Love & Life is arguably the closest sequel to 1994’s My Life - not 2011’s My Life II. Overturning the record bin of soul and hip-hop songs from yesteryears, Blige and Diddy apply samples to most tracks on the project that are about happiness, clarity and deliverance. Love & Life isn’t Blige’s best work, but it’s definitely not her worst. Hidden Gems: “Telling the Truth” and “Thank You” Seeking treatment for her emotional wounds, Blige recovered in rare form, and brought 1997’s The Tour moments on revenge songs like trap-jazz “Set Me Free” and stunt-heavy “Glow Up.” But once the thunderstorms of pain cleared, and the sun shined on the second half of the LP, it became almost automatic to restart Strength of a Woman and tirelessly listen to only tracks one through eight. Strength of a Woman is that album every estranged MJB fan was waiting on after her divorce news made headlines. Hidden Gems: “Pick Me Up” and “Long Hard Look” She sounds right at home on cuts like “Right Now” and “Whole Damn Year ” but she could have done more church groans on the deep house and UK garbage jams such as “Nobody But You.” Even though Blige’s experimental shift was met with uncertain whispers by career-long fans, The London Sessions helped her get her mojo back for future releases. Hidden Gems: “No Condition” and “Irreversible”Īfter feeling “ stale in own career” and needing to “ do something different,” Blige took her 12th studio album efforts overseas to record with UK’s brightest stars including Sam Smith, Disclosure, Sam Romans and Emeli Sandé. The creative vision seemingly got lost in the outlandish title that never got a proper Act 2. Of course, there are traces of her dark sophomore album that linger on tracks like “Feel Inside” and “Why.” A favorite, “Don’t Mind,” has become a concert favorite but the remainder of the project felt less Blige, and not cohesive. My Life II: The Journey Continues (Act 1), planned to be a sequel - or more so “an extension of how far we’ve come” - from 1994’s My Life, had its highs and lows. My Life II: The Journey Continues (Act 1) (2011) Hidden Gems: “Kitchen” and “Brand New” (iTunes pre-order track)ġ2. Stronger also dawned Blige’s ostentatious album title phase and her soundtrack scores as album closers. Although Blige was in a ‘stronger’ space vocally, the album fell weak with generic songs like “We Got Hood Love” featuring Trey Songz. Blige’s ninth album is a happy medium between free-good records and tracks that consisted of low-drama. Stronger with Each Tear is probably not the successor fans expected after 2007’s regal Growing Pains. To celebrate the anniversary of Blige’s album Love & Life and her two-decade-long career, Rated R&B has ranked all 13 studio albums from least epic to most epic. Since then, Blige has done her part to discredit the LP - not performing songs off the project on tour and bypassing and overlooking the album in media conversations. The 18-track set, packed with heavy soul and edgy rap samples, birthed a top-10 R&B hit (“Love 1st Sight”) and two other moderately successful singles (“Ooh” and “Not Today”).Īlthough Love & Life earned Blige her second number one album on the Billboard 200 and gained Blige another platinum victory, the new artistic direction left a sour taste in the mouths of critics and career-long fans. Returning to humble beginnings, Blige and Diddy settled on recreating their ‘90s hip-hop soul magic on Love & Life. While Blige was building a love nest with her then-husband and manager, she found herself back in the music arms of her long-standing collaborator and friend, P.
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