Just like an adolescent girl, we can count on Mariah Carey to keep getting infatuated and hitting notes higher than a piano to express her angst and ardor. And the full-blast emotional roller coaster is fun to ride -no matter how many times. She is still coming up with good stuff. Mariah's new album, The Emancipation of Mimi
will not disappoint those who overplay her heartbreak songs, but it lacks her token remake and metaphors are replaced with a few obscenities. Let us hope that Mariah never pulls the pop princess version of Alanis and bores us with her contentment.
The tracks feature good beats with a variety of instruments and synthesizers as well as skilled vocals -everything we can count on from Mariah -but the songs are fairly predictable and have mediocre lyrics. Not that she needs to prove herself, but this album probably will not add to Mariah's dwindling fans.
Madonna would not name an album The Emancipation of Esther because she reinvents herself all the time. Mariah, on the other hand, is still the same old divorcee who found her sexual liberation in '98. There is no reason the album should not be called the usual, something along the lines of Candy or Velvet.
It's Like That the first single, is the worst song on the album. I do not think it will have the same flavor at high school dances and clubs as Heartbreaker or Honey. It is more in her first-single flop category along with Loverboy and Sweetheart. Mariah, who used to define mainstream, is now lacking the Toxic pop sound that is hot right now.
She has said that this new CD is most like her first album. It does have the simple, early-'90s style beats, but she is no longer the gospel-inspired young woman who sang Vision of Love. Plastic surgery could not prevent her music from maturing 15 years.
Not only does she sing about Bacardi, but her posse has gotten a lot bigger. The catchiest song on the album, Say Somethin'
features Snoop Dogg. Also featured on separate tracks are Twista, Jermaine Dupri and Nelly. Mariah -or should I say Mimi -cannot be alone, it seems. But, unlike past Mariah attempts, the collaborations on this album really add something to this CD.
The Emancipation of Mimi takes a little bit of everything from her assortment of albums. She shows us that she can sing as high as she did in the '90s and her background sparkles better than when she tried the same contempo-retro sound in Glitter.
She might not be belting out No. 1 hits onto the charts the way she used to, but she can still put together a solid album within a predictable structure.
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Ellie Behling
