Musicslave said:

silverchild said:

You can sample the songs from My Life II from iTunes now. I just did and I'm not so impressed. I know that's bad, but all I'm getting is the same techno-pop/contemporary R&B sound that were present on the last two albums. I'm loving that cut she has with Nas though.

Yup. That RZA beat is still hot!

Yep. RZA is the business and this is a great track. "Midnight Drive" is a cool one as well. Her cover of "Ain't Nobody" is atrocious.

silverchild said:

Musicslave said:

Yup. That RZA beat is still hot!

Yep. RZA is the business and this is a great track. "Midnight Drive" is a cool one as well. Her cover of "Ain't Nobody" is atrocious.

What was the name of that Wu Tang joint again? It's been a minute since I've rocked some Wu....

Ouch, silverchild, that's not good to hear about the overall album but I heard a bit of "Feel Inside" and it's TIGHT!

In case anybody cares. Thanks Identity

Tracklisting

The cd store near me sell albums early and just saw this album in front of the store window.. I walked right past it. Sorry mary just haven't gain my interest enough to buy and it's possible I might be missing some gems from this album but I guess i'll just listen to some on youtube or download the ones I like.

Timmy84 said:

Ouch, silverchild, that's not good to hear about the overall album but I heard a bit of "Feel Inside" and it's TIGHT!

I know! It's just an average album for me. Nothing different. I've kind've been in bad graces for Mary's new stuff. Last night reminded why I love Mary.

I found it.......

Wu Tang was like X-Men for Hip Hop!

[Edited 11/18/11 12:31pm]

silverchild said:

Timmy84 said:

Ouch, silverchild, that's not good to hear about the overall album but I heard a bit of "Feel Inside" and it's TIGHT!

I know! It's just an average album for me. Nothing different. I've kind've been in bad graces for Mary's new stuff. Last night reminded why I love Mary.

Me too so I can't fully turn my back on her even if I wanted to. I just wished she was more musically inspired than personally inspired. Or at least BALANCE THE TWO OUT.

Timmy84 said:

silverchild said:

I know! It's just an average album for me. Nothing different. I've kind've been in bad graces for Mary's new stuff. Last night reminded why I love Mary.

Me too so I can't fully turn my back on her even if I wanted to. I just wished she was more musically inspired than personally inspired. Or at least BALANCE THE TWO OUT.

Yes. I mean last night reminded me of the first time I actually took the plastic wrapper off of the My Life album and listened to it. It took me way back and she sang those songs with so much emotion and conviction. Now, it's just more of the same thing, but it's not as inspired. So I don't know how I feel about Mary from a musical standpoint.

Timmy84 said:

silverchild said:

I know! It's just an average album for me. Nothing different. I've kind've been in bad graces for Mary's new stuff. Last night reminded why I love Mary.

Me too so I can't fully turn my back on her even if I wanted to. I just wished she was more musically inspired than personally inspired. Or at least BALANCE THE TWO OUT.

You not liking the album or even not buying it doesn't equal turning your back I used to love some mary just tired of her trying to act young it was cool a couple years ago because I felt mainstream urban/black pop/R&B whatever you want to call it was still decent at that time but it's only a couple good ones now . She's not really standing out anymore

babybugz said:

Timmy84 said:

Me too so I can't fully turn my back on her even if I wanted to. I just wished she was more musically inspired than personally inspired. Or at least BALANCE THE TWO OUT.

You not liking the album or even not buying it doesn't equal turning your back I used to love some mary just tired of her trying to act young it was cool a couple years ago because I felt mainstream urban/black pop/R&B whatever you want to call it was still decent at that time but it's only a couple good ones now . She's not really standing out anymore

Well that is true. I don't know how I wrote it like that but I guess I'm saying that because knowing how SOME Mary fans are, if you say you're not feeling her new music, you're a "traitor" or something. I was always bothered by that.

silverchild said:

Timmy84 said:

Me too so I can't fully turn my back on her even if I wanted to. I just wished she was more musically inspired than personally inspired. Or at least BALANCE THE TWO OUT.

Yes. I mean last night reminded me of the first time I actually took the plastic wrapper off of the My Life album and listened to it. It took me way back and she sang those songs with so much emotion and conviction. Now, it's just more of the same thing, but it's not as inspired. So I don't know how I feel about Mary from a musical standpoint.

I wonder how musically creative Mary was 17 years ago because she doesn't seem to be creatively inspired nowadays. I don't mind if she was doing it for money but there's other things you can do for creativity and STILL get paid like don't sell your soul to the devil just so you can top Rihanna or whoever.

