Monica: 'MDA' / 'Open Roads' 2024

[Hashtag Pow]

What happened to the song she did with Miguel?

[Nick]

I will listen on Friday on Spotify. In the meantime, I am listening to her great rendition of "Grown Up Christmas List".

[SHOOTER]

Dec 16, 2015 20:15:33 GMT -5 Hashtag Pow said:

What happened to the song she did with Miguel?

They just posed for those pictures that one time; never recorded anything together.

[Zinc.]

It's decent/solid. Better than New Life.

[Hashtag Pow]

Dec 16, 2015 20:55:05 GMT -5 SHOOTER said:

Dec 16, 2015 20:15:33 GMT -5 Hashtag Pow said:

What happened to the song she did with Miguel?

They just posed for those pictures that one time; never recorded anything together.

:'(

[wavey.]

SHOOTER, so Nicki was supposed to be on "Deep"?

I haven't listened to anything yet.

[SHOOTER]

Dec 16, 2015 22:52:08 GMT -5 wavey. said:

SHOOTER, so Nicki was supposed to be on "Deep"?

I haven't listened to anything yet.

Yes. When Monica held listening sessions, she told people there was gonna be a "surprise guest" on it but Nicki was still touring so I guess the scheduling couldn't work out.

[Heart Shaped Box]

No wonder there's a blank part at the bridge. Nicki would have ruined it. I actually love that it quiets down and then picks up with those synths/strings?, it's sexy as hell.

[Method2Madness]

Monica doesnt sound all that great but ill give her a pass....since she has been singing for 2 months straight almost every night

[stunnedout]

Ugh. Im sick of her and these lazy vocals. Girl, please get on stage and live. She sings the same 2 notes in every performance. She knows she doesn't get on tv much to perform, so she needs to really show off when she can.

[Bob]

so many haters
I guess Mo can be grateful that she still attracts enough attention to have haters, most artists can't even rate that

[stunnedout]

Aint nobody hating on Monica. I pre ordered her album and I like her approach with this album, but I am always going to say it like I mean it. If you think that was a good performance or a great vocal, you are fooling yourself. Monica hasn't impressed with live vocals since her debut.

[Ivy Leegue™]

I am excited for this. I LOVED New Life, as it has some of my all-time favorite Monica songs since her debut (Without You, Amazing, Time To Move On, In 3D, and especially Cry ALONE were worth the price of the CD) but there wasn't a song I actually disliked. So, if this new album has songs on the level of those aforementioned ones, I will be satisfied. That's the beauty of music - the subjectivity of it all.

[Method2Madness]

What you all dont seem to understand is that Monica is not going to change..she is the same..which is actually why im so interested in her...she stays true to herself. Now she may experiment but she is the same...That is why I admire her because she doesnt follow the status quo...

[Deleted]

I thought the performance was fine. She did seem like she was just going through the motions but I thought her vocals were fine.

New Life and Makings of Me were both weak albums, but other than that I've loved every Monica album. In her Breakfast Club interview she basically said that her #1 priority is her kids and she just does this because she loves music. Like I said before, I'm fine with that. She's been working for so long, she's earned the right to half-ass an album release especially since she clearly doesn't care about success or accolades anymore.

[Method2Madness]

Slayed! :'( :'( :'( :'(

[Deleted]

I love the album. Although I agree with whoever said Timbaland needed to be subbed out for a more current (and...talented) singer like PartyNextDoor or Bryson Tiller. Love Just Ain't Enough was hot but would have been twice as good without his warbling.

Overall, I feel like she did what people have been asking her to do since After the Storm, which is switch up her sound and style.

[SHOOTER]

#9 on iTunes.

[Ivy Leegue™]

Based on the clips, this is not the kind of music I want her to be making. I much preferred New Life to this. Oh well. Maybe next album.

[Bob]

she's credited as a songwriter on every single track-- good for her, that's a real step up from all of her previous albums

[Zinc.]

