Mary - Blige, Mary J. (CD 1999)

With three successful albums under her Gucci belt (four, if you count the remix album), Mary J. Blige was already an established superstar by 1999. Mining the middle ground between the rough-edged rhythms of hip-hop and the smooth sounds of soul, she'd risen to the top of her genre. If any time was ripe for experimentation, it was then.

Not that "Mary", the album, was a sonic exploration along the lines of Prince's "Around The World In A Day" or Stevie's "Journey Through The Secret Life of Plants". But on her fourth studio effort, Blige decided to explore a more mature, nuanced sound. Unlike previous albums, there's no monster single, no surefire collaboration (although there are a sh*tload of big names that appear here). There really isn't even any hip-hop here (Jadakiss delivers an immediately forgettable verse on one song). This time, it's all about flow and mood. "Mary" is Blige's most "singer-songwriter"-sounding album.

Although the song quality wavers tremendously over the course of "Mary", the strong moments here are worth having to sit through the occasional dud. As you would expect with a ballad-heavy album, a couple of the songs sort of run into one another. "Give Me You" is a boilerplate Diane Warren pop ballad, given a bit of bluesy underpinning by the presence of Eric Clapton's guitar. But even Slowhand's histrionics can't prevent the song from sounding rather banal. "The Love I Never Had" is intended to be a showstopping ballad, complete with a full live band, horn section and all. What's missing? A melody, for starters. This is the type of song that would probably bring the house down in a live setting, but bores the hell out of you without the visual of a fiery Mary running across the stage.

Although Mary's work has always been sample-heavy, a couple of songs here border on plain lazy. "Deep Inside" recycles the melody of the piano intro to Elton John's "Bennie & The Jets" (replayed by Sir Elton himself), but the song itself has no movement. It's the musical equivalent of running in place. Even Mary's autobiographical lyrics can't save the song from being a bit boring and indistinct.

Mary indulges in a serious Stevie Wonder jones on this album. The haunting "Time" borrows a start-stop drum pattern familiar to fans of hip-hop (or Al Green's "I'm Glad You're Mine") and also uses a bit of the melody from Stevie's "Pastime Paradise" to create one of Mary's better socially conscious numbers. Meanwhile, the dream-like "All That I Can Say" and the sensual "Sexy" both have they keyboard-heavy, somewhat woozy sound of Stevie's mid-late Seventies work. The former song finds Mary singing in a deeper register, while she almost whispers the latter. This album is definitely her most eclectic from a vocal standpoint.

Clapton and Aretha aren't the only special guests included here. Lauryn Hill produced the aforementioned "All That I Can Say", and powerhouse vocalists Aretha Franklin and K-Ci Hailey also make appearances here. The Queen of Soul turns in an admirable effort, playing big sister/mentor to Mary on the dramatic "Don't Waste Your Time", advising Mary to stop putting up with a no-good boyfriend. This is one of the few songs where Aretha's current technique of screaming at the top of her vocal range actually works. The K-Ci duet "Not Lookin'" sizzles with even more chemistry, probably due to the fact that Blige and Hailey were an estranged couple at that point. You can almost hear Mary sucking her teeth as she brushes off K-Ci's somewhat desperate advances.

Despite all that, however, the two best songs here are covers. Granted, I'd never heard the original version of "I'm In Love" up to that point (actually, I still haven't), but this ballad was originally recorded by The Gap Band. Mary again dips into her lower register and does a good job with the song. A fantastic vocal arrangment and some tastefully played sax add highlights to an already great song. Finally, Mary rips into First Choice's disco jam "Let No Man Put Asunder" with a fierceness that suggests that Mary would have killed the crowd at places like The Paradise Garage and Studio 54 had she been 10-15 years older.

This album marked the beginning of an artistic maturation that wouldn't really come to fruition for another six or seven years, when "The Breakthrough" became Mary's career high-water mark. It's certainly more "adult" sounding than her next two albums, the awful "No More Drama" and the decent "Love & Life" would prove to be, leaning very strongly toward the "soul" portion of the whole "hip-hop/soul" equation. Although "Mary" is inconsistent as a whole, it still contains enough quality material to deserve a place in your record collection.


"Mary" by Mary J. Blige
Released 1999 on MCA Records
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars


More Mary:

More Mary:
"What's The 411?"
"What's The 411 Remix Album"
"My Life"
"Share My World"
"Love & Life"
"The Breakthrough"
"Reflections: A Retrospective"
"Growing Pains"