Mary J Blige - Growing Pains
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CD Details
Artist: Mary J BligeEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 2007-12-18
Music Label: Geffen Records
Product features:
- BLIGE MARY J. GROWING PAINS
- Work That
- Grown Woman featuring Ludacris
- Just Fine
- Feel Like a Woman
- Stay Down
- Hurt Again
- Shakedown featuring Usher
- Till the Morning
- Roses
- Fade Away
- What Love Is
- Work in Progress (Growing Pains)
- Talk To Me
- If You Love Me?
- Smoke
- Come To Me (Peace)
Music reviews of Growing Pains
Music Review: Even Alan Thicke will be able to appreciate Mary's "Growing Pains".
Rating: 4 Stars
I instantly became a fan of Mary J. Blige once I heard the song "You Remind Me". Her debut CD What's the 411? was an instant favorite of mine because of the way that Mary mixed r&b songs with hip hop samples. Obviously, the direction of the production had something to do with that but since I am also a rap music fan, I was able to appreciate Mary J. Blige even more. My favorite tracks ended up being "Love No Limit", "Reminisce", "I Don't Want To Do Anything" w/K-Ci, "My Love", "Real Love" and Mary's remake of the Rufus & Chaka Khan classic "Sweet Thing". In 1994, Mary J. Blige released her 2nd CD My Life. This is clearly my favorite r&b CD of all time. Mary not only surpassed my expectations after her debut CD, but she definitely had gained a fan for life as she did her best to chronicle the good times, the pain and everything inbetween to put together a fantastic CD. My favorite track was "I Never Wanna Live Without You" but I could play the CD in its entirety. My other personal favorites include "Mary's Joint", "I'm The Only Woman", "Be Happy", "Mary Jane" and "Be With You". The alternate versions of the tracks were phenominal as well. I am sure everyone remembers Smif N Wessun on "I Love You", LL Cool J on "Mary Jane", and the late Notorious BIG (Biggie) ripping the "I'm Goin' Down" (Remix)) which used the beat for the track "The What" that was featured on Biggie's "Ready To Die" that also included Method Man. Mary J had plenty of other releases:
Share My World (1997)
Mary (1999)
No More Drama (2002)
Love & Life (2003)
From these 4 releases you had my personal favorites such as "Seven Days", "All That I Can Say", "The Love I Never Had", "Special Part Of Me", "Ooh!", "Everything" and "Share My World". Mary J. returned in 2005 with The Breakthrough. She enjoyed tremendous success with her 1st single "Be Without You". "Darkchild" blessed her with my favorite track, "Enough Cryin'" and my other favorites included "I Found My Everything", "Take Me As I Am", "No One Will Do" and "Father In You". Mary's record company got a little greedy with Reflections - A Retrospective. The CD started off with 4 new tracks which included the single "We Ride", the title track and "King & Queen" w/John Legend. Then Geffen tried to conduct a greatest hits CD with the rest of the CD which was a mere 11 tracks, with 2 of the tracks being songs that were never on her CDs but were quality collaborations with the remix to Method Man's "All I Need", that was featured on "Tical" and "911" w/Wyclef Jean.
