Editorial Review
To state that 2006 was one of the biggest years of Mary J Blige's career isn't hype. It is truth. In 2006 there was no bigger story or artist, in any genre, than Mary J Blige. Thanks to a chart-topping album, history making #1 single, galvanizing television appearances and a sold out tour, 2006 became the 12-month span in which the multiple platinum selling, Grammy winning Queen of Hip Hop Soul scaled new creative, personal and commercial heights. So after all of those dazzling achievements what does Mary J do to top it? Simple. She rewards her fans by recording yet another classic in the making - REFLECTIONS - A RETROSPECTIVE.
A much anticipated and long awaited collection Reflections -A Retrospective not only gathers together all Mary J's timeless greatest hits but features FOUR NEW GREATEST HITS TO BE - the first of which is the hot single "We Ride (I See The Future"). Spanning the entirety of Mary J's spectacular 15-year career Reflections- A Retrospective is more than a greatest hits collection. It's a soulful shout out to Mary J's loyal fans, and a celebration of the year when one of R&B's most influential singers "broke through" bigger than ever.
Released on December 20th, 2005, Mary's 7th cd The Breakthrough debuted at #1, and sold an astonishing 727,163 copies its first week: making it not just the best opening week for a solo R&B female artist in SoundScan history but the biggest opening week of 2006 to date. Period. Yet even more explosive than The Breakthrough's success was the album's lead off single "Be Without You". Written and produced by BRYAN MICHAEL COX and JONATA AUSTIN (the same creative team responsible for "We Ride (I See The Future"), "Be Without You" had the #1 spot on the Billboard R&B charts on lock; and stayed there for a record breaking 15 straight weeks. "Be Without You" was not only the biggest hit of Mary's already brilliant career, it entered the history books by becoming the longest-running No. 1 song on the R&B chart since it was reintroduced, after a brief hiatus, in 1965. You'd have to go back to 1949 to find a #1 song with as lengthy a chart run as "Be Without You."
The Breakthrough was equally dominant. The emotive CD was the recipient of universal critical acclaim, with Vanity Fair declaring, "...she's still the Queen..." USA Today stating "Another Blige `Breakthrough' ...Blige still touches souls..." and the Boston Globe hailing the cd as "...a start-to-finish triumph."
Fans also felt The Breakthrough's power. Following Mary's stellar performance on the 2006 Grammy Awards, (dueting with U2 on their ballad "One"), The Breakthrough recaptured the top spot on the Billboard 200. Along with that electrifying appearance -which the St. Petersburg Times declared was "chills-inducing" - Mary also performed on the finales of "Dancing With the Stars" and "American Idol", "Oprah", and the ABC soap "One Life To Live".
RON FAIR, Chairman of Geffen Records says of Mary's success "Mary J. Blige has reached the defining moment of her life - as a vocalist, as a songwriter, and as a human being. Her new album "Reflections- A Retrospective" is an essential collection of songs that solidifies Mary as one of the greatest recording artists of all time. Anyone who has ever suffered loss, experienced pain, been in trouble, gave love or been loved, can find themselves in the music of Mary J. Blige."
With her landmark 1992 cd What's The 411 Mary J Blige became R&B's standard bearer, setting both its sound and style. Since that debut Mary has earned 3 Grammys, had 7 multi platinum albums, lent her support to a slew of high profile charities and earned the unqualified respect of fans, critics and her fellow performers. With a soulful power that knows no equal, Mary J Blige owned 2006 and the Queen continues her reign with Reflections - A retrospective.
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Customer Reviews
Mary J. 5++++ stars, but this release is not a true retrospective, not even for casual fans 
2007-05-05
I flat out love Mary J. Blige. From the first time I heard her sing "Real Love" in 1992 (that's 15 years ago!) until the amazing 4 new songs on this "retrospective" release, she has proven to be she's here to stay as she has the brains and raw power that comes across in the way she connects with her songs.
While Amazon usually gets things right, it wrongly states in its product description that this release is a "reward" to her fans after making her critically and commercially praised "The Breakthrough," when in reality this retrospective was initially being pushed by her record label to cash in on the 2005 holiday season. Mary J. refused to go along with the plan and pushed hard for the release of "The Breakthrough" before any greatest of release. The importance here lies in that Geffen was ready to release this AS IS as a full 1 disc retrospective and as such does not cut it, especially for fans who would want to have her greatest hits/retrospective/best of, in one package. She is one of few artists who even at this stage of the gaem requires at least a 2 CD retrospective to cover her essential material. I won't go into details of what is missing as fans probably know what's missing.
