The album was released to positive reception from music critics, who considered it a return to form for Blige after 2003's Love & Life. Commercially, it opened to her biggest first week sales in the US yet and became her third album to debut at the top of the Billboard 200. The album reached triple Platinum status in the US and sold more than 3.1 million copies by 2009, her highest-selling US album of the 2000s. Internationally, it entered the top ten in Switzerland, and the R&B charts in both Australia and United Kingdom. The Breakthrough received numerous accolades, earning Blige her first Grammy Award for Best R&B Album at the 49th awards ceremony.
Four singles were released in support of the album. Lead single "Be Without You" became a top three hit on the US Billboard Hot 100 as well as Blige's highest-charting single since 2001's "Family Affair", while international follow-up "One", a duet with Irish rock band U2 on their 1991 song, enjoyed major commercial success throughout Europe, reaching number one in Austria and Norway as well as the top ten on most other charts. From June to September 2006, Blige promoted The Breakthrough in her The Breakthrough Experience Tour, which visited several cities throughout Canada and the United States.
Background
In 2003, Blige released Love & Life, which she called a "misstep" and was her lowest selling studio album at the time. The Geffen label then planned a greatest hits set for her next release, before the plan switched to a brand new record. By 2005, Blige was "awash in bliss" with her then-two year marriage to Kendu Issacs. While the press described The Breakthrough as being about her love for Isaacs, Blige revealed the true meaning of the album: “It’s not just about choosing to be in love with him—it’s about choosing to be in love with myself.”
Composition
The "glistening" album opener "No One Will Do" is about finding new love. Blige raps on "Enough Cryin," track two and the second single. "About You," track three, is an ode to loyalty in a relationship. Track four and lead single, "Be Without You," features a "rapturous" piano melody and "stunning" vocals from Blige singing about a "honeymoon phase." Pitchfork called track five, "Gonna Breakthrough," a "lavish" dance floor number. The "anthemic" sixth song, "Good Woman Down," sees Blige recounting cycles of abuse, positioning her as a living example of "survival." Song seven, "Take Me as I Am," is a ballad, while the "standout" following track, "Baggage," incorporates synths and is about "recognizing patterns."
Jay-Z plays a "hypeman" on track nine, "Can't Hide from Luv," a song about ending self-sabotaging habits. The promotional single "MJB da MVP," track 10, has a mixtape quality. Track 11, "Can't Get Enough," is a "clear-headed" ballad about finding commitment. On "Ain't Really Love," track 12, Blige "leans into the independence she’s earned." The symphonicpower ballad "I Found My Everything," track 13 with Raphael Saadiq, highlights Blige's "blues voice." The next track, "Father in You," is about tracing the "need for male affection." Album closer "One" with U2 was likened to a stadium anthem. Gospel-tinged vocals appear throughout the album.
Los Angeles Times critic Natalie Nichols credited the producers for "adeptly weaving beats and live instruments, vocals and rapping, melody and rhythm in configurations alternately stark and lush." Prefix critic Norman Mayers found that The Breakthrough "zips confidently through its sixteen tracks. The album's first two-thirds is so well paced that the eleventh track seems to come around before you can catch your breath. The musical palette is a blend of contemporary Kanye West–style productions and classic mid-tempo soul." In The New York Times, Jon Pareles credited the singer for bringing together "hip-hop realism and soul's higher aspirations, hip-hop's digitized crispness and soul's slow-building testimonies."
The Breakthrough was met with generally positive reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 76, based on 20 reviews. Andy Gill of The Independent deemed it perhaps "her best, the most vivid realisation of her gripping, confessional style." David Browne believed The Breakthrough marked a return for Blige to her dramatic strengths, writing in Entertainment Weekly that the music's "messy sprawl of conflicted emotions feels true to her fierce, prickly personality (not to mention life itself)." Stylus Magazine's Thomas Inskeep viewed it as a "return to form" for Blige, calling it her "finest full-length since '99's Mary," while Rolling Stone journalist Barry Walters said that unlike with her previous albums, The Breakthrough's ballads genuinely stand out.
