Customer Reviews

Ballads: Mary J Blige

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With the exception of Mary J. Blige's "No More Drama", "Ballads" supplies the diehard Mary J. Blige fan with a collection of slow jams from all of her other CDs. You get some of my personal favorites like "I Never Wanna Live Without You", "Seven Days", "Slow Down", "I Don't Want To Do Anything" w/K Ci and "No Happy Holidays". You also get "Natural Woman" which is only featured on the New York Undercover soundtrack, "Beautiful", which isn't a slow jam, that is only featured on the How Stella Got Her Groove Back soundtrack and her cover of Stevie Wonder's "Overjoyed", which was unreleased prior to the release of this CD. So if you are a Mary J. Blige fan like I am then you get to decide if this collection is worth the import price. If you have all of Mary J. Blige's CDs then basically you are missing only 4 of these songs, so paying over $ for this CD may not be worth it to you. Also if you are going to release a CD of Mary J. Blige's slow jams, import or not, how can you not include "Love No Limit", "A Dream" from the Money Talks soundtrack, "You Gotta Believe", "My Life", "Not Gon' Cry" from the Waiting To Exhale soundtrack, "All That I Can Say", "Missing You (Live)" from "The Tour" and this CD's biggest exclusion, "The Love I Never Had" from the "Mary" CD. That song is one of Mary J. Blige's best slow songs of all time. So basically as a Mary fan you are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Fortunately, the love of my life purchased this for me for Christmas and I didn't have to make that decision. If you don't have an avid collection of Mary J. Blige CDs or if you are a diehard Mary fan then I would say this is a CD worth having. You just have to decide if "Ballads" is worth the face value.

How can an artist be this talented? Mary puts so much into her work, and you know shes lived through this, its not like those songs you hear by those wannabe teen pop artists that sing about heartbreak, they dont know what they are singing about, Mary puts her heart into it, shes lived it. Ballads is a collection of Mary's best ballads, released only in Japan. The songs on here are from Whats The 411, My Life, Share My World and Mary. There is also a bonus track, for those hardcore fans that are looking for Overjoyed, the track produced by Stevie Wonder featured in the Nike ad, well its here. This may seem expensive but its worth it, for this talent who wouldnt want to pay to hear that beautiful voice, a voice too beautiful for words.

Yes, I know there's Aretha (queen of soul) Tina (queen of rock) Madonna (queen of pop) Gladys (queen of R&B) and I respect all those woman and own their work aswell, but for my generation Mary is my queen (queen of hip-hop soul no one is saying queen of soul that's Aretha)! Now on to my review, I knew I had to review this once I got it in my hands. What else can I say but wow! I'm glad that she came out with this b/c there are some songs that aren't on any of her albums (Natural woman, Beautiful, Overjoyed) and I really didn't want to buy any of the soundtracks that the songs were on b/c they weren't all that good. Btw Overjoyed is a new track from her and that's mainly why I got this cd. Hold on though, if your new to her then almost every song on here you'll feel. It's basically like a "best of" b/c she is really good on her slow jams! No, she's not the greatest vocalist in the world but that's not the point. The point is what she feels at the moment she's singing and then it gets transended into the listener. Few singers can do this and she's one of them! Stand out tracks are mainly all of them. Except there are some other ballads that should have been included (Everyday, Love no limit, I'm going down, Everyday it rains) but it doesn't matter b/c the cream of the crop is right here all on one disc. For u diehard Mary fans u have to get this by all means necessary! Like I said if your new to her then go ahead and pick this up yes there's a heavy price-tag on it but trust me it will be worth it! Be warned this maybe the begining of an obsession with a full-troated soul singer who keeps it real lol. Don't say I didn't warn you.

This is one of the most best cds for the new year it has 16 songs on it and the order that they put the songs in will have you in Mary world.This cd takes you back to when she gave us the 411 to My Life,to Share my world the Tour and Mary and then some . I love to play this cd every weekend it keeps me going. 1.overjoyed 2.you remind me 3.beautiful 4.everything 5.slow down 6.never want to live without you 7.seven days 8.natural woman 9.I don't want to do anything (live) 10.give me you 11.no happy holidays 12.your child 13.missing you 14.Ilove you 15.don't go 16.misty blue (live)

This great collection of Mary J's Ballads includes both her original tracks ((Seven Days, Missing You, You Remind Me etc) and some excellent covers;

Overjoyed, Natural Women, and her stellar Live verson of Misty Blue all show what Mary can do with her diverse vocal pipes, and they more than honor the soul icons that these songs are best known from. However, Mary more than makes these songs her own.

This CD makes for a great Quiet Storm.

One notable omission is her cover of Natalie Cole's "Our Love", from Mary's Share My World CD.

Now, where is a US Ballad Collection.

for the first line of natural woman....Aretha would never commit a blunder like that....amazingly it was released again on the soundtrack of the Al Pacino film "Simone" with the same gigantic flaw in the lyrics...other than that it sounds pretty good.

I am a true MJB fan and I'm one of the fans that are waiting for the store to open to get my musical high. MJB never ceases to amaze me. She keeps me interested, excited and wanting more from the beginning to the finale.

Look for Freed By Love,"Nothing But The Drama" a book that was inspired by MJB it is a must read. The writer of this book credits Mary for alot of her lyrics. The book is available at amazon.com. Check it out.

But this album compilation is simply marvelous. Thank you Mary I haven't sampled any Mary cd that was not banging and anyone who doesn't believe that is simply a hater.

Mary's #1 Fan. Don't forget to read Freed By Love the book dedicated to MJB...

Yes, Marys ballads are great! However the song (You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman was released in the U.S. as a single with You Bring Me Joy(E-Smoove's Soul Mix) by Uptown records CD#UPTDS-55139 in 1995. I was lucky enough to find a copy of it. The tune is definitely worth listening to however you get it!