A funny thing happens at the beginning of Mariah Carey’s latest album. Beginning with a freakish shriek, she opens E=MC2 with a run of high notes in an almost self-mocking fashion. To emphasize this caricature, the high notes turn into the backing track for “Migrate” and form a rather accomplished duet with T-Pain.
Such is the method of Mariah’s eleventh studio album. She fundamentally follows up on the pattern of 2005’s The Emancipation of Mimi, but doubles up on the self-awareness to put out a rather capable pop album. She even taps into the text message and YouTube generation with unrepentant joy.
“Touch My Body” is her eighteenth number one single. It’s a sexy and slinky track that has all of the noteworthy Carey-isms, including her ability to nail the higher registry unlike any other. It is her knack for quickly blasting through the higher notes and firing off lines in quick succession during the verses that transforms this potentially weak tune into a catchy single.
Part of the knock on Mariah is the conception that her emotional relationship with the songs is often lacking. This is a fairly solid critique, for the most part, and most of E=MC2 reaches into party-pop territory with no regrets. Like Kylie Minogue, Mariah’s music isn’t so much about emotional connections a la Mary J. Blige.
It's more about the bounce.
That bounce is immensely present on tunes like “Cruise Control,” where the addition of Damien Marley makes the song a skilled Jamaican jam, and “I’m That Chick,” one of the album’s best tracks. These are precision-tooled songs just begging for night cruising.
As is usually the case, Mariah slows things down and attempts introspection with songs of love lost. “I Stay In Love” is Carey’s bread and butter, a piano-driven ballad with plenty of fluttery vocals. “Love Story” has a similar feel, but is mostly overproduced to bewildering levels.
Article comments
1 - Connie Phillips
Congrats! This article has been forwarded to the Advance.net websites and Boston.com.
2 - LS
Great review!
RE: Migrate, I think this is the first time Carey has harnessed her whistle register in a way that makes sense with the music; I've long wondered why she never used it as a backing instrument rather than in the foreground. She really is at a point in her career where everyone gets that she can sing -- I don't think it's necessary anymore to put out songs a la "Hero," that musically are completely boring and succeed solely on so-foreground-they're-in-your-face vocals. We have Celine and that silly Leona chick for that now.
"Emancipation" was a turning point, with Carey finally putting out music that started to be as interesting for its sound and structure as it is for her amazing vocals (even if her voice is not quite at the inhuman level of perfection she reached in the 90s, her songs are still so damn hard to sing that you can't help respect her talent). I feel, however, that "Emancipation" is still in that awkward transition phase, and some of the arrangements are bewildering -- "It's Like That" is such a clunky tune, melodically skeletal and scattered with that imbalanced, booming beat overwhelming it. This is where E=MC2 shines: for once the vocals and arrangements seem to match up a bit better, and even though she does use all of her range, she doesn't meticulously build the songs around conquering scales, allowing them to evolve more organically into...well, songs, versus all-you-can-eat octave samplers that happen to have a bit of a backing track.
Love this album...could it be that Carey is finally working towards a semblance of artistry?
3 - michael
Mariah is an amazing singer, with a massive vocal range making her unique. I prefer her earlier work as i feel their was more thought put into her lyrics etc. E=MC2 is a good album but no where near as good as Emancipation in my opinion. Vision of love is her best song as she is always changing it when she performs it, using her range to a fantastic standard. Her 5 octave voice blows me away. Best singer on earth. I hope Leona follows in her footsteps, i'm certain she will.
4 - bliffle
Yeah, she has great lungs.