Using her 'back in the day' formula, Mary teamed with P. The Queen of Hip-Hop/Soul is back with her sixth studio album, Love & Life. Blige remains the real premiere urban diva of her generation and this recording will go down as one of her very best.

Blige easily outshined the other, currently more successfuly sold R&B female artists, who may produce great singles (Beyonce, Ashanti) but only uneven albums. The record's end simmers down to ballad territory, in which the singer relishes, apparently drawing from her personal life. 'Ooh!' follows the footsteps of Aretha Franklin, pounding 'Press On' is downright glorious, a cream of Blige, as is positively erotic 'Feel Like Makin' Love'. Mary's voice is again full of raw emotions, as on 'When We' and 'Friends', the album again offers great beats (Eve collaboration 'Not Today' or 'It's A Wrap'). The catchy first single 'Love First Sight' with Method Man cleverly employs an eloquent bass line, before being replaced in loudspeakers by relaxed, summer-y feel of 'Willing & Waiting'. Follows the first 'normal' track, 'Don't Go', which pretty representatively sets the mood for the entire, 70-minute album. Starts with a unique, movie-like intro in which Mary is getting a call from P.Diddy, before Jay-Z gets his rap job done. Dre-produced 'Family Affair', but, for that matter, is more consistent. 'Love & Life' does not include such killer singles as the previous album's title track 'No More Drama' or the stellar Dr. Times have changed but she still sounds fresh and groovy. On this, not less than a sixth regular album since the 1992 breakthrough debut 'What's The 411', the songstress teams up again with Sean (P.Diddy) Combs, with who she collaborated on the 1994 release 'My Life', still considered by many to be her best. Blige proves with her 2003 album 'Love & Life' that she is still up there at the top of contemporary r&b. In the times when being a diva becomes more or less a caricature, Mary J.

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