Rather than celebrate the 20th anniversary of her breakthrough single, Monica declares a Code Red order on the commercial airwaves that have squeezed out soul-rooted R&B. The first song on her seventh U.S. album is the title track, a scuttling assault produced by Polow and assisted by Missy Elliott, which involves the protest "Turn off the radio, damn right/We don't hear real shit no mo'." After that song fades, the next voice heard is that of Lil Wayne, whose most recent radio triumphs as a featured artist include "Truffle Butter." One can't be faulted for being confused by Monica's perspective. Later, she returns to the theme with "I Miss Music," a wistful ballad somewhere between mid-'90s adult alternative singer/songwriter material and Babyface's contemporaneous hits. Monica begins by listing departed legends, then mixes it up by citing some living and very active artists, including Babyface. It's odd. Not only does she long for the type of music that continues to be created in abundance, and with easy access, but a fair portion of it has come from her RCA label mates -- D'Angelo, Elle Varner, Miguel, and past songwriting collaborator Jazmine Sullivan among them. Subtract the mixed and muddled messages (another song features Akon, maker of "Smack That"), and Code Red is satisfactory. It's another Monica album that, at its best, draws from the past while remaining in the present, as heard in the luminous ballad "Deep," the Teena Marie-referencing electro/freestyle hybrid "Suga," and the pop-soul belter "Alone in Your Heart." Most of the collaborations with Polow, Danja, Pop & Oak, Philip Constable, and Fatboi handily surpass the three that involve Timbaland. What truly distinguishes Code Red from the rest of Monica's albums is that the singer is credited as co-writer of every track, not one, two, or three of them. Unsurprisingly, she sounds completely connected to every song.

AllMusic 3/5 stars

[Heart Shaped Box]

Her label couldn't even pay to have it included in Spotify's new releases section........ Psssshhhaa

[Live Your Life]

Dec 18, 2015 10:03:18 GMT -5 Zinc. said:

Rather than celebrate the 20th anniversary of her breakthrough single, Monica declares a Code Red order on the commercial airwaves that have squeezed out soul-rooted R&B. The first song on her seventh U.S. album is the title track, a scuttling assault produced by Polow and assisted by Missy Elliott, which involves the protest "Turn off the radio, damn right/We don't hear real s**t no mo'." After that song fades, the next voice heard is that of Lil Wayne, whose most recent radio triumphs as a featured artist include "Truffle Butter." One can't be faulted for being confused by Monica's perspective. Later, she returns to the theme with "I Miss Music," a wistful ballad somewhere between mid-'90s adult alternative singer/songwriter material and Babyface's contemporaneous hits. Monica begins by listing departed legends, then mixes it up by citing some living and very active artists, including Babyface. It's odd. Not only does she long for the type of music that continues to be created in abundance, and with easy access, but a fair portion of it has come from her RCA label mates -- D'Angelo, Elle Varner, Miguel, and past songwriting collaborator Jazmine Sullivan among them. Subtract the mixed and muddled messages (another song features Akon, maker of "Smack That"), and Code Red is satisfactory. It's another Monica album that, at its best, draws from the past while remaining in the present, as heard in the luminous ballad "Deep," the Teena Marie-referencing electro/freestyle hybrid "Suga," and the pop-soul belter "Alone in Your Heart." Most of the collaborations with Polow, Danja, Pop & Oak, Philip Constable, and Fatboi handily surpass the three that involve Timbaland. What truly distinguishes Code Red from the rest of Monica's albums is that the singer is credited as co-writer of every track, not one, two, or three of them. Unsurprisingly, she sounds completely connected to every song.

AllMusic 3/5 stars

This is a spot on review.

[Linnethia Monique]

Dec 15, 2015 19:58:02 GMT -5 PopLuva said:

did the same producer that produced beyonce bow down / i been on produce call my name? very similar.

Timbaland and Polow produced both of those tracks, well the "I Been On" portion.

[SHOOTER]

Up to #6 on iTunes.

[Method2Madness]

Currently #1 on billboard trending top 40. Justin beiber #2

[Bob]

I love this album, I think it's her 3rd best ever.

[Method2Madness]

imo this is her best album

[Zinc.]

Album: Code Red

iTunes:
#6 Saint Kitts and Nevis
#7 United States
#10 Barbados
#12 Nigeria
#15 Bermuda
#28 Kenya
#36 Botswana
#40 Trinidad and Tobago
#48 Botswana
#51 South Africa
#59 Namibia
#82 Canada
#83 Namibia
#149 United States
#151 Japan
#155 Panama
#177 United Kingdom

[Bob]

Dec 17, 2015 19:33:09 GMT -5 stunnedout said:

Monica hasn't impressed with live vocals since her debut.

that's not even a believable opinion.

Everything to me live on Lopez tonight
I love the lord live at BET Awards
Still holding on live at BET gospel celebration
"Home" from the Wiz live at MJ tribute