The deluxe edition of the album will be available at Target with 3 bonus tracks. Then, there's the U.K. deluxe edition that will feature 3 tracks that are different than the ones we are getting here in the states! I hate it when they do that!!!!

kitbradley said:

The deluxe edition of the album will be available at Target with 3 bonus tracks. Then, there's the U.K. deluxe edition that will feature 3 tracks that are different than the ones we are getting here in the states! I hate it when they do that!!!!

Deluxe U.S. edition bonus tracks
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
12.	"Irreversible"			3:53
16.	"Miss Me With That"	Thomas Newman, Harvey Mason, Damon Thomas, Blige, Durrell Babbs	The Underdogs, Tank	4:00
17.	"Someone to Love Me (Naked)" (featuring Lil Wayne & Diddy)	Blige, Jerry Duplessis, Leroy Watson, Sean Combs, Dwayne Carter	Jerry "Wonder" Duplessis, Arden Altino	3:32

UK edition additional tracks
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
15.	"You Want This"			4:14
16.	"This Love is for You"			3:46
17.	"One Life"			3:43
18.	"Someone to Love Me (Naked)" (featuring Lil Wayne & Diddy)	Blige, Jerry Duplessis, Leroy Watson, Sean Combs, Dwayne Carter	Jerry "Wonder" Duplessis, Arden Altino	3:32

I hate that too. That's one of the most annoying things they do for new albums.

Musicslave said:

In case anybody cares. Thanks Identity

Tracklisting

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"Intro"	Mary Jane Blige	Mary J. Blige	1:16
2.	"Feel Inside" (featuring Nas)	M.J. Blige, Nasir Jones, Jerry Duplessis	Jerry "Wonder" Duplessis	5:07
3.	"Midnight Drive" (featuring Brook Lynn)	Pierre Medore, Richard Butler, Jr.	Rico Love	4:12
4.	"Next Level" (featuring Busta Rhymes)	Blige, Trevor Smith, Jr., Richard Butler, Jr.	Rico Love	4:13
5.	"Ain't Nobody"	Hawk Wolinski	Darkchild	4:03
6.	"25/8"	Blige, Crystal Johnson, Eric Hudson	Eric Hudson	3:55
7.	"Don't Mind"	Blige, Priscilla Renea Hamilton, Jerry Duplessis	Jerry "Wonder" Duplessis	3:57
8.	"No Condition"	Blige, Kevin Cossom, Nate Hills	Danja	4:27
9.	"Mr. Wrong" (featuring Drake)	James Scheffer, Richard Butler, Jr., Daniel Morris, Aubrey Graham	Jim Jonsin, Rico Love	4:01
10.	"Why" (featuring Rick Ross)	Blige, Dave Young, Eric Hudson	Eric Hudson	4:21
11.	"Love a Woman" (featuring Beyoncé)	Blige, Timothee Menardini, Sean Garrett, Beyoncé Knowles	Sean Garrett, BridgeTown	4:31
12.	"Empty Prayers"	Blige, Crystal Johnson, Coby Kenneth, Christopher Stewart	Tricky Stewart	3:15
13.	"Need Someone"	Matt Morris		3:55
14.	"The Living Proof"	Blige, Thomas Newman, Harvey Mason, Damon Thomas	The Underdogs	5:55
Total length:				57:08

*scratches head in confusion*

I do not see Jam, Lewis or Babyface on that list. I see Beyonce, Diddy and Drake.

Lame.

I'll check for the Jerry Wonder tracks, I've always rated his production. But the rest, skip.

[img:$uid]http://i41.tinypic.com/2lnd4jd.jpg[/img:$uid]

These exclusive bonus tracks just promote illegal downloading. I'll buy the CD with the tracklisting I prefer, and then download the other bonus cuts online.

I was thinking the exact opposite.

Whenever I see a CD supplemented by bonus material, I'm encouraged to make a retail purchase, especially if I'm a huge fan of the artist.

MidniteMagnet said:

These exclusive bonus tracks just promote illegal downloading. I'll buy the CD with the tracklisting I prefer, and then download the other bonus cuts online.

Please!

Ain't no one's checking for the bonus tracks like that anymore.

If the person likes the artist, they'll just BUY IT. DUH!

Just listened to Irreversible & Miss Me With That... Irreversible is the better of these two tracks.

[Edited 11/21/11 11:39am]

Identity said:

[img:$uid]http://i41.tinypic.com/2lnd4jd.jpg[/img:$uid]

Yes, I just discovered today that the Target version actually has 5 bonus tracks. The Target exclusive tracks are "You Want This" & "This Love Is For You", which are also appearing on the U.K. CD. I was hoping "Get It Right" would also appear since that was the only thing that really caught my ear when I was listening to the samples on I-tunes. But, that track remains an exclusive download only.

