Her debut album The Bridge was just being released internationally at the time. It came out in Italy, then her native Canada. England followed a month later. The United States had to wait though, with a release date set for November 10, 2009. I don’t like to wait. So I did the rational thing, found the leak, and spent my summer engulfing myself in The Bridge. When November 10 came around, I unapologetically cut biology lab to hit F.Y.E. in Center City, Philadelphia and secured my copy. Frankly, I’ve barely used biology since then and I still listen to The Bridge often, so cutting class was clearly the right move. It’s always important to me to buy a copy of an album, and I felt that to a higher degree with Melanie. 

Guided by the late, great Andrea Martin (who co-wrote half of Melanie’s debut and received associate producer credit on both of Melanie’s albums), Melanie bridged the gap between classic soul/R&B and today’s sonic landscape. Her voice was built for the task. Whether she was waxing poetic over a sample-laced record like the immense, sweeping “It Kills Me” or flexing her chops over an original like the Motown-esque “Monday Morning,” she captured the essence of a tapestry of soul sounds. She even went beyond, like on the acoustic “Teach Him” and the reggae “Sad Songs.”

Between projects, Melanie continued to soar. Most notably, she appeared on the single version of “Fool For You” from Cee-Lo’s acclaimed album The Lady Killer. That version was so well received that it won Melanie her first two Grammy Awards. 

I couldn’t get enough of her, and was ecstatic when the first taste of her next album arrived in early 2011. The one thing that really resonated with me was how she was describing her next album. She was calling her sophomore effort an album of “stadium soul.” Melanie already had me eating out of the palm of her hand, but now I was imagining an expansion of the soulful sounds she captured so effortlessly on her debut, magnified for the larger stage she was destined for, accompanied by bigger hooks. The title had a helluva ring to it too, and was a clever double entendre: The MF Life, which was released on March 20, 2012. I put together a ‘Top 5‘ to celebrate the 5th anniversary in 2017. Now I’m going deeper to celebrate a decade.

“Gone And Never Coming Back” was that first taste of The MF Life. Co-written and co-produced by Andrea Martin, it vacillates between quiet verses and surging choruses, something Andrea had been doing well for at least a decade and a half (see En Vogue’s “Don’t Let Go [Love]”). Though quiet on the verses, those choruses hit like a tidal wave. They encapsulate the ‘stadium soul’ sound Melanie used to describe the album. The title implies finality, and the delivery of the song perfectly reinforces that. It already represents growth from the material on her The Bridge, which didn’t delve into situations in such definitive scenarios. 

The next single, “4AM,” produced by Rico Love, couldn’t have arrived at a better time. “This muhfucka thinkin’ I’m stupid,” she sings as she vents her heartbreak over her man out cheating on her. “It’s 4am and my lover won’t answer,” she laments as she’s seen vacillating between concern and frustration in his cold, empty home, before alleging, “he’s probably somewhere with a dancer.” Once again, it has a big chorus that soars above the ruminating verses. The moody, 808’s fueled beat was complimentary to the sound that was surging to the top of the R&B and hip hop charts at the time thanks to Melanie’s former bandmate and fellow Canadian, Drake. That sound can be heard prominently throughout 2011’s Take Care. Interestingly, there’s even a hint of UK garage as the bridge reconnects into the hook.

Drake doesn’t just appear here in reference, either. He wrote “I’ve Been That Girl,” alongside longtime producer T-Minus, making it one of the few records Drake has written for other artists. With T-Minus handling production and Noah “40” Shebib handling vocal production, this song unsurprisingly sounds like it could fit perfectly alongside the more melodic side of Take Care. The hook is catchy, but reserved.

Though she didn’t score a Drake feature on The MF Life, Melanie stacked up a goldmine of first-rate features for the album, greatly contrasting her no-features debut. The album opens with the hard-hitting “This Time.” The song is poignantly declarative, opening lines “if only you knew, all the love I have inside,”  to a hook that radiates with optimism. “This time, I’m doing much better, love you like I’ve never, ever loved you before. Oh baby now this time, I’m giving my heart and soul and every drop of my love.” She also nabbed a feature from J. Cole at the optimal moment: just as he was breaking through. He bookends his verse with the killer bars, “if looks kill then Melanie you a felony,” and “know it’s deep when the girl of his dreams is the same one to wake him up.” 

