Growing Pains Mary J Blige

[Rule Uresti]

Theres no denying the commercial legs or fan appeal of MaryJ. Blige's late-2005 The Breakthrough. In the wake of 2003'sDiddy dud Love & Life and the teeth of an industrywideslump, its triple-platinum domestic sales--not to mention thesixteen-month stay of "Be Without You" on the R&B chart--are verynearly miraculous. So it's a little glossy, a little soft, a littleemotional. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, especially ahappily married girl who wants to share the emotional wealth.

A mere two years later, with a best-of in between, Blige isback. Growing Pains is the eighth studio album of herfifteen-year career, and it doesn't stand pat. Where TheBreakthrough harnessed an astonishing thirteen producers or teamsover its sixteen tracks, as of press time these require, give or takea few collaborators, only nine. Moreover, Blige has rehired just twoof the last record's music providers: Andre Harris and Vidal Davis,responsible for the over-the-top "Father in You" then and the softlyrevealing "Hurt Again" now, and "Be Without You"'s Bryan-Michael Cox,who we can blame for the anodyne self-help number "Stay Down." Newlyenlisted producers include "Umbrella"-wielding Tricky Stewart,Pharrell Williams bearing a "Good Times" bass line, the NorwegianStarGate combine that gave us Ne-Yo's "So Sick," Ne-Yo associateNeff-U and Ne-Yo himself.

These changes don't signal any fundamental evolution, however. Takethe album titles literally--after her Diddy retro tanked, the lastalbum embodied Blige's "breakthrough" from "Queen of Hip-Hop Soul" tobest-selling R&B diva, while this one reflects her "growing pains"within her freely chosen new self-definition. Right, both titles alsoreference her personal life. But since her personal life, musicallytransubstantiated, is the subject of her songs, why can't the titleshave a double function? Ultimately, that's the point.

One welcome shift is retro--some hip-hop soul. Compared toWill.i.am's mild commentary and Jay-Z's hype-man icing on TheBreakthrough, the cameos by Busta Rhymes on the rousing sisterhoodanthem "Work That" and Ludacris on the lascivious body-pride come-on"Grown Woman" are takeover moves, and not only that--the songs havethe stuff to fight back. These loud, assertive tracks remind us justhow tough this sweet-voiced diva can be, and add muscle to, forinstance, the silly gangsta metaphor underlying the Usher duet "ShakeDown": "I'm robbin' you for your love." More auspiciously, they beefup two declarations of female pride composed in part by the Dream, whowrote "Umbrella." "I work this relationship nine to five," Blige tellsthe tomcatting dog of "Nowhere Fast." "Stick around till I get areturn on my investment." On the confessional "Roses," she tells herman he'd better "suck it up" and understand her bad mood. Both timesStewart's tricks--softened by bubbly electro beats on the first song,ominously bass-y on the second--undercut the soap opera.

Baring her weaknesses, "Roses" is a typical move for Blige, who'salways made a specialty of acting the round-the-way girl. When she gotmarried in 2003, she invited not a single celeb to her wedding, andalways she keeps that faith. "Just like you," "Work in Progress" tellsher fans, "sometimes I get depressed." But the tone of her confessionshas changed with her music. Growing Pains is an edgier recordthan The Breakthrough, but Blige has definitely lost or justoutgrown the brassy urgency of her twenties. Then, her confessions hadthe feel of painful late-night outbursts; these days, they sound morelike she's had a lot of therapy. It would be easy to make fun of this,but why? How gratifying it is to see pop lucre propel a project kidlike Mary J. Blige into the upper reaches of the upper-middle classrather than turn her into a lost grotesque. If her new music stillsometimes seems too comfy for comfort, give her credit for trying togrow into it and believing she can keep on going.

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