I was going to skip the CD, but since I was in Target today, had a Target gift card in my wallet and saw that the disc had 5 bonus tracks instead of 3, I decided "Oh, what the hell!".

I wonder what HITS will say about her first-week sales...

Is it me or did I see Mary almost everywhere today? I turn on my TV and flipped through channels, seeing old episodes of reality shows that featured Mary, VH1 Soul did a small retrospective of Mary's videos, MTV showed a small segment of Mary remembering Heavy D and getting sentimental...strong promotion indeed!

silverchild said:

Is it me or did I see Mary almost everywhere today? I turn on my TV and flipped through channels, seeing old episodes of reality shows that featured Mary, VH1 Soul did a small retrospective of Mary's videos, MTV showed a small segment of Mary remembering Heavy D and getting sentimental...strong promotion indeed!

She's been promoting for a hot minute. She'll be damned if she lets people not notice what she's doing. Yeah she's been promoting like crazy. She was all over the UK just last week or two.

Timmy84 said:

silverchild said:

Is it me or did I see Mary almost everywhere today? I turn on my TV and flipped through channels, seeing old episodes of reality shows that featured Mary, VH1 Soul did a small retrospective of Mary's videos, MTV showed a small segment of Mary remembering Heavy D and getting sentimental...strong promotion indeed!

She's been promoting for a hot minute. She'll be damned if she lets people not notice what she's doing. Yeah she's been promoting like crazy. She was all over the UK just last week or two.

True. She has always been pushing her stuff before and after a release, but today I say everything Mary on alot of channels. I was like "what the hell?"

silverchild said:

Timmy84 said:

She's been promoting for a hot minute. She'll be damned if she lets people not notice what she's doing. Yeah she's been promoting like crazy. She was all over the UK just last week or two.

True. She has always been pushing her stuff before and after a release, but today I say everything Mary on alot of channels. I was like "what the hell?"

She saw how she couldn't sell an album on her name alone anymore after the subpar response from Stronger. So she's like "fuck that!" Plus I think some of the changes in Geffen made her determined to do more promo than she's done since probably 2005.

Timmy84 said:

silverchild said:

True. She has always been pushing her stuff before and after a release, but today I say everything Mary on alot of channels. I was like "what the hell?"

She saw how she couldn't sell an album on her name alone anymore after the subpar response from Stronger. So she's like "fuck that!" Plus I think some of the changes in Geffen made her determined to do more promo than she's done since probably 2005.

Yep. And this week forward will be the culmination of all of the promotion and exposure she's been doing for this album. I still don't know if I'll be getting it, but I am proud of the attention this one is getting.

silverchild said:

Timmy84 said:

She saw how she couldn't sell an album on her name alone anymore after the subpar response from Stronger. So she's like "fuck that!" Plus I think some of the changes in Geffen made her determined to do more promo than she's done since probably 2005.

Yep. And this week forward will be the culmination of all of the promotion and exposure she's been doing for this album. I still don't know if I'll be getting it, but I am proud of the attention this one is getting.

Me too.

Mary J. Blige Singing A Different Tune These Days

November 22, 2011

Link

Mary J. Blige blinked back tears and buried her head in her hands when she recently heard "Need Someone," an emotional ballad off her new album "My Life II ... The Journey Continues (Act 1)." The song, said Blige, is actually an ode to her younger, more troubled self.

"From where you stand there's no way to change it, no way to make it make sense and it's lonely there in the spotlight," she sings over lush strings and piano. "Well honey, don't I understand you need someone to love you."

Blige, 40, is revisiting — and comforting — her 23-year-old self for a reason. On Monday, she released her 10th album, a sequel to 1994's "My Life," the classic that catapulted her to R&B stardom and exposed her seemingly endless personal turmoil. Back then, she struggled to overcome a well-documented battle with drugs and alcohol, clinical depression and a tumultuous, tabloid-making relationship with K-Ci Hailey of Jodeci.

"This is the Mary from 'My Life' and the Mary today that still has challenges," Blige said, referring to herself while perched in an oversized chair in her suite at the Beverly Hills Hotel. "We all have a moment where we've slipped into darkness … and at the end of the day, like the song says, the only person who we need to love us, is us."

Since being branded the "queen of hip-hop soul" some 17 years ago, Blige has delivered on the moniker. She's found crossover success in the pop world while continuing to deliver resilient R&B anthems that pair gut-wrenching lyrics with hard-knocking hip-hop beats.