She closes the record with the cool, chill “L.O.V.E.” featuring John Legend, returning the favor for Melanie’s help on the title track to his 2010 covers LP with The Roots, Wake Up! The call for unity has a retro, Philly soul essence that compliments the source of their first collaboration. She even manages to recruit the legendary Nas on the Salaam Remi-produced, boom bap-laced “Running.” 

The top collaboration on the album though, goes to her record with B.o.B., “Change The Record.” “If you don’t like how he’s playing then change the record,” she advises as she aligns men’s shortcomings to records, some with scratches, fade outs, and skips. It works a perfect metaphor over a glittering staccato piano and hard-hitting bass drum beat. 

On the solo front Melanie is much more adventurous on this outing. She doesn’t confine herself to traditional R&B sounds on this stadium soul album. She reaches into other connected genres, delivering a twisted, dark, torch song in the form of “Bones,” which credits dynamic British vocalist Paloma Faith as a co-writer. The hook is a monster in both lyric and melody. “Straight through your skin past your soul to your bones… I need your bones… gimme gimme gimme gimme your bones!” It’s engulfing, and slithers inward with a progression that recalls Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ haunting “I Put A Spell On You.” 

There’s also a gritty, sassy, high energy record that orbits in the realm of Tina Turner’s solo rock material. “Watch Me Work” is “something different, something new. Out the box, out the blue.” It’s a much more overt rock-leaning track, unlike the rock undertones that filled out The Bridge’s playful “Bang Bang.” This is music that drives and energizes, with a motivational message. It’s best listened to while strutting in some high heels a la Melanie in the video (or me on a Friday night). 

While “Gone And Never Coming Back” was the lead heartbreak record, the album’s true heartbreak standout is the gut-wrenching “Wrong Side Of A Love Song.” Like “Gone,” the verses are mellow, and crescendo as they approach full choruses that pushes Melaine to the outer limits of her range as she wails “And I don’t wanna be, without you, cause I can hardly breathe without you. This is what it feels to be the one that’s standing left behind.” She emotes every single line and refuses to back down as she mourns the heartbreak. This is soul music at its finest. 

A bonus moment serves as a cheeky reminder of a coincidental fixation R&B had with late night/early morning hours at the time. Melanie had “4am,” and T-Pain had a record called “5 O’Clock.” Naturally, T-Pain suggested that they come together, and they created “6AM.” The record merges the two worlds, with T-Pain playing Melanie’s cheating lover, arriving home two hours after she’s wondering where he is. It’s an amusing convergence of two otherwise unrelated records. They each possessed enough ambiguity that they could be connected based on their timestamps. It’s fun, lighthearted, and features an entertaining back-and-forth between the two, best summed up by the first two lines of the bridge, where T-Pain chides Melanie with “what’cho ass doing up anyway?” and she instantly shoots back “fuck that! I was sittin’ here worried ‘bout you.”

A deluxe edition of the album adds four songs, and iTunes also added their own exclusive bonus track. The best of the deluxe bonuses is “Like I Love You,” a mellow, vocally heavy reggae record which harkens back to Melanie’s roots as a reggae singer and her first formal release (under the name Syren Hall), “Somebody Come Get Me.” 

The iTunes bonus is also notable. “Gone (La-Dada-Di)” is driven by ominous keyboard chords and accentuated by flourishes from a tuba. It’s one of those records that has some stellar storytelling bursting from the lyrics. A strained relationship is shattered by tragedy, as Melanie tries to process the horror, “hoping it was all a dream.” It’s one of the most impassioned vocal performances Melanie delivers on the album. Snoop Dogg glides through to deliver a verse that ties it all together before the record fades out. 