"Growing Pains" was released on December 18th, 2007. The CD starts off with the uptempo "Work That". Mary makes an uplifting anthem for the ladies that tells them to be happy with themselves and not to live everyday trying to please other people. Do your best to work with the best attributes that you have. Ludacris appears on "Grown Woman" to return the favor for Mary J. appearing on the track "Runaway Love" that was featured on Ludacris' last release "Release Therapy". In my opinion, "Grown Woman" is basically a continuation of "Work That". You have to come to a point in your life where you are happy with yourself as a woman, mentally and physically. Mary J. has struggled with that fact for many years in her life and she is trying to be a positive example for ladies, young and old around the world. Luda does a decent job with his verse but he is trying to talk about some things that could be done with this woman instead of adding to the positivity that Mary is trying to bring to the track, with a touch of attitude. "Just Fine" is basically Growing Pains' "Family Affair". It doesn't matter how the week at work was or what trials and tribulations that you went through during the course of the week, it's Friday night and this beat comes on, go out and have a good time or just do the infamous 2 step like I do. "Just Fine" is a nice, uptempo feel good jam. "Feel Like A Woman" has Mary talking to her man about making her feel appreciated as a woman. Whether it's a shopping trip, making love to her through the night or just making a nice gesture, tonight she just wants to feel like a woman. The slow jam man, Bryan Michael Cox shows up to produce "Stay Down", which is a thoughtful slow jam. In every relationship, you are going to have ups and downs. No relationship is perfect. The relationship is enduring one of those down times and Mary is asking her man to try to keep putting up with these down times so that they can receive the greater award at the end. "Hurt Again" has Mary describing a situation where she is starting to have feelings for someone but she is hesitant in letting him know that because of all the times that she has been hurt in the past. "Shake Down" is tolerable but when you see Usher and Mary J. Blige on a track, you have huge expectations. Just like when you saw Usher and Alicia Keys on the track "My Boo", you expect the artists to make the collaboration memorable. On "Shake Down", it's decent but nothing that you would expect when you have Mary and Usher on the same track. Pharrell does his best to try to take you back to the 80s on "Til The Morning", but for the most part, unless you want to grab some old fashioned roller skates and go to the skating rink, this song won't work for most Mary J. Blige fans. On "Roses", Mary has to get a point across to her man that she is fed up with all of the confrontations with her man and today she is not having it for any reason. I can definitely relate to this track. Men: You're in a no win situation when this day comes so let her vent and this type of day will go by faster and be much easier for you to handle...lol
Clearly, my favorite track on "Growing Pains" is "Fade Away". Stargate, who has produced multilple Ne-Yo songs, Joe's "It's Me", Chris Brown's "With You", Rihanna & Ne-Yo's "Hate That I Love You", Trey Songz' "Can't Help But Wait" and most importantly to some people, Beyonce's "Irreplaceable", produce this memorable Mary J. track in "Fade Away". Ne-Yo co-produces and writes the track as well. Mary finds herself at times, because of all of her troubles not even wanting to be here on Earth. That's how bad times have gotten for her in the past. Although, her life is definitely much better than those times, she may still have moments where she feels like she did before irregardless of her success because of her past transgressions. Ne-Yo does an excellent job of reaching back so to speak in times in Mary's past to capture these moments. Here's the bridge: "Couldn't look myself in the mirror, asking myself how dumb could you be." "Maybe everything would be much clearer, if no one could see me". Mary's times in the past were so bad she didn't even want to me amongst the living at times. There were times when she just want to take herself out of this world and not even be here anymore. That's where I feel the "....invinsibility would be great" part comes from on the track. "What Love Is" is another memorable Mary, Stargate and Ne-Yo collaboration as Mary writes her rendition of what she feels the four letter word means just like Alicia Keys did on "The Thing About Love" from her "As I Am" CD. The effects at the end of the track add to the track as well. "Work In Progress" (Growing Pains) is also written by Ne-Yo as Mary walks you through how she is getting through life day by day the best she can. She is clearly trying her best, but she also wants to let women in the world know that she is just as human as they are despite her success. "Talk To Me" deals with Mary wanting to receive better communication from her man and the benefits of effective communication in a relationship. "If You Love Me" is a decent track but it sounds too much like "Be Without You" Part 2 to me. "Smoke" is clearly unlike any Mary J. Blige track that I have ever heard. This track seems to be a part of Mary J.'s musical maturity. You never would have heard Mary on a track like this in the What's The 411 and My Life days. As a matter of fact, she would have had a profanity laced tirade ready for Puffy if he even tried to bring her a track like this. In the end, it clearly works for me and it's nice to see Mary trying different things. "Come To Me (Peace)" ends "Growing Pains" on a good note as she is trying to win over the affection of a lost love from the past.
Overall, "Growing Pains" may not be Mary J. Blige's best CD, but if you look at her career since 1992's "What's The 411" to now, you see alot of progression in her music and lyrics in 2007. Not only do you see a growth process with Mary as a 37 year old woman but you also hear the growth process through her lyrics and her production. If you are a fan of the majority of Mary J's releases, then you should also add "Growing Pains" to your collection.
