- Record Label: Geffen
- Release Date: Nov 21, 2011
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Dec 9, 2011My Life II, despite its flaws, is an immensely enjoyable and impressive album. The four song, mid-album set of soulful R&B, featuring both her new single "25/8" and a cover of Chaka Kahn's "Ain't Nobody" is pure pleasure for the ear, unfiltered stimulation for the body, and mood enhancer for the heart. The closing trio of ballads, including "Need Someone" and the soundtrack single from The Help, "The Living Proof" demonstrate the singer's ability to capture the magnificent mysteries of adult emotion in her vocal phrasing.
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Nov 30, 2011My Life II… The Journey Continues (Part 1) is one of Mary's most memorable albums.
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Nov 28, 2011With the right collaborators she can conjure golden moments.
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Nov 21, 2011It manages to avoid the pitfalls of creative redundancy and combines a classic sound with a contemporary twist to perfect effect.
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Nov 29, 2011What My Life II lacks in a single vision, though, it makes up for with consistently rousing performances from Blige.
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Dec 15, 2011Truly, this is more of an extension than a sequel, with Blige showing once more that she can go from tripped-out, beat-heavy tracks to earnest love songs in a moment, and that "moment" is something she inhabits achingly well.
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Dec 6, 2011I don't think My Life II in and of itself will go down as one of Mary's best albums; for all its quality it just doesn't have the focus and vision of a classic and occasionally seems to pander to the hot house/techno/club trend.
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Dec 1, 2011Amid overwrought theatrical gestures, MJB still finds a slinky groove.
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Nov 22, 2011After all these years, she can still make pain pleasurable.
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Nov 21, 2011There's a real intelligence about the whole album that looks to old-school hip hop and late-model disco, which were never too far apart, to provide a platform springy enough and familiar enough for the singer to launch her vocals.
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Nov 23, 2011The lovelorn lyrics get same-y, and "modern" touches (like snoozy duets with Drake and Beyoncé) show a Blige who doesn't care much about the here and now.
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Nov 28, 2011It feels elegant, refined and, for the most, part up-to-date. But it's also far too long and ... the ballads feel weighed down with listlessness and sentimentality.
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Nov 23, 2011Those who are hoping for something in the spirit of mid-'90s Blige might be disappointed and think of the title as a ploy, but those who expect a wide variety of material in terms of style and mood will get precisely that.
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Nov 21, 2011Is the album a worthy successor to My Life? Not remotely, despite being a listenable chapter in Blige's ongoing Remembrance of Joints Past.
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Nov 21, 2011The high priestess of emotional turmoil returns to her apparently turbulent personal life on this latest album, vacillating between obsessive devotion, self-assertive morale-boosting and the kind of masochistic abasement depicted in "Mr Wrong".
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Dec 2, 2011Her pain is less harrowing – she's older now and knows how to cope -– so instead of singing only for herself, she's doing it for her listeners, a noble goal but also dull and predictable.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 19 out of 22
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Mixed: 2 out of 22
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Negative: 1 out of 22
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Nov 22, 2011
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Nov 22, 2011
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Dec 9, 2013