Mary J. Blige holds her own, with her third stellar album in a row behind her European music culture driven, The London Sessions and her full-length album for, Think Like A Man Too, motion picture soundtrack. Mary still experiences pain on this album, as she has on every album she's ever released throughout her 25 year musical career. But on, Strength Of A Woman, the pain is at an uphillMary J. Blige holds her own, with her third stellar album in a row behind her European music culture driven, The London Sessions and her full-length album for, Think Like A Man Too, motion picture soundtrack. Mary still experiences pain on this album, as she has on every album she's ever released throughout her 25 year musical career. But on, Strength Of A Woman, the pain is at an uphill again, and as we know the main cause of this hurt has been influenced by her man, but in Mary's reality lately, her husband Kendu Issacs, or her now ex-husband. Where on Mary's second album, My Life, her engagement to her lover at the time Cedric "K-Ci" Hailey of popular r&b group Jodeci influenced her painful open diary love letter. This go-round Issacs has untwisted the knot of marriage with his personal infidelities towards Mary during their 13 year relationship as a married couple, openly cheating on Mary for the last five years of their union, and is the main objective of hell breaking loose on this album. And yes, Mary has a whole lot to sing about but it isn't always pain, it's reliving one's self from the pain and finding the courage to keep going, as she details on "Survivor." While Mary continues to go the marriage counseling route on tunes like, "Love Yourself (Featuring Kanye West)," "U+Me (Love Lesson)" and "Indestructible." Mary also flips it and reverses it on dance cuts like, "Glow Up (featuring Quavo, DJ Khaled and Missy Elliott)" and "Telling The Truth (Featuring Kaytranada)" while having fun, being free and uplifting herself at the same time. But, Mary can also go into her 1995, "Not Gon' Cry" territory, on male cut-throat female bashing anthems like, "Thick Of It" and "Set Me Free." While "Set Me Free" is the highlight of the album, it's also the cut where Mary sings the blues, as only Mary can. Mary takes it a step further by venturing into Destiny's Child, TLC and En Vogue girl-group female anthems on, "It's Me," while still in marriage counseling mode during a confession about the negatives and positives in which brought on divorce. While on the following half on the LP, Mary finds closure and develops strength for herself on tunes like, "Thank You" and "Strength Of A Woman." You can tell that Mary has ripped the many pages of Joyce Meyer, T.D. Jakes, Tony Robbins, Joel Osteen and Juanita Bynum's many books and publications for her own personal spiritual guidance. And she follows-up that guidance with asking God for his continued forgiveness on, "Hello Father" the closing song.… Expand