley sing Heartbeat to this

boring album. She hasn't had a strong album since Share My World. I used to have My Life, but it was depressing as hell, nothing like the happy poppy stuff I liked back then, I ended up giving it away.

alphastreet said:

You didn't think her joint from 1999, Mary was one of the best, most accomplished things she's ever done in her career?

silverchild said:

i think Breakthrough is still her strongest. She really should break the mold and try new directions. "One" "Smoke" "Just Fine" "You Are My Everything" and "Till The Morning" are all signs of these to me at least. She really should REALLY do a more live album. I do like the album, however yet again there are too many songs, and my prediction was correct. I didnt feel alot of the slower jams. THOUGH THIS TIME they sounded better. It has a more clearer sound. There are synths and Mary's voice sound liek she's happy even when she is singin a down song. Peace and Smoke are great examples of this. Feel Like A Woman is my shit tho....Grown Woman too
[Edited 12/19/07 21:35pm]

oh yeah, I liked the mary album. I don't have it, but I do have a few favourites from there, and it was definitely artistic. It's definitely her most mature and sophisticated work from what I heard, but share my world flows better as a whole.

watched the attached DVD
(available at Target)
last night, and I wanna say
MAD PROPS to Mary & Kendu
for wanting to work with PRINCE
I never thought that would
be the answer to that question!!!!

but I would love to see this myself
if Chaka Khan can cover Prince
why not Mary J. Blige

I can almost hear it now...
something like "Sticky Wicked"
(which was written for Chaka)
that is right up Mary's alley

DirtyChris said:

Did she indicate why she wants to work with Prince ?

paisleypark4 said:

Share My World is my favorite, though that may be because it was the first one I got into. "Not Gonna Cry" is pretty much the best breakup song of that decade, IMO. My ranking goes something like this.

Share My World
No More Drama
My Life
411
The Breakthrough
Mary (i know a lot of folks love this, but Ialways thought it was kind of boring)
Love and Life (her only truly dull album)

Verdict is still out on the new one. It's definitely going to take few more listens. The highs are pretty high though.
[Edited 12/20/07 9:39am]

Well i think Mary most likely would like to work with Prince because her genre right now is very limiting, at least production wise, plus she is getting close to 40 and im sure she is feeling like getting to a point where she feels like shes doing her best work and something not just for the radio or the charts. So im surprised to hear she would mention Prince, since Prince has had positive words for her too.

banks said:

I can't really remember verbatim
but basically... Kendu
was more vocal about this idea
he's crazy about Prince
and his arrangements, musicianship
etc etc...

Mary is THE VOICE right now
and it would be fuckin crazy
(to put the general idea in a nutshell)

ya'll don't know how
happy that made me
to hear that last night
I mean, who knew?

MJB seems to be more
Michael Jackson oriented to me
(with her current material)

you know, you have the Marys
and the NeYos and the Justins
all on the Michael Jackson thing

then you have the PRINCE KIDS
the more "out of the box" artists
like Andre3000, Kelis, Joi

so I think it would definitely
be interesting to see what
Mary & Prince could pull off...

I mean we had Keyshia who
hinted at it with the Puff collabo
("Last Night") which I absolutely adore

okay I'll shut up now