Mary J. Blige Has a New Label and Star Collaborators but Recalls Her Classic Origins in ‘Good Morning Gorgeous’: Album Review
variety.comA.D. Amorosi Thirty years since her debut album asked the question “What’s the 411?,” and mere days before appearing as the (lone) female in the Super Bowl LVI halftime show, Mary J.
Blige proves that the shine on her crown as the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul goes untarnished. Her reign is undiminished and even furthered, as there’s a huskier edge than usual to “Good Morning Gorgeous,” her first album through 300 Entertainment, a label where Young Thug and Megan Thee Stallion keep house.Working in accordance with Tina Turner’s dictum of keeping every sound nice-and-rough, Blige still brings rap attitude to her notably emotive vocal flips, and teams that edge, again, with a ruminatively articulated and highly personalized take on the Black Woman Experience.
Call it empowerment. Call it autonomy. As long as Blige can get in the pocket of a track, and live as intimately within the melody as its lyrics exist within her psyche, we’re cool.
Welcoming a Murderers’ Row of producers (Bongo By the Way, D’Mile, Cool & Dre, London on da Track, DJ Khaled, etc.) and letting them loose on her thickest track list since 2014’s “The London Sessions” aids Blige in keeping her razor’s edge.
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