April 11th, 2008 | 6:30 pm est | Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Two weeks prior to the April 2008 release of
E=MC2 — Mariah Carey’s tenth album and the sequel to her big 2005 comeback
The Emancipation of Mimi — the diva broke Elvis Presley’s record of being the solo artist with the most number one singles on the Billboard charts. Lots of publicity surrounded “Touch My Body” reaching number one, as well it should: busting an Elvis record is always news but this particular record served team Mariah well, as it paints Carey as being a diva that’s bigger and better than the rest. An unintentional side effect of this very record is that it also tacitly pointed out that Mariah has been around a long, long time: 18 years, to be exact, roughly two years shy of the two decades that it took Elvis to establish his record. Unlike Elvis — or any other major artist that’s been around for two decades, for that matter — Carey seems determined not to look back, to exist in some kind of eternal now, never acknowledging that she has a past, unless she’s wielding her divorce from her ex-husband/ex-record label chief Tommy Mottola for some kind of sympathy, something she does once again here via vague allusions to naivety and “violent times” on “Side Effects.” Mariah refers to that separation so often that it’s hard not to think of it as something recent but it happened a long, long time ago — well over a decade prior to the release of
E=MC2, to be precise — but as the separation was the pivot point for Carey’s career, it’s easy to see why she keeps returning to it, even if the emotional heft of her singing about the pain has long since diminished.
After that separation, Carey restyled herself as a relentlessly modern R&B diva, chasing every passing trend in a given year, a move that often kept her on the top of the charts — apart from the post-millennial stumble of
Glitter, of course — but had the side effect of making Mariah a musician who became progressively less mature with each passing year, culminating in the hazy soft-porn fantasies of “Touch My Body,” the single that broke Elvis’ long-standing record and will likely only be remembered for that achievement. Like so much of
Emancipation and
E=MC2, which is a virtual replica of its predecessor in almost every way, “Touch My Body” is all about sound, rhythm, and texture and not so much about song, something that helps sustain Mariah Carey’s run at the top the charts, but something that also pushes melodic hooks and in the process singing into the background. As Carey’s multi-octave voice has always been her calling card, the one thing that even her biggest critics grudgingly acknowledged her unassailable strength, this is a little odd — especially on the T-Pain duet “Migrate,” where she succumbs to auto-tune — but it not only makes Mariah modern, it also camouflages her slightly diminishing range, so it does have a dual purpose. Sometimes all this production good and occasionally it’s married to a full-fledged, hooky song, as on the excellent “I’m That Chick,” a sleek slice of
Off the Wall disco that’s nearly giddy in its energy and melody, and perhaps on “I’ll Be Lovin’ U Long Time,” which also has a lightness that so much of
E=MC2 lacks. Everything else pushes the rhythm and bass to the forefront and mixes Mariah into the middle, so it becomes a wash of sound — sound that is designed to be fashionable, but like so much fashion, it’s tied to the time and dates quickly. Which is why it’s misleading to judge Mariah based on her new record of possessing the most number one singles, as she’s not about longevity, she’s about being permanently transient, a characteristic
E=MC2 captures all too well.
Decent comments below:
April 12th, 2008 @ 10:47 am est | Seb
It’s a pity that Mariah Carey lowers herself with each reease to a new low - lyrically and vocally. I think the actual review of the new CD should definitely contain a remark about how weak and soulless her vocals are on the new record.
Its title, the lyrics, the vocals scream mediocrity to the second. All what is done here is just to ensure the mass appeal and an absolute will to achieve no.1 no matter the cost. I guess having no family or no life in general is the reason Carey is acting like a spoiled girl who is still living within her pony-rainbow-world and shows no sign of waking up.
Other voices lik Celine Dion for example showed always what real class and consistency is about. Especially as a live performer. Here Mariah Carey’s vocals don’t even compare.
April 12th, 2008 @ 1:40 pm est | Preston
I’ve been waiting for your review of Mariah Carey’s new album, Mr. Erlewine, because like Sal Cinquemani at Slant Magazine, you really like Mariah Carey’s music and know she has potential to rein as one of the best modern Pop/R&B artists of her generation, but can’t help feeling disappointed that she continues to release music just to stay current with the teen/tween crowd. Also, like Mr. Cinquemani, you know that Mariah has this potential based on some of her greatest singles that weren’t released (i.e. “Vanishing,” “If It’s Over,” “The Wind,” etc.) I agree with Mike: it’s about time Mariah make a serious R&B album. She gives us hints that she’s capable of doing that with songs with a Neo-Soul swagger (like in the unreleased track “I Feel It” that’s leaked all over YouTube), but she’s such a music machine that artistic integrity often takes a backseat. Two weeks prior to the April 2008 release of
E=MC2 — Mariah Carey’s tenth album and the sequel to her big 2005 comeback
The Emancipation of Mimi — the diva broke Elvis Presley’s record of being the solo artist with the most number one singles on the Billboard charts. Lots of publicity surrounded “Touch My Body” reaching number one, as well it should: busting an Elvis record is always news but this particular record served team Mariah well, as it paints Carey as being a diva that’s bigger and better than the rest. An unintentional side effect of this very record is that it also tacitly pointed out that Mariah has been around a long, long time: 18 years, to be exact, roughly two years shy of the two decades that it took Elvis to establish his record. Unlike Elvis — or any other major artist that’s been around for two decades, for that matter — Carey seems determined not to look back, to exist in some kind of eternal now, never acknowledging that she has a past, unless she’s wielding her divorce from her ex-husband/ex-record label chief Tommy Mottola for some kind of sympathy, something she does once again here via vague allusions to naivety and “violent times” on “Side Effects.” Mariah refers to that separation so often that it’s hard not to think of it as something recent but it happened a long, long time ago — well over a decade prior to the release of
E=MC2, to be precise — but as the separation was the pivot point for Carey’s career, it’s easy to see why she keeps returning to it, even if the emotional heft of her singing about the pain has long since diminished.
April 12th, 2008 @ 1:51 pm est | Mike
Mariah has written some good songs, but I still say she cateres to the “youngin’s”. That’s not a bad thing, I just wished that she had made a real r&b record (w/o gimmicks) before her voice was shot. I still say her best live performance to date was on the MTV Unplugged and that was years ago.
Above: The REAL Mariah in her new film - this is what she really looks like without all the photoshop work!
Mariah complains that she never gets respect for being a singer/songwriter, but it’s hard to give someone that type of respect when their image is so misleading. I do agree that her voice isn’t what it use to be anymore (I doubt she could do give the same vocal performance as in the first 30 seconds of “You’re So Cold” from “Emotions”). However, even with her diminishing voice, she still remains one of the best. “I Wish You Well” was one of the few songs that proves that she can give a gritty vocal performance when she wants to.