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We’ve arrived at that time of the year where I review the latest offering from my beloved Mary J. Blige. It has become a bi-annual tradition, since her fourth quarter, every-other-year- release can be counted on like clockwork. With that in mind let’s review the way her last three albums have been setup by Blige via press.

On Stronger With Each Tear:

“The album represents who and what I am right now. I’m a stronger human being after all the growing pains. It’s about life, love, change, strength—mostly really knowing who you are and being confident in that.”

On Growing Pains:

“It’s not reliving where I been. [The album is] just based on where I am… So many people are like, ‘I’m perfect.’ I’m so imperfect, that’s why I’m able to let everything out and let people see everything. ‘Cause I’m just a mess like every other person that’s a mess out there. And it’s going to take probably a lifetime to get to a point in my life where I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m perfect.’ I don’t think that will ever happen. So as long as I’m a human being and I’m not perfect, I’m able to say I’m having some growing pains. Because in order to sustain where you are once you made such a breakthrough that everyone is looking at you, now everyone is like, ‘Ooh, is she gonna make a mistake?’ Yes, I’m going to make a mistake. Yes, I’m still gonna do things. And that’s what Growing Pains is about, it’s about finally not whining about the pain, Mary J. Blige, and accepting the pain that comes with growing.”

On The Breakthrough:

“Well, the significance of the title is, if you can last in the music business, and just in life period, you’re having…I’m talking about me, you know, I had to grow up in front of everyone you know? And go through everything I went through. This is the hardest business to sustain and even think about sustaining after you have been through so much. And through it all, I tried to remain positive, I tried to get through the peaks and the valleys. When I’m in the valley I try to remain in a stable, positive position, which is hard to do. That’s something in itself. Anything that’s hard to do, you’ve got to break into it. You’re not going to get through a door without the key unless you break it down. Or, you’re not going to get through some glass unless you break through it, or bust through it, you know. So my life has been like, really, just one trial after the next, and heavy, heavy situations, so I managed to make it to this point, to where I’m actually feeling good about myself. I like myself. I understand that there will be more trials and tribulations and negative situations to come, but there’s also a choice I can make, and I’m going to choose to be happy, and do the right thing. And that’s what “The Breakthrough” is about.”

To all of the above I call bullshit.

The biggest mistake we make as Mary J. Blige fans is how we perpetuate the emotional mythology that surrounds her. We say things like “With Mary it’s not about perfection, it’s about emotion. She’s so raw that I believe her!” I keep falling into that same trap over and over again, mostly because I genuinely do love her music. I also don’t take for granted that she’s not perfect, or that she has drama, issues, and problems like the rest of us. But the problem with her is that she continues to setup her albums with variations on the same line, so it’s difficult to tell when something is inspired by actual growth and self-reflection versus contractual obligation. In fact, a more appropriate title for her latest release would’ve been Contractually Obligated Mary J. Blige Album 2009.

What makes Stronger With Each Tear thematically or musically different from The Breakthrough or Growing Pains? Not much of anything. And I just don’t have the strength to review the actual songs on the album because her music isn’t going anywhere conceptually. It’s like any of these songs could’ve made the two that preceded it. I loved Growing Pains and The Breakthrough had some dope tracks on it. This one isn’t bad in terms every other commercial R&B album released in recent months, but in terms of her it’s tired. (Okay, this song called “Kitchen” is really really bad. Like, she should be better than this.)

Maybe she’s growing as a person. I can’t really tell because I don’t live with her. But as an artist she’s choosing to go nowhere. It would be nice if she got with perhaps one producer and sat down and went “Okay, this is the kind of music I want to make. This is the story I want to tell. We’re going to have a beginning, a middle and an end. We’re going to take my listeners on a journey and it will sound like this.” Versus, you know, recording a bunch of songs with a bunch of producers over the course of a year, seeing what fits her arbitrary concept and putting it together in time for a fourth quarter release every other year. She didn’t come into the new album with any ideas and it shows. Right down to the re-use of her previous song titles or the gross similarities between new tracks and old (“Good Love” and “Can’t Hide From Luv” are the same song).

This all leads me to believe that she hasn’t learned anything, and unfortunately, neither have we. All the storm and drain isn’t worth it if she isn’t taking chances musically.

Tags: mary j. blige