Andy Kellman from AllMusic said each song proved Blige had been given her "best round of productions" since the mid 1990s. Steve Jones of USA Today wrote that "Blige balances her trademark edginess with the personal happiness she has found in recent years" and her producers "give her compelling musical backdrops". A 2023 review from Pitchfork's Clover Hope called it "an unofficial marker of a more self-actualized Mary J. Blige" as well as "so self-referential that it almost does function like a greatest-hits record the label wanted".
Jason King was less impressed in The Village Voice, feeling that The Breakthrough had improved on Blige's 2003 album Love & Life but still lacked the creativity of 1999's Mary. Blige's penchant for "hermetic, clinically slick production values doesn't complement her soul-baring aura," King wrote. Spin journalist Tom Breihan felt the production's "awkwardly programmed drums and cluttered synthetic arrangements" generally failed to give her a conducive space for an effective performance and left "the songs' chin-up aphorisms ringing false." Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani was more critical of the lyrics, finding them distastefully sentimental, unsubtle, and "the epitome of formulaic, giving you the feeling that you've heard this all before." John Murphy from musicOMH's found that like Blige's "previous albums, The Breakthrough is overlong and spoilt by too many producers sticking their oar in. One of these days she'll produce a tight, focused album that's worthy of her wonderful voice – The Breakthrough isn't it, but there's enough good moments to keep her legions of fans more than happy." In his lukewarm review for Vibe, Dimitri Ehrlich noted that "even cameos by today’s hottest rappers can’t shake Blige's nostalgic flair."
In the US, The Breakthrough became Blige's third number-one album.
The Breakthrough debuted at number one on both the US Billboard 200 and Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums in the week of January 7, 2006. Blige's third album to do so, it sold 727,000 copies in its first week of release, becoming the biggest first-week sales for a female R&B solo artist in SoundScan history, the fifth largest first-week sales for a female artist, and the fourth largest debut of 2005. The biggest-selling R&B album of the year, Billboard ranked it first on its 2006 Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums year-end chart. It was also ranked fifth on the magazine's Billboard 200 year-end chart of 2006.
The Breakthrough was certified Gold and Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on the January 24, 2006. It eventually reached double Platinum on March 10, 2006 and triple Platinum status on April 10, 2007. By December 2009, the album had sold 3,100,000 copies in the United States. The Breakthrough charted at number 135 on the Billboard 200 decade-end chart in 2009, becoming Blige's most successful US album in the 2000s.
In the United Kingdom, The Breakthrough debuted at number 48 on the UK Albums Chart and number six on the UK R&B Albums chart in the week of December 24, 2005. It eventually peaked at number 22 in April 2006. On February 3, 2006, the album earned a Gold certification from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for shipments in excess of 100,000 units. Elsewhere, The Breakthrough reached number one on the Australian Urban Albums chart and the top ten on the Swiss Albums Chart. It reached Gold status in Australia, Germany, and Japan and was certified Platinum by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) in Switzerland.
"No One Will Do" contains excerpts from "I Swear I Love No One but You", written by Bunny Sigler and performed by the O'Jays.
"About You" contains samples from "Feeling Good", written by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse and performed by Nina Simone.
"Gonna Breakthrough" contains samples from "The Champ", written by Harry Palmer and performed by the Mohawks.
"Good Woman Down" contains excerpts from "Heart Breaking Decision", written by Robert Aries, Freddie Jackson and Meli'sa Morgan and performed by Morgan.
"Take Me as I Am" contains samples from "A Garden of Peace", written and performed by Lonnie Liston Smith.
"MJB da MVP" contains excerpts from "Rubberband", written by Ron Baker, Allen Felder and Norman Harris and performed by the Trammps. It also contains resung lyrics from "All Night Long", written by James Johnson, "Remind Me", written by Patrice Rushen and Karen Evans, and "Everybody Loves the Sunshine", written by Roy Ayers.
Personnel
Credits for The Breakthrough adapted from AllMusic.
↑ザ・ブレイクスルー | メアリー・J.ブライジ[The Breakthrough | Mary J. Blige] (in Japanese). Oricon. Archived from the original on February 3, 2023. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
