An astounding album and an EXTREMELY HUGE creative leap from her debut What's the 411?! Contemporary hip-hop and new jack considerations were very strong on her debut album and there was the awkward step between that and somewhat mechanical 80's musical flavors. This album changed all of that. In their hearts it was the funk/jazz/R&B of the mid 70's that was the musical bag of both Puffy and Mary and the result of their enthusiasm is a fusion of that concept soon came to be known as neo soul. Along with DeAngelo's Brown Sugar this is one of the earliest album smashes to use the form and it's one of the most overall successful. Along with the instrumental samples Puffy built these grooves on and Mary J's newfound fondess for jazzy vocal turns and scat singing provide great results on the drippily disco-funk "Mary Jane","You Bring Me Joy" and the bass popping-happy closer "Be Happy" are such excellent tunes that if these were the only good songs on the album it would still earn a five star rating. But happily the news always gets better from there. "I'm The Only Woman" really puts the title track of Roy Ayers Everybody Loves the Sunshine to work and considering his position as something of a godfather to this then new genre it is a beautiful use of form. Of course Mary's cover of "I'm Goin' Down" rips the entire instrumental track of the song and I've heard it to death but hearing it again reminds me of the excellence and broad vocal inflections she brings to the song. The original ballads including the title track and the deeply spirited "You Gotta Believe" follow in the same path and completely undo some of the mild sterility of the previous albums approch. Ditto for the slightly more uptempo hip-hop inflected jams such as "Be With You","Mary's Joint","Don't Go" and the clever,well composed "I Love You" all have possess that spark needed to make them really stand out as impressive songs. From this point on in Mary J's career she would be forever known not as "the new Chaka Khan" but as The Queen Of Hip-Hop/Soul and all hype set aside the high quality of this album is one of the reasons why she's known for that.
