Refelctions (A Retrospective) may seem like your basic greatest hits album. But any casual fan could tell you that a Blige greatest hits would easily fill at least 2 CD's. So what is this exactly? Well it's just a sampling of Bliges #1 hits over her 15 year career. But as a bonus 4 of the 15 tracks are brand new [not that previous unreleased remix crap either.]

The Hits
The selection of hits for this ''Retrospective'' is pretty solid though some may find a couple of their favorites missing & a few selections questionable. That aside it does give a nice picture of where Mary started & how she's progressed over the years. My favorite Mary album is still that My Life joint, so my favorite hit on the album is the reworked ''My Life '06''. Other songs include:

No More Drama
Family Affair
Real Love
No One Will Do
Be Without You
I'm Going Down
911
Not Gon' Cry
Be Happy
I'll Be There For You/You're All I Need To Get By

The ''New'' Hits?
The four new tracks may not find themselves on any future greatest hits albums, but they are pretty good songs. Production duties were handled by Austin and Legend. Of the four new tracks the stand out ones are ''You Know'' & ''King And Queen'' a duet w/ John Legend. The other two tracks ''Reflections [I Remember]'' & ''We Ride [I See The Future]'' just don't compare.

Overall it is what it is, a greatest hits album with some new songs. Even if the new songs were horrible the other songs on the album are already certifiable hits so it wouldn't be a bad purchase for the casual fan. The question is if you already own all of her CD's, are the four new songs worth the purchase of the entire album? Well if you're like me & still by CD's than I would have to say yes. If you get your music from a music service like iTunes however, then you're probably better off just buying the new tracks individually.

SonicAmp Rating: 8/10