"I'm not saying that pain doesn't exist no more in our life," says Mary J. Blige in
the spoken intro to her 10th studio album. "But now we know how to navigate it." Navigating pain has always been her subject. On this sequel to 1994's My Life, Blige is, as usual, a voyager on storm-tossed emotional seas, swinging from bliss to anguish and back again. My Life II is packed with guest stars (Drake, Beyoncé) and top producers (Danja, Rico Love). But Blige is admirably unfashionable, staying in her sweet spot of midtempo hip-hop soul. After all these years, she can still make pain pleasurable.

Listen to "Feel Inside":  

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“Ambling Alp”

The "Ambling Alp" was the nickname of the six-and-a-half-foot-tall Primo Carnera. Though the song is named after the Italian-born 1930s heavyweight champion, Yeasayer are actually paying tribute to boxing legend Joe Louis with this first-person psychedelic dance-rock tune. “I was always interested in writing a song that had boxing mythology in it,” Yeasayer’s Chris Keating said. “It’s pretty fascinating: There were so many amazing characters, and it was so closely entwined with 20th century history.” Yeaseyer also invokes German champ Max Schmeling and hints at the historical significance placed on the historic bouts between the Nazi-era boxer and the African-American Louis.