REVIEW: The MF Life

Never though I'd do a review of a RnB album, but here I am doing it. And it's not so much of a review as a promotion of the album. The Toronto singer definitely impresses on her sophomore album by running the gamut of sounds from pop (Can't Say I Never Loved You), Beyonce-esque "I can do this" attitude (This Time, Watch Me Work), to that smooth Motown groove (Wrong Side Of A Love Song). Unfortunately she even has that one T-Pain track that only brings "Bartender" to mind. But each time she does it she preserves her own voice of pain and renewal.

There's a lot of raw emotion and desire, primarily for true love, in this album. The piano melody and Fiona's syncopation in singing the chorus for "Gone And Never Coming Back" forces me to recall Ray Charles in all the good ways. All of the guest appearances (J.Cole, Nas, B.o.B., John Legend) are matched up perfectly to their respective sounds. It's uncanny. And with a feel good track like "L.O.V.E." how can you not fall in love with Ms. Fiona? I just wonder how you can do her wrong like the jerks she sings about in this album.

Here's a little blurb of what she had to say about the album title:
“It’s all in the interest of growth. The key thing I want to impress upon anyone who listens to The MF Life is the idea that it’s possible to learn from everything that comes at you. That’s been my process. It’s why on the surface, the ‘MF’ in the album title represents my initials, but it also gets at the many facets of myself as an artist and a young woman. It can be viewed as the ‘Mighty Fine Life’ in times of triumph and success, but also the ‘Mother-F-ing Life’ when I’m dealing with frustration or misfortune. I celebrate both. I feel it would be dishonest if everything was all about glitz and glamour. It’s about the balance of life, the yin and the yang, the good and the bad, all of that.”

It's projects like The MF Life give me hope for the future of Hip Hop and RnB.