It’s been a decade and The MF Life remains the latest full-length release from Melanie Fiona, and it still hits just as hard as it did the day she released it. Since then, Melanie released a few singles in the mid-to-late 2010’s including the searing, reggae-driven record “Bite The Bullet,” and teased a third album that was to-be-titled Awake. As she continued to tour throughout the 2010’s she performed a number of songs that have never been released including “Love Needs Love” and “I’ll Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know.” In the time since she released The MF Life, she found love and became a mom, twice. Her daughter was just born in late 2021. Suffice it to say, she’s got no shortage of important things in her MF life, but music is still on the list. Two days before The MF Life turned 10, Melanie dropped a cover of “Don’t Explain” as part of a Nina Simone reggae tribute LP. It’s her first solo recording to be released in three years. 

Listen to The MF Life:

The post Melanie Fiona’s The MF Life- Album Retrospective appeared first on THE 97.

From the moment I heard Melanie Fiona’s Zombies-sampling debut single “Give It To Me Right“, I became hooked. Between the impeccable sample use of “Time Of The Season” and her incredible voice which combines Brandy’s timbre with the soulfulness of a young Aretha Franklin, she mesmerized me. Then I heard her follow-up single “It Kills Me“. The way she sings that song is unreal. She puts every fiber of her being into every chorus. The rest of her debut album The Bridge brings together elements of R&B, soul, pop, doo-wop, and reggae with that stellar and soulful voice.

For her second album, she described the sound as “stadium soul“. This album is a sonic evolution of her debut, expanding the sound to higher levels and bigger rooms, while she expanded her reach to winning Grammys and playing larger stages. Like her debut, she explores a variety of sounds, but always  While her debut included no features, she came through with the hottest features on The MF. Life. Contributors to The MF Life include Drake, Nas, Snoop Dogg, J. Cole, B.o.B, No I.D., John Legend, T-Pain, and Salaam Remi.

My top 5 songs from Melanie Fiona’s The MF Life:

1. “Change The Record” feat. B.o.B 

   The fact that this song never became a radio single is a crime. It has the perfect sound for radio with a catchy hook, and fitting verse from B.o.B., who was making major waves when this dropped. Melanie compares men to records, and if the man isn’t right, it’s on to the next one. “If you don’t like how he’s playin’ then change the record.”

2. “Bones”

   The epitome of a modern-day torch song. A 2012 “I Put A Spell On You”, meeting somewhere in the middle of Nina Simone and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. “Straight through your skin, past your soul to your bones… gimme gimme gimme your bones!” she demands over this disjointed, eerie, jazzy and soulful instrumentation.

3. “Wrong Side Of A Love Song”

   Ultimate heartbreak. While ballads “Gone And Never Coming Back” & “4AM” were the lead singles, this album cut is the lead ballad and biggest vocal showcase on the album. Melanie’s vocal performance on this song is next level. As the song climaxes, she cuts into it with the vocal intensity of an early 70’s Aretha Franklin and a 90’s Mary J. Blige. It’s a clever twist on the typical heartbreak song, posing the question of “how did I become the wrong side of a love song?”

4. “Watch Me Work”

   This is a straight up ‘strut down the street and werk it’ record. Put on your best heels and as the song says “watch me work!” Built on a Tina Turner-esque rock and soul instrumentation with a driving beat, it’s extremely empowering and confidence driving. This can be found in heavy rotation on my ‘Fierce’ playlist.

5. “6AM” feat. T-Pain

   Something about this is deliciously entertaining. As Melanie tells it, the two were in contact and talking about doing something. At the time T-Pain recently released the dreamy “5 O’Clock“, while Melanie was working the smoldering “4AM” from The MF Life. It was only logical to examine the next hour. The result is a fun, upbeat, at times comedic record. The peak moment comes at the beginning of the bridge when T-Pain sings “Ooooo what yo’ ass doin’ up anyway?” and Melanie fires back “Fuck that! I was sittin’ here worried ’bout you!”

Bonus: Melanie in Philadelphia

The day after Melanie released The MF Life, I saw her perform in Philadelphia and met her after the show. She tore the roof off World Cafe Live. The peak moment of the night was her notably next-level performance of “Wrong Side Of A Love Song”. Here’s a look:

Thanks for an unforgettable night and amazing album, Melanie!

Listen to Melanie Fiona’s The MF Life:

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