Mary J Blige - I Am
Mary J Blige The latest single from the R&B diva has got me slightly disappointed. Remembering ‘911’, ‘Family Affair’, ‘One’, ‘Stay Down’, or ‘No more drama’ and picturing her as a strong, proud and talented artist, I was expecting a song with some greater impact. And it didn’t happen.
‘I am’ sounds cheap, a bit naive and a bit more like Mariah Carey’s sweet stylistics. The song might be ‘catchy’ after listening to it a couple of times, but it might as well be sickening. Mary sings her heart out, listing all the things that she does the best for her man, but reading between the lines you can hear the fear and desperation:
‘You won't ruin what's been here all along,
you ain't movin' from what you've got at home
……
Ain't nobody gonna touch you better
Ain't nobody gonna love you better boy than I am, than I am’
What is it then? A woman in love begging her man not to go away. Sad and weak and we’ve heard it all before. Never mind the lyrics, one might say. But well, there’s not much more to it. The beats are plastic, and it could be classified as a pop song rather than anything related to soul and R&B where Mary J Blige allegedly belongs. She still has got an amazing, unique voice but maybe she should go back to those powerful, beautiful songs, that conveyed the message and reflected her real, edgy self.
’I Am’ is just another boring love song for a mass audience. Yet hopefully not the last one we hear from Mary J.