New Recordings

Pop Mary J. Blige, soul's reigning queen, seemed to be everywhere in 2009. Her singsong Auto-Tuned voice appeared in ads (the repetitious melody line of "The One") where an onscreen Mary J. kept changing outfits. Her gut-wrenching "I Can See in Color" was the theme of Lee Daniels' heartbroken flick Precious. So dread-filled yet joyful was the epically tender "Color" that it simply felt like another of Daniels' troubled characters.