Fear of Flying (album)
Fear of Flying is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter Mya, released on April 25, 2000, by University Music Entertainment and Interscope Records. Following the success of her debut album Mya, Interscope promptly allocated the singer studio time and assembled recording sessions beginning as early as September 1999 which concluded in March 2000. For this record, Mya made the conscious decision to become involved more creatively, opting to pen her own lyrics after securing a publishing deal to launch her own publishing company as well as collaborate with a wider range of established producers and songwriters on the album. Looking to embrace a more mature sound, Harrison consulted and collaborated with a bevy of producers which included Rodney Jerkins, Swizz Beatz, Wyclef Jean, Knobody, Robin Thicke, Tricky Stewart, and Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis.
A hip hop soul album, Mya described Fear of Flying as a metaphor for the ups and downs of life, a theme present throughout the album which includes handling things like an adult and knowing you must have faith to make anything happen. Lyrically, the album's material addressed the singer's romantic relationships which symbolized her relationship with family, friends and acquaintances. Noting that Fear of Flying is "a reflection of being in love for the very first time, experiencing success and the fears of fame."
Upon its release, the album received mixed reviews from music critics citing some of the album's "tepid material." Commercially well received, Fear of Flying debuted with a Top 20 placement at number 15 on the Billboard 200. Initially though, the album stalled on the charts until the release of the album's second single and in turn solidified Fear of Flying a hit garnering multiplatinum success. To keep the album's momentum, nearly seven months after its original release, Fear of Flying was re–released with two new additional songs on November 7, 2000.
In support of the album, three singles were released – "The Best of Me", "Case of the Ex", and "Free", which attained international chart success. Due to the album's success, Fear of Flying earned Soul Train Awards and MOBO nominations.
Considered her most expressive effort to date, Fear of Flying helped established Mya as a household name in mainstream media and redefine a golden age for R&B. In April 2020, to commemorate the album's twentieth anniversary, Universal Music Group released an expanded edition featuring over 10 rare remixes and bonus tracks.
Background
Following the commercial success of her debut Mya, Mya quickly re-entered the recording studio to begin work on her second album. During her two years away, she toured with several artists, and made her film debut in the thriller In Too Deep. Additionally, she was selected by Bongo jeans as their spokesperson and had a Tommy Hilfiger lipstick shade named after her. During the development stages of the album, Mya consulted several different producers for her follow-up album, including She'kspere, Knobody, Tricky Stewart, and Robin Thicke as well as Wyclef Jean and Swizz Beatz of Ruff Ryders. A number of guest vocalists whom contributed to the project, included TLC's Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, Jordan Knight, and Beenie Man. In addition, Harrison launched her own publishing company, Art of War.Mya, who did some writing on her debut album, was heavily involved in the production of Fear of Flying, commenting: "I wanted to get that hands-on experience. I was involved in every single process, from writing and recording to producing, mixing, and mastering." In response to the album's material, the singer commented that many of the album's songs are about female empowerment. "I'm learning that the decisions being made ultimately affect me, so I make most of them with the insight and help of other people", she explained. "I still have to focus on what feels good to me and what's going to work in the long run, instead of selling 20 million records or being controversial." The album's title, came from a song Mya recorded by the same name—not from Erica Jong's 1973 novel of the same name. During an interview with Billboard, which discussed the title, Mya noted that while she had not been aware of the book, she later "started reading it and noticed a lot of similarities: "Fear of Flying is a metaphor for the ups and downs of life. It's about handling things like an adult, knowing you must have faith to make anything happen." Interscope hired photographer and director David LaChapelle to shoot the images for the album's packaging. While she admired the work of Dave La Chapelle, Mya revealed she cropped the original album's cover because it focused on her body, commenting, "I didn't like it. It wasn't capturing."
Development
Mya considers her first album an experiment and a learning ground. Prior to entering a recording studio, she had no vocal training and was doing improv-breathing the whole time on every song. With Fear of Flying, she acknowledged she learned things such as how she likes to work and what works right for her in the studio. On Fear of Flying, she received vocal training and noted her vocals got along better with live performances. Speaking with Time, Mya revealed with Fear of Flying she took more control over her sound and image. She commented that Fear of Flying was "an opportunity and a test."For her second studio album, Mya wrote a lot, openly admitting, "Writing helps me sort through feelings that I'm trying to figure out." She noted her journal is filled with curse words and exclamation points, explaining, "It's either extreme highs or extreme lows." In an interview with the New York Daily News, Mya explained that the album was "about independence." She acknowledged with Fear of Flying she became "more confident", while commenting, "I'm a lot more straightforward. Things I didn't know how to say or when to say, I'm saying now."
