Mary J. Blige -- Growing Pains

She has some feelings to share.

i gather.

she's been through a lot, but she's happy now.

first listen is very good slash great. rly excited to give it a 2nd!

I reviewed it last week. It's tighter and stronger than The Breakthrough, although there's nothing like "Be Without You" on it. The Ne-Yo/Stargate tune "Fade Away" is my favorite.

Just Fine comes kind of close... i have to give the 2nd half of the record a better listen

"Roses" is the best track, "Talk to Me" and "Hurt Again" are up there as well..

Hurt Again is rly great.

Slow Down is amazing! wow.

good 1-2 punch there.

feel like a woman is so clean. u can definitely hear Umbrella-asque vibes.

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1571625/20071010/blige_mary_j.jhtml

"Fade Away" by far the best song; love how she enunciates "invisibility."

Yes!! Also "Til the Morning" is pretty ridiculously amazing. I'm not sure how crazy I am about What Love Is though...

i totally don't hate it but it's a little mundane?

the way the beats and bass sink in all over this record... i mean the beats are rather massive no??

"so that no one can see the tears runnin down my face (soooometiiiimes)..."

I love her runs at the end of "Shake Down" .. "i'm robbin' u for ur loooooooooooo-oooooooooooo-ooove LOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOVE" Reportedly it's the next single.

so actually the 1st 2 songs are like so good? Grown Woman in particular is stellar!

# Horrible "Breakthrough" Records 40 new answers
# Mary J. Blige -- Growing Pains 2 new answers

j/k

i mean, is this even a breakthrough record???

keep going

now keep -- keep -- keep -- keep -- keep it right there!!

i'm sorry but for Umbrella getting its own like 200+ thread, this thread just isn't long enough. maybe w/ 2nd single?

Well, yeah, but "Umbrella" sucks.

i heard that album sucks. too bad.

what is the 2nd single actually? did we confirm?

so this article by christgau in rolling stone just made me cry: http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/17442159/growing_pains

also: "TAlk To Me" is rather incredible. the end of Roses too, that little synth kicks in with the beat and takes you into the next song. i almos wanted that to go on for some time.

"growing pains"

"growing pains"

i see what you've done there

i see what you've done there again

Grown Woman needs to be on the radio. that's right, i said it: i think Grown Woman needs to be heard by America. i've said it and i'd say it again, if you push me.

is this like the first mjb alkbum you've heard or something?

because it's good and everything but...

yes! the 1st!

this is excting to me, to have so many albums ahead of me.

yeah...

are you an avid mary j fan?

i wouldn't say this is out of character for me, really -- i find something get kind of obsessed with it. alicia keys is probably next, though beyonce is bubbling on the horizon. i just got dangerously in love and am dangerously in love with it...

boyfriend just put Mariah on tho, which is nice cuz i've been neglecting. Emotions.

um, yeah I guess you can say that. "share my world" was my favorite album when I was like 9 years old.

It's kind of weird to me that people are NOW getting into Mary, Aaliyah, Missy, whatever.. because that was the music of my childhood! So when I see these weird threads and over-analytical conversations I'm like... "um.. okay yeah..."

like, Beyoncé? Really? How could you JUST NOW be getting into Beyoncé? It's so foreign to me.. where are you from/what did you listen to growing up?

n e way i'm determined to keep this thread in New Answers -- already burned this CD for 2 colleagues and talk it up to like everyone. i should be in marketing. i actually listened to the whole album tonight after work. i never really listen to whole albums. and i was just kind of sittng there.

(I'm not attacking you BTW, I'm just curious)

right. well... i wasn't into pop as much growing up, besides madonna and -- actually just madonna.

it's taken me a while.

no, totally!

growing up, i listened to girl grunge. THe Breeders, Veruca Salt, Throwing Muses

bjork.

kelley deal.

also: classic rock. elp, jefferson airplane, zeppelin, floyd, yes, moody blues.

oh but i liked letters to chleo for a while. don't ask.

suzanne vega. jewel.

um i also liked natalie merchant... oops? maybe not

I'm not really familiar with most of those.. heh. I know Bjork of course.. breeders, jewel... but I ony got into bjork around 2003.. that's year I started getting into music other than what I normally listened to.. so I'm sure if I posted here around 2003 I'd have been making tons of bjork threads lol.

haha yeah =P she's a threadworthy one i think

I didn't realize you were so young, Brainwasher.

Interesting name for a reputed steroid user's album.

heyo

heard the second single tonight

awesome

was just gonna put this on -- what's the 2nd single??

ooohhhhh Hurt Again! surprised. love it

Singles from Growing Pains
"Just Fine"
Released: October, 16 2007
"Work That"
Released: 2008

^^that is from wikipedia, so who knows

i didn't catch the name on the radio tonight

it had a pretty poppy and pronounced piano line

oh i just googled something and Hurt Again came up but i dunno! Work That is good. poppy and pronounced piano... not sure but i'm telling you, u would benefit from the album in your posession Jordan :-)

"Work That" was the second single but it flopped so "Hurt Again" is the single now, even though "Grown Woman" won the poll on her website.

the one i heard was "work that"

"Roses" and "Stay Down" hold up beautifully.

so does "grown woman"

Yeah I beared (bore?) down on "Stay Down" a month or so once I heard it mentioned on the Chitlin Circuit thread. It's always difficult to fashion a great (and catchy) (and even kinda funny - quite rare for Mary) song about successful monogamy but voila. And unfortunately for my cats, "Roses" is VERY singalongable ("Hey!").

I love the album too, esp. the blend of the first six or so tracks. She just needs a damn editor and then we'd finally get the Mary album that'd scare the shit out of everyone.

This album really isn't that good... and "Stay Down" sucks, don't know why they released that instead of "Hurt Again" which is one of her best songs... I hope her next album goes back to the classic-sound she was playing with on The Breakthrough...

Sonically there's minimal difference between the two albums. The difference: Ne-Yo and Stargate as songwriters, who know how to shape her self-absorption.

No, there's a big difference. The production on The Breakthrough is more classic-soul influenced with a modern touch whereas Growing Pains is more synth-based.

and I don't think Ne-Yo's writing style fits her very well.

Sonically there's minimal difference between the two albums.

Sonically there's minimal difference between any two of her albums, both a strength and weakness. She's never made a bad album. But she hasn't made a great one either.

That's bullshit, she's made 3 undisiputably classic albums.

No she hasn't. I WISH she had.

Um, yes she has. What's The 411, My Life, and The Breakthrough are universally renowned classics, My Life is pretty much viewed as the essential 90's r&b album.

Universally, eh?

Yes, universally. Are you people being serious? Everyone recognizes My Life as a classic, genre-defining, GENERATION-defining album...

50 Albums That Changed Music
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2006/jul/16/popandrock.shopping

19 Mary J Blige
What's the 411? (1992)

When the Bronx-born 'Queen of Hip Hop Soul' catapulted her debut on to a legion of approving listeners, she unwittingly defined a new wave of R&B. Before Mary, R&B's roots were still firmly planted in soul and jazz (ie Aretha Franklin and Chaka Khan). The emergence of hip hop and this album from Blige and her mentor and producer Sean 'Puffy' Combs (aka P Diddy) gave birth to a new gritty sound, informed by the singer's harrowing past.

Without this ... no R&B/soul divide, which means no TLC, Beyonce, or Ashanti, to name just three.

Everyone, eh?

Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

279. Mary J. Blige My Life

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/6626288/279_my_life

OMG! That Guardian article is a field of wrong, not the choices but the "Without this..." sections, esp. the Sinatra one (wha?????).