Buy Now
| Buy on |
|
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
Dec 1, 2014The result is her most vital album in years, one that not only carves out a niche for her in contemporary dance music but also digs deeply into her gospel and soul-ballad roots.
-
Nov 26, 2014Though Sessions' ballads aren't nearly as bracing, Emile Sande-assisted "Whole Damn Year" and the minimalist closer "Worth My Time" tap smartly into Blige's endless well of world-weary pathos, which keeps all the icy production from becoming bloodless. [5 Dec 2014, p.69]
-
MojoDec 17, 2014While The London Sessions takes her in fresh new directions, Blige's own identity remains the dominant flavour. [Jan 2015, p.98]
-
Q MagazineDec 8, 2014The London Sessions isn't quite the hoped-for wholehearted embrace of the UK house nation, but it witnesses the reawakening of one of modern soul's most durable sirens. [Jan 2015, p.127]
-
Dec 4, 2014The London Sessions just happens to have her best round of songs, productions, and performances since The Breakthrough.
-
Dec 1, 2014The London Sessions has a swanky premise, and finds Blige in an artistically intrepid mode. It's also one of her best efforts in recent years.
-
Nov 24, 2014Blige’s co-writers, including UK-to-US success stories Disclosure, Emeli Sandé and Sam Smith, find striking ways to frame Blige’s voice without distracting from its richness and emotional range.
-
Nov 24, 2014This is some kind of triumph for Blige and for Britain.
-
Dec 15, 2014Blige’s enthusiasm is most powerful on Follow.
-
Dec 9, 2014It’s a seamless and occasionally thrilling listen that establishes a fact many could have predicted: Blige’s throaty vocals, as passionate and emotional as ever, are an ideal fit for house music. Nonetheless the album doesn’t exactly play out how you might expect.
-
Dec 2, 2014Too much of The London Sessions is given over to frisky house tracks like “Follow” and “Nobody But You,” which don’t hit nearly as hard as the rest, but Blige has maintained her fierce authority throughout.
-
Dec 2, 2014The reboot works.
-
Dec 1, 2014Structural issues aside, the strength of the material on The London Session is enough to place the Queen back on track to relevance, after a number of less-inspired efforts had all but sapped her career momentum.
-
Nov 26, 2014It isn't more than the sum of its highlights, but on the surface, it's fun. Like a diary written in a bunch of different, eye-catching fonts.
-
Nov 25, 2014The dance songs don’t have nearly as much uniqueness or specificity.... By contrast, exhilarating ballads like “Whole Damn Year” make the most of Blige’s queen-of-pain character.
-
Nov 24, 2014The opening song here, Therapy, is a self-conscious nod towards Amy Winehouse’s Rehab. Elsewhere, things feel more natural.
-
Dec 3, 2014Too often does this Mary J. Blige record not actually feel like a Mary J. Blige record, and compounding that fundamental issue is the mere reality that so many of these songs piggyback the hottest genre of music in the world right now.
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 22 out of 26
-
Mixed: 0 out of 26
-
Negative: 4 out of 26
-
Dec 28, 2014
-
Dec 3, 2014
-
Mar 12, 2020