This Is Me...Then

1	Still 3:40
2	Loving You 3:45
3	I'm Glad 3:42
4	The One 3:36
5	Dear Ben 3:14
6	All I Have 4:14
7	Jenny from the Block / Styles P 3:08
8	Again 5:47
9	You Belong to Me 3:30
10	I've Been Thinkin' 4:41
11	Baby I Love U! 4:43
12	The One previously unreleased / Bonus Track / Version 2 3:31

Barnes & Noble

In the liner notes for her third disc, Jennifer Lopez writes that making This Is Me...Then will "always represent a time in my life where I finally started to get it right." Fans will hope that's not wishful thinking from a star as famous for her turbulent romantic escapades as she is for her music and acting career. It's anybody's guess whether or not Lopez's impending marriage (her third in less than five years) to actor and People magazine–dubbed "Sexiest Man Alive" Ben Affleck will last longer than her volatile courtship with rapper Sean "P. Diddy" Combs (three years) or her marriage to dancer Chris Judd (nine months), but one thing's for certain. The 11 glowing tracks on This Is Me...Then, penned in part by Lopez, were written by a woman in love. In fact, all but two of the songs -- the upbeat "Still," curiously about a love Lopez once "big pimped" around town with, and Carly Simon's "You Belong to Me" -- seem to have been inspired by her relationship with Affleck. For sure, Lopez may be more adept at writing sugar-and-spice ballads such as the confessional "Dear Ben" and the gushing "Again" than she is at actually singing them. Her sincerity compensates for what she lacks in vocal range, and she shines best on hip-hop-guided tracks such as the LL Cool J–assisted "All I Have," which samples Debra Laws's R&B classic "Very Special." On the Latin-tinged "I'm Glad," the boricua beauty exclaims, "I think I'm in love. Damn, finally!" While her wedding planner will be sorry to hear that, adoring fans will rejoice right along with their "Jenny from the Block." Tracy E. Hopkins

All Music Guide

Don't pay attention to the title, which is absolutely nonsensical and bewildering -- it suggests that This Is Me...Then is a compilation, which it isn't, and it also suggests that this has some sort of theme, which it doesn't -- and concentrate on the music, which is the strongest, sultriest, best music Jennifer Lopez (who has abandoned the moniker J-Lo) has recorded for any of her three albums. This, of course, doesn't mean that it's a radical musical departure, though there are differences here -- the glitzy dance-pop has been phased out, there's a stronger urban soul vibe, particularly on the lush surfaces and sexy grooves -- but it does mean that the album has a solid set of songs and a sharp production pitched directly at the mainstream of 2002, yet with nice allusions to classic soul and early-'80s pop-funk and soft rock. Since Lopez is a celebrity and a regular feature on gossip pages in the early days of the 21st century, and since she's unabashedly mainstream -- her only attempts at street-cred are on the laughable lyrics to "Jenny From the Block," where she insists that success hasn't spoiled her yet and she's the same ol' Jen she's always been (if so, why the paparazzi on the back cover?) -- it's easy for some listeners to dismiss her, but it's harder to make to make a pop album as easily enjoyable as this. Sure, there are some flaws -- as mentioned above, "Jenny From the Block" is silly and no matter how much you love Ben Affleck, "Dear Ben" is unbearably mawkish -- but all mainstream pop albums stumble through filler. What counts is the overall feel and the highlights. Here, the feel is sexy, stylish, and fun, and there are numerous highlights, all feeling effortless. And if you think that's easy to do, take a listen to a few other pop-R&B albums from late 2002 (Stripped and Charmbracelet come to mind) and hear how good this record is. Stephen Thomas Erlewine