He was to say that he located her inner pain and inner beauty, and got it onto record.Īnd this is a record that still sounds cutting edge – absorbing hip hop, soul and gospel, and on No One Else, beyond its Al Green sample, trip hop. Combs was central to Blige’s initial success. It was from this point her work took a more sophisticated turn. The album was to mark a watershed in Blige’s career soon afterwards she spilt with Combs and her original record label, Uptown. Barry White’s It’s Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next to Me enlivens You Bring Me Joy, while My Life takes the best of Roy Ayers’ Everybody Loves the Sunshine. Bar the cover of Rose Royce’s I’m Goin’ Down (which became her debut UK top 20 hit) and the later added-to-CD-only (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman, every song here is written by Blige with Combs and Chucky Thompson.Īppropriating the groove from the Mary Jane Girls’ All Night Long, the opening track Mary Jane (All Night Long) showcases Blige’s remarkable voice. It is a skilful patchwork of influences: the combination of selecting the right groove with Blige at her most soulful was extremely potent. It’s often while admiring his skilful use of a sample, alongside the power of her voice, that the listener is more receptive to the pathos at the album’s heart. Hearing My Life, you recall why its producer, Sean Combs, became such a superstar. Although a fairly bleak, sorrowful album, reflecting on her turbulent private life, this is a collection dressed in bright, shiny, soulful packaging.īut rather than sugar-coating the pill, it lets her emotions flood out. Blige’s persona as a ghetto diva, building on the success of her debut, What’s the 411?. The album lacks Stronger with Each Tear's focus and really bears no relation to My Life, apart from being an album by Mary J. There are numerous ballads that drift along at similar tempos, yet the sonic makeup from one track to another greatly varies, and not one of them truly sticks out to rank with Blige’s best. The second half, as with almost every other second half of a 70-minute album, sags. Chest-beating pleader “25/8” clearly aims for classic status with a Gamble/ Huff sample. The first half contains several uplifting, upbeat numbers, including a strong cover of Rufus & Chaka Khan's “Ain’t Nobody,” where producer Rodney Jerkins seems to have placed the synthesizer bass from René & Angela's “I’ll Be Good” in a deep fryer. Those who are hoping for something in the spirit of mid-‘90s Blige might be disappointed and think of the title as a ploy, but those who expect a wide variety of material in terms of style, mood, and quality will get precisely that. My Life II, like Stronger, is more like My Life and Those of Others Who Join Me, as it is it involves a succession of high-profile guests: Nas, Busta Rhymes, Drake, Rick Ross, Beyoncé, Diddy, and Lil Wayne.
That album has one guest who appears during a half-minute interlude there really isn’t much room for any other voice. Blige is in a much different, presumably much better place now than she was when she made the turbulent My Life. Technically titled My Life II.The Journey Continues (Act 1) - yes, it’s the first act of a continuation - it’s more the successor to Blige’s previous album, Stronger with Each Tear. Blige fan could listen to these 70 minutes of music as an untitled album and never think of it as a sequel to 1994's My Life.