Record reviews

‘GROWING PAINS’

Mary J. Blige (Geffen)

Grade: B+

People can relate to pain. They understand drama. Happiness? Self-fulfillment? That stuff’s harder to get behind, especially when you’re seeing it in somebody else and not yourself. Nevertheless, Mary J. Blige makes that switch seem effortless on her new album “Growing Pains.” The Queen of Hip-Hop Soul has been living out her “no more drama” mantra for three albums now and this time she seems to have mastered it.

“I’m talking about things that I know,” she sings in a passionate run during the new single (and iPod commercial) “Work That,” amid a swirl of self-empowerment statements — “Follow me, follow me, girl, be yourself” and “Don’t worry about who’s saying what, work what you got” — and a modernized version of the new-Jill-swing groove she used to ride back in the “Real Love” days.

Like some sort of tattoo-rocking, ballad-belting, hip-hop-loving Oprah, Blige has truly internalized her life lessons. Throughout “Growing Pains,” she uses the same hip-hop mechanics that give so many women self-esteem issues to promote her “love yourself” agenda.

Blige has also added a new variety of vocal approaches to her arsenal on this album, moving from a jazzy Chaka Khan-ish take on “Shake Down,” her soon-to-be-hit duet with Usher, to a restrained, gorgeous Annie Lennox-like spin through the Coldplay-tinged “Smoke.”

Even when she’s clearly having fun, in the first single “Just Fine,” which bounces like vintage Michael Jackson circa “Off the Wall,” or the Pharrell-produced, ’80s freestyle throwback “Till the Morning,” Blige is still building her argument for lifting one’s spirit.

— Glenn Gamboa, Long Island Newsday

‘WALK HARD: THE DEWEY COX STORY’

John C. Reilly (Columbia)

Grade: C+

“In my dreams you’re blowing me some kisses,” is a sweet, innocuous line in the hands of any country singer. Dewey Cox is not that singer. Bring film producer and writer Judd Apatow (”Knocked Up”) and actor John C. Reilly (”Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby”) together for a movie spoofing biopics like “Walk the Line” and “Ray” and that lyric, through tweaked phrasing and punctuation, walks the line between dirty and endearing.

That innuendo-laden cut is the funniest one on the soundtrack, but the rockabilly “[Mama] You Got to Love Your Negro Man” is a close second.

Reilly plays the fictional “country legend” Dewey Cox, and he does a better than credible job vocally in becoming someone who can sing faux Dylan (“Royal Jelly”), Elvis (“Negro Man”) and Cash (the Marshall Crenshaw co-written title track). Elsewhere Reilly conjures the flavor of “Red Octopus”-era Jefferson Starship holding court at Studio 54 on a slick cover of David Bowie’s “Starman.”

Without the movie in your head, the soundtrack’s songs begin to wear thin after a few keepers. But with humorless sourpusses like Gary LeVox (Rascal Flatts) dominating contemporary country radio, the genre could use a sparkplug like Reilly for some quick laughs.

— Howard Cohen, Miami Herald

‘RIVERS RUNS THROUGH IT’

Rivers Cuomo (Geffen)

Grade: B

Rivers Cuomo gives Weezer fans a glimpse into his sense of trial-and-error inventiveness on “Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo, 1992-2007” (Geffen).

The demo of “Buddy Holly” is great, but the real treasures are the previously unreleased tracks — especially “Blast Off!” and “Superfriend” — from the shelved rock musical “Songs from the Black Hole,” which sort of became the classic album “Pinkerton.” The promising “This Is the Way,” which sounds like Cuomo fronting One Republic only, you know, cool, lifts expectations even higher for the Weezer album slated for a spring release, since the track didn’t make the final cut.

Not everything here works — Cuomo’s take on Ice Cube’s “The Bomb” shows why he won’t be a rapper and the a cappella opening of “Dude, We’re Finally Landing” is a little too cutesy. Nevertheless, “Alone” features some great songs that simply didn’t fit with whatever Weezer project they were written for. It’s great that they now have a home.

— Howard Cohen, Miami Herald