Pop Music Scene

Mariah Carey : E=MC2 Review

by DEXIE on April 16th, 2008

After watching American Idol last night wherein Mariah Carey was the guest mentor and where the contestants sang their own interpretation of Mariah’s hits it made me think of how Mariah’s music has successfully transcended through the years. Listening to Hero, Forever, Vanishing and Always Be My Baby made me go through all the CD’s in my collection to reminisce all the great ballads in Mariah’s repertoire. Watching last night also justified how I feel about her new album, E=MC2. Unfortunately, I’m not jumping up and down for  it. The first word  that came to me after listening to her whole album was “juvenile“. There’s no Butterfly, or Through The Rain in this album. There’s certainly no “Visions Of Love” in it either. Honestly, I feel Mariah has gone backwards.

More on the review after the fold…

Touch My Body is irrevocably a hit. No argument about that.  Migrate as the first track on the album is a reminiscent of It’s Like That from her Emancipation album. It has the beat and the bounce of a good clubbin’ song. Cruise Control featuring Damian Marley is probably my favorite right now. It’s got the soulful aspect to it’s reggae and catchy tune. Side Effects talks about her being a girl with “THE MAN”. It’s almost autobiographical with a cheeky way of story telling that Mariah is so capable of. If you get my meaning. I Stay In Love With You is a ballad with Mariah’s signature shrieking high note in the end. Bye Bye is Mariah’s next single which I don’t really understand. Lyrically, it’s heartfelt but the overall deliverance of the accompanying music  is bland and generic. Overall, E=MC2 doesn’t show any growth from her last album Emancipation which was like 3 years ago or being a legendary artist. Her earlier albums actually showed more maturity if you really think about it.

Having said all that, I think Mariah’s exploration of the formula(ironically) that works in the Music industry these days is brilliant. She knows what will sell. And E=MC2 will sell. Does it contain singles to knock Beatles out of the top list? Not sure yet. The jury is still out there. To summarize everything :

Mariah Carey : E=MC2 :

• Bouncy = Yes
• Potentially good clubbing music = Yes
• Soulful = Some
• Formula for a hit = Probably
• Current with the industry and fans = Yes
• Growth = NO
• 3 out of 5

But then again, maybe Mariah felt she already made a mark in the Pop Music World that she shouldn’t have to prove herself to show maturity in her recent work. She’s done her share and now it’s her time to unwind and just PAR-TAY! With her skinny body and all :).

*Image Via Amazon.com

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