KEY POINTS:
Herald rating: * * *
She's a superstar in the United States but Mary J Blige doesn't have such a rabid following here, slipping between the pop divas, R&B chicks and soul queens. Perhaps it's because her voice isn't as distinctive as her peers or because she's so damned prolific, we can't keep up.
Her eighth album is edgier than The Breakthrough three years ago, and while not offering instant gratification, it smacks of va-va-voom, exploding into action with the three high-octane, empowering anthems, Work That, Grown Woman and Just That, the latter in which she proclaims, "No time for moping around, are you kidding?" The ladies will find it hard not to get swept along by her newfound ebullient mood and confidence. Blige appears to have found romantic stability and inner happiness and she celebrates it without neglecting to mention the hard times.
"It's my way or the highway," she intones grumpily on Roses, her bluesy ode to the demands of relationships. After such a strong start, Blige struggles to maintain the energy. While Neptunes-produced cuts like Till the Morning and the orchestral extravagance of Smoke reveal an experimental, artistic side, balladic cliches like Shake Down, What Love Is and Come To Me don't add anything to the R&B canon.
Label: Universal
Verdict: Grammy winner shucks off self-pity, finds herself
