... A pretty decent collection of Mary J. Blige's slow jams

With the exception of Mary J. Blige's "No More Drama", "Ballads" supplies the diehard Mary J. Blige fan with a collection of slow jams from all of her other CDs. You get some of my personal favorites like "I Never Wanna Live Without You", "Seven Days", "Slow Down", "I Don't Want To Do Anything" w/K Ci and "No Happy Holidays". You also get "Natural Woman" which is only featured on the New York Undercover soundtrack, "Beautiful", which isn't a slow jam, that is only featured on the How Stella Got Her Groove Back soundtrack and her cover of Stevie Wonder's "Overjoyed", which was unreleased prior to the release of this CD. So if you are a Mary J. Blige fan like I am then you get to decide if this collection is worth the import price. If you have all of Mary J. Blige's CDs then basically you are missing only 4 of these songs, so paying over $ for this CD may not be worth it to you. Also if you are going to release a CD of Mary J. Blige's slow jams, import or not, how can you not include "Love No Limit", "A Dream" from the Money Talks soundtrack, "You Gotta Believe", "My Life", "Not Gon' Cry" from the Waiting To Exhale soundtrack, "All That I Can Say", "Missing You (Live)" from "The Tour" and this CD's biggest exclusion, "The Love I Never Had" from the "Mary" CD. That song is one of Mary J. Blige's best slow songs of all time. So basically as a Mary fan you are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Fortunately, the love of my life purchased this for me for Christmas and I didn't have to make that decision. If you don't have an avid collection of Mary J. Blige CDs or if you are a diehard Mary fan then I would say this is a CD worth having. You just have to decide if "Ballads" is worth the face value.

correction to editorial review

Yes, Marys ballads are great! However the song (You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman was released in the U.S. as a single with You Bring Me Joy(E-Smoove's Soul Mix) by Uptown records CD#UPTDS-55139 in 1995. I was lucky enough to find a copy of it. The tune is definitely worth listening to however you get it!

STILL THE QUEEN OF HIP/HOP SOUL

I am a true MJB fan and I'm one of the fans that are waiting for the store to open to get my musical high. MJB never ceases to amaze me. She keeps me interested, excited and wanting more from the beginning to the finale.

Look for Freed By Love,"Nothing But The Drama" a book that was inspired by MJB it is a must read. The writer of this book credits Mary for alot of her lyrics. The book is available at amazon.com. Check it out.

But this album compilation is simply marvelous. Thank you Mary I haven't sampled any Mary cd that was not banging and anyone who doesn't believe that is simply a hater.

Mary's #1 Fan. Don't forget to read Freed By Love the book dedicated to MJB...