Returning with the follow-up to her 2009 debut album The Bridge, Canadian singer Melanie Fiona releases her sophomore album The MF Life, which continues on the path of fusing genres to create Retro Soul and Pop songs of love and lack thereof. The instrumental is classic R&B and I liked the adlibs Monica gave in the end, it made the song somewhat better because the lyrics and hook were too simplistic. On “Big Mistake,” Monica sings her regrets of staying in a relationship with little to no growth and hoping the man would change his ways. Produced by Rico Love and Earl & E, the song has a different sound with reggae undertones and is unlike anything that Monica has ever tried. “Man Who Has Everything” sounds like an experimental track for Monica. Wrong.” She sings about wanting more than materialistic things and states that as long as she feels loved & cared for, she will remain loyal. On the infectious track, “Daddy’s Good Girl,” Monica rides the beat effortlessly, which is really reminiscent of Mary J. The song definitely had to grow on me because the production could have been stronger, however the ladies gave all they had vocally. For me, I really love the skill both artists brought vocally with their melismatic inflections and technique. The first official single “It All Belongs to Me,” duet with R&B songstress Brandy peaked at #23 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip Hop charts. Blige gives Monica insight on turning her past issues into lessons learned, moving forward and being thankful for her blessings. New Life opens with an intro featuring Monica’s longtime mentor Queen of Hip-Hop/Soul, Mary J. The album’s contributors are Polow Da Don, Jermaine Dupri, Bryan Michael-Cox, Rico Love, Jazmine Sullivan, Salaam Remi, D. Beyond the setbacks, Monica enlisted top producers and writers to bring her vision to life. Due to the merging of RCA Records from J Records, the album’s release was delayed by a few months and her leading promo singles “Anything (To Find You)” and “Until It’s Gone” somewhat suffered. Grammy Award-winning artist Monica brings forth her seventh studio album New Life. Everything was completely in sync and I loved it. Another favorite of mine that held the same momentum was “Better Than I.” The hard-hitting instrumental, harmonies, lead vocals by Coko and Taj’s rap made this track one of the very best on the album. The song gave great nostalgia and reminded me of their previous album releases. I loved the track as soon as it began with the scats and the cadence on the verses. However, the title-track “I Missed Us” was a standout moment on the album. With “The Best Years,” production was lacking, as well as, vocal dynamics, the song just seemed to be an album filler about being naive in love. I loved the horns, but overall, this is the only song on I Missed Us that I felt was ill-fitting. “Do Ya” featuring Brianna Perry is another uptempo on the album. I could have actually taken the song without the rap because I did not feel it made the track any better. The verses are started with the lyrics of “Come and Talk to Me” by Jodeci and the formula reminds me of Beyoncé’s “Party.” With “Everything I Love,” the ladies of SWV sing to the men in their lives vowing to be there through any trials that may come and I love the bridge section where Coko showed off her upper register and of course, incorporated some of her traditional riffs and runs. Sonically, the track is modern, yet still contains their classic sound. On “Show Off” the ladies displayed that they can still hang with today’s generation. The vocals were really nice and I love that the track contained an interpolation of one of my favorite songs ever “Peter Piper” by Run DMC. With Fat Man Scoop being the hype man of the track, the song really felt as if they had a party session in studio. The song really made me remember the 90s basement parties I had. The next track “All About You” flowed in effortlessly. Also, I was really glad to hear lead vocals from Lelee this time around. The arrangement, the vocals and the melody were all signature elements of SWV’s sound. When I first heard the track, I thought SWV had not missed a beat.
The album kicks off with “Co-Sign” and I felt it was a good opening single. The third single “Weak” from the debut was the group’s first #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as, the R&B chart and will go down in history as one of the best songs of the 90s. Now back with their fourth studio album and first release in fifteen years I Missed Us via Mass Appeal Entertainment. In 1992, SWV were signed by producer Teddy Riley and set out to take the R&B world by storm with their debut It’s About Time, which was certified triple platinum.