Geffen was very smart (yet annoying) in that this release has 4 killer new songs (almost 1/3 of the release) and SOME of Mary's greatest hits, so it made hard for any true fan to overlook it even if he/she had all of Mary J.'s releases. What is also great is that these songs are at the start of the release and directly address the listener with Mary's declarations of self-love/no more drama and while she has made the claims before, it's clear that this is always an ongoing process. Obviosuly any listener will see that she's as eloquent as ever as speaking to her fans about the journey.
I "only" give this 4 stars in order to warn the casual listener that this is not by any means a full retrospective and for hard-core fans to know that the 4 new songs are worth the price of the release (I love them), but to buy with caution.
To resolve this impasse, I have made my personal 2 CD best of, which include songs from a release that just came out that has most of her favorite duets. You can only find this duet release at a particular CD vendor (initials C.C.).
I would still recommend this release to all, but just want to help spread the word about the real story behind the timing of this release and what you should expect. Thanks for reading and for the nice e-mails.
Could have been better! 
2007-03-26
This is a weak GH!!! Mary has had a lot more hits then what was included on this compilation package!!! They could have done a lot better and spent a little more time putting this GH together!!!
Mary J. Blige - Reflections CD 
2007-03-24
This is truly a great collection of her old songs, plus the new ones. I really like her music!
Very nice conglomeration 2007-03-22
I must admit this is the first Mary J disc I've bought since the 411. Nothing against Mary, but I thought her best work came from a depressed state of mind; I guess, sorta like the old blues singers. But Mary proved me wrong, this disc is excellent and she is feeling good about herself and her life. I didn't expect so many renditions of old songs, but I enjoyed them just the same. The new additions on this disc added a certain freshness (old & new kinda thing). She really deserved the Grammy. Makes me wonder how much i've missed between her first and last discs.
Mary has done it again 2007-03-19
I love anything by Mary J. Blige and this cd was definitely no exception. Most of the tracks on this cd had already been released but there were a few new hits like "we ride". This was an excellent cd.
Reflections not Greatest Hits! 2008-03-22
I cannot see where others are getting the idea that this was to be a Greatest Hits album. It says it is Reflections. If you truly are listening to the album, it is a collection of songs that are Mary's reflections. And as such it is a very well composed album. I first listened to it through Napster after hearing one of the songs playing in Best Buy. I then listened while on the beach at vacation and loved it so I immediately purchased from Amazon CD while on vacation. This is a REFLECTIONS album and truly good! (I will add that on Napster at the time 4 songs were not downloadable and once I got the full CD I was not as impressed with those which were mostly duets with others.)
After 14 years of chart-topping dominance, Mary J. Blige deserves much more than this hasty batch to celebrate her career with 2008-02-13
The younger generation's version of Aretha Franklin, Mary J. Blige burst upon the hip-hop/soul scene in 1992, remained on fire through the end of the decade, and continued to have a respectable and successful career into the 2000's. With her kind of success over the years (including more than 35 charting hits), she's the type of artist who should command a multi-disc anthology. What we have here instead is quite possibly the hastiest, most uninspired retrospective ever assembled for such a towering artist. The two biggest problems are that it concentrates mainly on her post-90s period, which, while decent, doesn't quite measure up to the 411/My Life/Share My World era. Another huge indiscretion is the curious omission of no fewer than 10 songs that should definitely NOT be absent from a true MJB Greatest Hits collection (i.e. Sweet Thing, Reminiscing, the original version of My Life, Seven Days, All That I Can Say, and a number of others).
If you are a MJB fan, then you will love this CD 2007-12-27
I listened to this on my commute and I love it! Like someone else said, it is not a "Greatest Hits" but it is a sampling of some of Mary's best songs. I am happy with it!
Absolutely amazing 2007-07-03
I knew MJB could sing, but this album proves beyond any doubt that she's amazing. Each song was awesome and the overall feel is the best yet. Don't even think about passing this one up. It's a must have.
Nice compilation of hu\its, nice new songs. 2007-05-12
Love it. She have a great voice and can fill it up with pure emotions.
