The creative vision seemingly got lost in the outlandish title that never got a proper Act 2.
Of course, there are traces of her dark sophomore album that linger on tracks like “Feel Inside” and “Why.” A favorite, “Don’t Mind,” has become a concert favorite but the remainder of the project felt less Blige, and not cohesive. My Life II: The Journey Continues (Act 1), planned to be a sequel - or more so “an extension of how far we’ve come” - from 1994’s My Life, had its highs and lows. My Life II: The Journey Continues (Act 1) (2011) Hidden Gems: “Kitchen” and “Brand New” (iTunes pre-order track)ġ2. Stronger also dawned Blige’s ostentatious album title phase and her soundtrack scores as album closers.
Although Blige was in a ‘stronger’ space vocally, the album fell weak with generic songs like “We Got Hood Love” featuring Trey Songz. Blige’s ninth album is a happy medium between free-good records and tracks that consisted of low-drama. Stronger with Each Tear is probably not the successor fans expected after 2007’s regal Growing Pains. To celebrate the anniversary of Blige’s album Love & Life and her two-decade-long career, Rated R&B has ranked all 13 studio albums from least epic to most epic. Since then, Blige has done her part to discredit the LP - not performing songs off the project on tour and bypassing and overlooking the album in media conversations.
The 18-track set, packed with heavy soul and edgy rap samples, birthed a top-10 R&B hit (“Love 1st Sight”) and two other moderately successful singles (“Ooh” and “Not Today”).Īlthough Love & Life earned Blige her second number one album on the Billboard 200 and gained Blige another platinum victory, the new artistic direction left a sour taste in the mouths of critics and career-long fans. Returning to humble beginnings, Blige and Diddy settled on recreating their ‘90s hip-hop soul magic on Love & Life. While Blige was building a love nest with her then-husband and manager, she found herself back in the music arms of her long-standing collaborator and friend, P.
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