Revival (Jully Black album)

Critical reception

Matthew Chisling of AllMusic found the album an improvement over This Is Me, praising the production for containing both retro and modern beats, and Black as a performer and songwriter, concluding that "On Revival, we see so many sides of a truly multi-dimensional Black who, thanks to more than a decade of struggle and failure, releases a powerful showing of delicious Rhythm & Blues to her fans and leaves them coming back for more. Black has improved in every aspect, and establishes herself as a truly credible R&B Canadian diva who deserves heaps of praise and success; Canada, you've found your Mary J." Ryan B. Patrick of Exclaim! also gave praise to the production but said that listeners might be put off by it playing safe and yearn for Black's trademark genre-mixing sound, concluding that, "In the grand scheme of things however, it’s remarkable that a Canadian R&B artist even gets to record a sophomore disc, much less one as ambitious as this. Revival rocks rightly, plays it safe and essentially ensures Black a lengthy and award-winning Canadian career." Jason Richards, writing for NOW, was critical of the album's single "Seven Day Fool" and felt that it carried over on the production sounding mainstream and radio-friendly, concluding that "[T]he canned production is undeservedly insipid and needlessly limits Black's potent and versatile energy. The only highlight is "Wishing", which makes brilliant use of a whistling sample heard in Kill Bill."

Samples

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Revival.