During the recording process, Mya explained she clicked more with producers that like to start from scratch, commenting, "It allowed me to be involved in the process. They were interested in what I had to say which made me feel good about myself." One producer Mya gelled with was Wyclef Jean. Speaking on working with him, she commented, "He was interested in what I had to say. My ideas—what I had to bring to the table. He wasn't afraid to go back into the studio and change things." Robin Thicke, a then-up-and-coming producer, was another Mya meshed well with. Of his contribution to Fear of Flying Mya commented, "he is a true talent and I enjoyed working with him." While reviewing Fear of Flying, in an article, Time noted on her debut effort, Mya was a "lovestruck teen" while on Fear of Flying, "she's a woman coming face to face with romantic entanglements." With 18 tracks featured on the album, Time applauded the album to manage that rare thing: to combine captivating beats with hummable melodies. Commenting on the finished product, Time wrote, "This is hip-hop soul with plenty of pop appeal."
Music and composition
Musically, Fear of Flying has been described as a "smooth, catchy, personalized mixture of street-spice soul." According to multiple critics, the album is more focused on themes than coherency of musical style. Sonically, the album's sound veers from quiet storm tracks to hard-edged Timbaland homages to cheerleader romps. The album's focal theme is "proper behavior on the dangerous grounds of courtship" and ranges from uptempo tracks to inspirational ballads. Several of the album's 18 tracks were co-written by Mya, with Vibe magazine noting in an article that "Mýa tackles difficult melodic and rhythmic twists without ditching a nice conversational tone." Fear of Flying opens with an intro courtesy of Swizz Beatz. Titled, "Turn It Up" it features a stop-start beat and samples of a cooing baby. Next up, "Case of the Ex," a song structured around producer Tricky Stewart's "driving, Beethoven-meets-Timbaland" chord changes, where Mýa expresses distrust in her lover. It is built around a catchy yet fairly complicated chorus and clever lyrics. It is followed by the "dramatic" "Ride & Shake", which was compared to the work of Whitney Houston. The mildy racy Rodney Jerkins-produced "That's Why I Wanna Fight" is a sensuous midtempo and served as the album's fourth track. Structured, similarly to Marvin Gaye's 70s material, Harrison adopts Gaye's double singing technique. Track five, the dance-oriented imaginative "Pussycats" is a nursery rhyme-influenced song produced by Wyclef Jean and Jerry Duplessis. A frisky jam, it samples the sound of mewing cats.The album's "combative" sixth track, "The Best of Me", was produced by Swizz Beatz, and features Jadakiss. Described as "edgy" and "street savvy," Mya commented on the message behind the song, suggesting, "It's about setting standards for yourself, about following them through and not allowing the temptations of a heat of the moment situation to lure you into something that you may regret later in life." Described as "mildy structure," the album's seventh track "Lie Detector," is another midtempo which finds Mya refusing advances. The TLC-sounding "How You Gonna Tell Me" courtesy of She'kspere and Kandi has Mya telling her girlfriend to spare her bad advice. Lyrically and conceptually, Mya opted to add her thoughts to the song, explaining, "I wanted the song to be about people preaching to me what they don't practice. About how these specific people speak to me on the way I should live and my reaction to them and their twisted lives." While the "dance-floor-ready" "Takin' Me Over," produced by Robin Thicke featuring Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, begins with Mya acting like the women she has expressed dislike for, while holed up in her bathroom with hair products. A catchy slice of retro soul, "Takin' Me Over" is '60s Motown meets early '00s and shows Mya in a playful coy mood. Mya dubs it her "don't give a damn song."
The lush title track, "Fear of Flying" is a folk-ish quasi ballad produced by Knobody and uses the idea of being afraid to fly as a metaphor for other issues. The Soulshock and Karlin production, "Can't Believe", and remake of Michael Jackson's "The Lady In My Life", titled "Man In My Life", are standard fare A/C broken-hearted emotional ballads, while on a romantic note, the ballad "No Tears On My Pillow" written by Mya and the song's producer Robin Thicke served as the album's fifteenth track. Followed by "For the First Time": a "sexual surrender cut" produced by Swing Mob member Darryl Pearson, a key collaborator on Harrison's debut album. The album's closing track, an outro, "Get Over" is a spoken word "thank you" midtempo with calypso tinge.