Superstar singer Mary J. Blige’s 10th hit-bound album, “My Life II: The Journey Continues (Act 1),” is a great sequel to her second album, “My Life,” which spawned six hit singles since its 1994 debut (“Mary Jane (All Night Long),” “You Bring Me Joy,” “My Life,” “I’m Goin’ Down,” “I Love You” and “Be Happy”) and served as an unflinching, soul-bearing portrait of Blige’s tortured state of mind at the time.
When Blige recorded “My Life” in the fall of 1993, she was dealing with clinical depression, battling both drug and alcohol addiction and was deep into an abusive relationship with singer K-Ci Hailey of Jodeci. The pain in her voice and her lyrics-backed by beats executive produced by P. Diddy-resonated with an entire generation of fans and went on to stay on top of Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart for eight consecutive weeks. “My Life” eventually became the most successful R&B album on the Billboard Year-End chart for 1995.
Blige said that “My Life II” is crafted to sound more like her first two albums than any of her more recent material. “It’s more like a ‘What’s the 411?’ of 2012,” she said. The album features production from a variety of talents, including Danja, the Underdogs, Jim Jonsin and Darkchild. Surely Blige’s latest album is set to be a big hit.