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List Price: $13.98 | | Label: Geffen Records
Salesrank: 753
Released: December 18, 2007 |
| Our Price: $5.41 |
| Used Price: $2.70 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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Growing Pains Track Listing:
1. Work That
2. Grown Woman featuring Ludacris
3. Just Fine
4. Feel Like a Woman
5. Stay Down
6. Hurt Again
7. Shakedown featuring Usher
8. Till the Morning
9. Roses
10. Fade Away
11. What Love Is
12. Work in Progress (Growing Pains)
13. Talk To Me
14. If You Love Me?
15. Smoke
16. Come To Me (Peace)
Editorial Review:
Geffen Records superstar and hit-making songwriter Mary J. Blige, is set to follow-up the most successful album of her career, the triple platinum The Breakthrough, with her eighth (8th) studio CD Growing Pains.
Growing Pains includes the single "Just Fine" which has become an instant favorite on radio and on MTV, BET and VH-1. The second single from Growing Pains, "Work That," is currently featured in an Apple I-Pod commercial.
After selling over 40 million CDs and garnering six Grammy Awards during her phenomenal 15-year career, Mary is confident that her fans will not be disappointed with Growing Pains. "They're going to get a sense of what my state of mind is and how I view the world," she says. "And hopefully, most of all, they're going to hear just the sincere honesty and love that I have for them." She adds, "Growing Pains represents accepting that there's pain that goes along with growing and change. No pain, no gain."
Growing Pains, with Mary co-writing most of the songs on the album, features guest appearances by Ludacris and Usher and production by The Neptunes, Jazze Pha, Johnta Austin, Neyo, Stargate, Bryan-Michael Cox, Dre and Vidal, Tricky, Dream, and Sean Garrett.
Mary makes her message loud, clear and seriously funky on the first release "Just Fine" produced by Jazze Pha and Tricky and co-written by Mary and Dream. A celebration of life, "Just Fine" gives you Mary fierce, and as the video shows, glamorous. The song's vibe? "Sometimes it feels like you're having this miserable time, like all 365 days of the year are tough. But then, you get one of those days; maybe when your hair is great, or you're not stuck in traffic; where it's a `just fine' day. At some point," Mary laughs, "You've got have one or two of those."
The party and positivity keeps on keeping on with the rump shaking second single "Work That." Mary comments, "When I meet a woman who doesn't know what to do about her weight or her hair I always say - `whatever it is that you have, make that work for you, Work what you got.'"
After releasing her bestselling anthology Reflections last year, Growing Pains is Mary's first CD of new material since The Breakthrough debuted at #1 in 2005, selling over 700,000 copies its first week -- the best opening week for a solo R&B female artist in SoundScan history. The album's first single, "Be Without You," also made chart history by holding down the #1 spot on the Billboard R&B charts for a record breaking 16 straight weeks; making it the longest-running No. 1 song on the R&B chart in over 40 years. Mary led all artists with eight 2007 Grammy nominations for the landmark album, and she took home honors for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, Best R&B Song (both for "Be Without You"), and Best R&B Album. After earning three Grammy Awards, she continued her award show domination by winning nine Billboard Music Awards, two American Music Awards, two BET Awards, two NAACP Image Awards, and a Soul Train Award. The Breakthrough lived up to its name selling over seven million copies worldwide.
More from Mary J. Blige
Reflections—A Retrospective |
The Breakthrough |
My Life |
What's the 411? |
No More Drama |
Share My World |
Mary |
Love & Life |
The Tour |
Description of Growing Pains:
"I'm talkin' 'bout things I know," Mary J. Blige wails on "Work That," the second single and opening track of Growing Pains. The album squeaked into 2007 too late to make best-of lists but otherwise would have stormed its way up several, for sure. She needn't have hit us with such a pronouncement: In 16 songs that ring as remarkably, unflinchingly true as those on 2005's landmark The Breakthrough, the queen of hip-hop soul keeps "keeping it real" a specialty. There's no sense in trying to assign credit for the skin-tight grooves and funked-up retro vibe here; with nine producers padding Blige's emotion-rich voice and the lyrics she so obviously lives by, what we're left with is a melange of sounds. But it's a measure of an artist who has mastered her own identity and left nothing to chance that this, her eighth studio album, comes off so free of wild cards and loose edges. "You ask what love feels like," she sings on "What Love Is," one of the disc's less fierce tracks. "It feels like joy, and it feels like pain, and it feels like sunshine, and it feels like rain," she continues, answering the question. The album feels the same way, a passel of complex feelings all wrapped up in love. No one knows struggle, heartache, and triumph over mediocrity like Blige. --Tammy La Gorce
Growing Pains Reviews:
Mary is still Mary and I love her no Matter What 
2008-10-05 - I love "If you Love Me." I love that song. That song talks about all the things a man need to do to retain the relationship.
I knew before I bought this album that it was not going to be her best but I bought it anyway because I'm a fan forever.
Just fine is a good song too if you really listen to the words. I listen to this song when I'm going to work and working out at the gym. Other than that, those are the only 2 songs I listen too. she is still the "Queen" and nobody can wear that crown the way she does!
Growing Pains 
2008-09-23 - Very good CD. A good variety of music, some fast to dance to, some slow to mellow out with and some duets.
Love and Relationships 
2008-09-22 - This Cd Came to a Surprize, she speakin of Love and Relationships with partners, good vibe up beat and she showing thats better to be in a healthy relationship with your mate! People Sleep on MJB but later in the time you can find your self sitting back listen to atleast one of her Cds My Kids and I play her Cds! My Son love this Cd. I love it too! But the My LifeThis Cd still Get me Threw the drama we go threw with anyone. One of her cds can take you to a place of Comfort because she been there and Moving Forward!
A Nice and Chill Album
2008-09-14 - This is Mary's best album, it brings something new and exciting with every song. Work That is a feel-good song definitely. Grown Woman has Ludacris rapping in it, and Mary toughens up for this song. Just Fine is where you can tell that Mary is feeling more than "Just Fine". Feel Like A Woman has a nice beat, and it sounds like a slowed-down club song. Stay Down has yet another great new beat, and an amazing chorus. Hurt is a more somber song off of this album. Mary and Usher are awesome together in Shake Down. Till The Morning is my favorite, and it has an amazing beat to back up her amazing voice. Roses has a very clever chorus. Fade Away has nice piano instrumentation in the background. What Love Is has a soft beat to back up Mary's peaceful singing. Work In Progress (Growing Pains) reminds me of Love by Keyshia Cole, and is another one of my favorites. Talk to Me has a super-catchy chorus. If You Love Me? has a pretty beat. Smoke sounds like a song Mary would have done years ago. Come To Me (Peace) is a very chilled-out song. Overall this album is amazing! Very satisfied.
Good cd
2008-09-09 - This was another good cd. The breakthrough was the best, but this was a job well done.
