She has been able to do what few others before her have: cater to her crossover audience without losing the essence of what she really is and where she came from, and so all of Growing Pains, from its upbeat beginning to its reflective, personal ending (though the last track, "Come to Me (Peace)" is the only real miss on the entire album), doesn't seem forced or calculated. Blige certainly hasn't lost her title of Queen of Hip-Hop Soul - the opening "Work That" is all swagger and affirmation with a great urban beat, the Neptunes-produced "Till the Morning" is funky and warm, and "Stay Down" takes a look back at mid-'90s R&B with rambling lyrical lines, including a fantastic reference to The Jeffersons, but she's opened herself up to more styles here, and successfully. Musically, in fact, the album takes an even greater step toward pop (foreshadowed, no doubt, by the cover of U2's "One" on her previous release), with songs like "Fade Away," which borrows heavily from '80s pop, and "Talk to Me," which is informed by classic soul and uses an Emotions sample underneath the guitars and keyboards, helping to set the overall tone.
Blige, as always, is in great vocal form: her clear, distinctive voice carries the record with its dips and swoops and cries, but the embellishments never get in the way of melody, never replace the meaning of words with excessive vibrato or melisma. Her increased self-confidence, some of which comes from confessing her all-too-human flaws, makes Growing Pains a mature, polished, and utterly professional set of well-crafted songs. Blige continues to prove her versatility and strength, building off 2005's The Breakthrough, but not copying from it. Buy the album Starting at kr133.99Įight albums into her career and comfortably settled into married life - and, for the most part, herself - Mary J. Growing Pains was awarded the Best Contemporary R&B Album at the 51st Grammy Awards in February 2009.Purchase and download this album in a wide variety of formats depending on your needs. The third official single, "Stay Down" reached the top 40 R&B charts, and was chosen in favor of "Hurt Again", which was originally the third single, but eventually was only a radio single by receiving airplay in Spring 2008. "Work That" was released as the second single on December 18, 2007, and managed to peak inside the top 20 of the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and number 65 in the Billboard Hot 100. Growing Pains was ranked number 29 on Rolling Stone's list of the Top 50 Albums of 2007 and was eventually certified Platinum by RIAA. An R&B album that was released on December 18, 2007, by Geffen Records, it debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 200, selling 629,000 copies in its first week, and reached number one in January 2008. Growing Pains is the eighth studio album by American recording artist Mary J.
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