Today's music is always pretty simple. But Mariah Carey's latest album is not nearly as complicated as the physics equation that is its title.
Carey's new album E=MC2 is almost a quiet album for her. There are lethargic, heavy-handed rhythms, and rappers try to help and get themselves some free publicity by standing in the background.
The single Touch My Body is a segue from 2005's The Emancipation of Mimi to now, with very little vocal change. The drumbeats are about the only thing behind Carey.
All through the album there is puzzling back-to-basics stuff. I Stay in Love sounds like something that would have been on her EP when she was just breaking into the business, with merely a keyboard and a drum machine.
The usual rapper collaborations are on this album, including the ever-popular T-Pain and Young Jeezy. As usual, the only contribution they have to Migrate and Side Effects is a few ohs and hahas that are hardly anything at all.
Carey seems to have taken a cue from Janet Jackson's latest with more text message song titles. Thanx 4 Nothin' and O.O.C. (a song this reviewer still hasn't figured out) are bad enough, but there is also I'll Be Lovin' You Long Time
which sounds oddly like the famous Full Metal Jacket scene.
There's no denying Carey has a powerful set of pipes, even though they are known for reaching dog-whistle ranges. But For the Record and I Wish You Well are really the only songs on which she stretches her voice beyond today's pop standards.
Carey seems to have toned down her music since she came back from hiatus a few years ago. On E=MC2 and The Emancipation of Mimi, the singer has not gone for anything high-arcing or overly energetic. This may be to her advantage, since her falsetto could break windows as well as listener's eardrums.
But this more laid-back Mariah still makes the album slightly boring (Thanx 4 Nothin' is especially yawn-inducing.) She definitely has a talent that most singers today don't possess, but she seems to have lost some of the spirit she possessed before glitter became a cringe-worthy word.
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Susan Tebben
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