While the emotional tumult made for gripping music, it wreaked havoc on her personal life. "I knew at some point I was going to die," said Blige."I was starting to feel like I didn't want to be here. "You start to feel like you slip away no matter how much you're on stage. You're there, but you aren't really there. I didn't want to die, but I wanted to die."

After hitting bottom, she turned to her Christian faith, abstained from drugs and drinking and released "No More Drama" in 2001. She also found love and in 2003 married record executive Kendu Isaacs, who now manages her career. She credits him as a saving force that helped her overcome her demons. So why revisit the album that earmarked her lowest point?

"I was in so much pain and I had no idea that so many people were in pain with me," said Blige, who's forged an unusually deep connection with fans. At her shows, male and female fans can still be seen weeping and chanting every word of her songs — especially the older material. "The thing that remained even after the evolution of 'No More Drama,' 'Share My World,' is pain. That's one of the reasons I wanted to channel this again. Things got better, they got great, but the challenges got greater."

Blige isn't trying to compete with "My Life II's" predecessor, a move that critics and hard-core fans might deem as sacrilege.

When "My Life" debuted in 1994, it was a public cry for help. Produced by rap kingpin and mentorSean "Diddy" Combs and peppered with samples of Curtis Mayfield, Roy Ayers, Teddy Pendergrass,Marvin Gaye and Rick James, Blige's raw, heartbreaking vocals stood out among her more subdued R&B peers. She begged, she cried and she hurt — but most of all, she hit a personal chord with listeners. As a result, "My Life" was named the most successful R&B album on Billboard's year-end chart in 1995. Time and Rolling Stone named the disc among their best albums of all time lists.

Blige admits she initially didn't want to look back at that painful time, and when asked if she realized how deeply the disc would touch others, she shakes her head in disbelief.

"I was so messed up," she said. "I needed it to help me. I really needed to be happy. I wasn't thinking it would end up as an anthem. It was very self-centered for a reason. Maybe because I was in so much pain."

Combs, however, knew Blige would connect. "When we made "My Life," I knew Mary's heart was pouring out in such an honest way, people had to respect what she was giving them," he wrote in an email. "Musically, the vibe we had was on point for the culture. Mary was every girl, Mary was your sister, your ex-girlfriend, the girl you loved. She connected in a real way; I knew there was magic in that, there was magic in the pain."

In recent years Blige has caught flak for not returning to the depths of despair that characterized her earlier works. Though Blige has enjoyed fairly positive reviews with each new CD, online reviews by fans show a growing dissatisfaction with Mary's healthier, happier self. "Ever since mary has been happy her music has been lame," wrote one former fan on the Amazon website. "I enjoy her older albums when she was mad and going through things…. I wish she would get divorced so she can start making good music again."

Blige is visibly uncomfortable with the barbs from disgruntled listeners. "First I was hurt, "she said. "There's a lot of areas in my life that I'm stuck in, so I can't get angry at them for saying, 'We love you Mary, but we're kinda miserable still.' I was a little hurt but I understood — they haven't moved. So many people were angry that I changed [but] so many people stayed with me. "

On her new album, tracks such as "No Condition" and the Drake-assisted "Mr. Wrong" show a wiser Blige in much more control of her aching. "My Life II" isn't a Blige/Combs affair like its predecessor. But the album conjures the same new jack swing she ushered in on her debut, "What's the 411?," albeit with an updated groove courtesy of a younger generation of hip-hop beatmakers such as Rico Love, and Eric Hudson. Combs, Beyoncé, Nas, Busta Rhymes and Rick Ross also appear on the disc.

Blige celebrated both "My Life" albums with a string of intimate engagements where she performed "My Life" in its entirety. During her show at Club Nokia last Thursday, she was upbeat when she sang new material and revealed plenty of tears as she performed old "My Life" cuts.

"These songs, they break me down," she emotionally told the crowd. "They make me want to fall down and think."

The singer wants the album to show that despite everything — the accolades, the Grammys, the challenges — finding and accepting herself is what keeps her going.

"We are strong and we can do anything. We've learned to love ourselves even through trials and darkness. That's the only way to continue this journey," she says. "There are still going to be trials and 'Mr. Wrong's' and moments like 'No Condition' and 'Empty Prayers.' But the bottom line is, we need to love ourselves. That's it."

Mary J. Blige Singing A Different Tune These Days

Far from the truth, I'm afraid.

I decided to cut the umbilical cord from Mary's music after listening to this new album. I'm happy & content with what she already contributed, but since her last album she proved again this time that the days of her reinventing her music instead of following trends are long gone. Good luck with her.

[Edited 11/22/11 10:47am]