James' Top 5
1) Fade Away
2) What Love Is
3) Stay Down
4) Smoke
5) Work In Progress (Growing Pains)
Honorable Mention:
Hurt Again
Roses
Come To Me (Peace)
Work That
Just Fine
Description of Growing Pains
Geffen Records superstar and hit-making songwriter Mary J. Blige, is set to follow-up the most successful album of her career, the triple platinum The Breakthrough, with her eighth (8th) studio CD Growing Pains.Growing Pains includes the single "Just Fine" which has become an instant favorite on radio and on MTV, BET and VH-1. The second single from Growing Pains, "Work That," is currently featured in an Apple I-Pod commercial.
After selling over 40 million CDs and garnering six Grammy Awards during her phenomenal 15-year career, Mary is confident that her fans will not be disappointed with Growing Pains. "They're going to get a sense of what my state of mind is and how I view the world," she says. "And hopefully, most of all, they're going to hear just the sincere honesty and love that I have for them." She adds, "Growing Pains represents accepting that there's pain that goes along with growing and change. No pain, no gain."
Growing Pains, with Mary co-writing most of the songs on the album, features guest appearances by Ludacris and Usher and production by The Neptunes, Jazze Pha, Johnta Austin, Neyo, Stargate, Bryan-Michael Cox, Dre and Vidal, Tricky, Dream, and Sean Garrett.
Mary makes her message loud, clear and seriously funky on the first release "Just Fine" produced by Jazze Pha and Tricky and co-written by Mary and Dream. A celebration of life, "Just Fine" gives you Mary fierce, and as the video shows, glamorous. The song's vibe? "Sometimes it feels like you're having this miserable time, like all 365 days of the year are tough. But then, you get one of those days; maybe when your hair is great, or you're not stuck in traffic; where it's a `just fine' day. At some point," Mary laughs, "You've got have one or two of those."
The party and positivity keeps on keeping on with the rump shaking second single "Work That." Mary comments, "When I meet a woman who doesn't know what to do about her weight or her hair I always say - `whatever it is that you have, make that work for you, Work what you got.'"
After releasing her bestselling anthology Reflections last year, Growing Pains is Mary's first CD of new material since The Breakthrough debuted at #1 in 2005, selling over 700,000 copies its first week -- the best opening week for a solo R&B female artist in SoundScan history. The album's first single, "Be Without You," also made chart history by holding down the #1 spot on the Billboard R&B charts for a record breaking 16 straight weeks; making it the longest-running No. 1 song on the R&B chart in over 40 years. Mary led all artists with eight 2007 Grammy nominations for the landmark album, and she took home honors for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, Best R&B Song (both for "Be Without You"), and Best R&B Album. After earning three Grammy Awards, she continued her award show domination by winning nine Billboard Music Awards, two American Music Awards, two BET Awards, two NAACP Image Awards, and a Soul Train Award. The Breakthrough lived up to its name selling over seven million copies worldwide.
More from Mary J. Blige
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"I'm talkin' 'bout things I know," Mary J. Blige wails on "Work That," the second single and opening track of Growing Pains. The album squeaked into 2007 too late to make best-of lists but otherwise would have stormed its way up several, for sure. She needn't have hit us with such a pronouncement: In 16 songs that ring as remarkably, unflinchingly true as those on 2005's landmark The Breakthrough, the queen of hip-hop soul keeps "keeping it real" a specialty. There's no sense in trying to assign credit for the skin-tight grooves and funked-up retro vibe here; with nine producers padding Blige's emotion-rich voice and the lyrics she so obviously lives by, what we're left with is a melange of sounds. But it's a measure of an artist who has mastered her own identity and left nothing to chance that this, her eighth studio album, comes off so free of wild cards and loose edges. "You ask what love feels like," she sings on "What Love Is," one of the disc's less fierce tracks. "It feels like joy, and it feels like pain, and it feels like sunshine, and it feels like rain," she continues, answering the question. The album feels the same way, a passel of complex feelings all wrapped up in love. No one knows struggle, heartache, and triumph over mediocrity like Blige. --Tammy La Gorce
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