For those interested, Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly have both reviewed The Emancipation of Mimi, and, naturally, given completely different takes on it. RS also provided an odd version of the album cover


The Rolling Stone review:



MARIAH CAREY

Emancipation Of Mimi


First off: Mariah Carey's ninth album, The Emancipation of Mimi, doesn't suck as comprehensively as 2001's Glitter or 2002's Charmbracelet. Those back-to-back flops suggested that her famous multioctave voice was shot, her judgment impaired and her decade-long pop dominance as over as the Nineties. On Mimi, the Neptunes, Kanye West and Jermaine Dupri deliver unimpeachable grooves, and there are no out-and-out disasters here.

But contrary to its claims, The Emancipation of Mimi doesn't free the diva from what constricts her: There aren't any great songs among Mimi's club tunes and pop-chart-conscious tracks, and Carey is still suffering from a serious crisis of confidence. The Neptunes tracks -- "Say Somethin'," with Snoop Dogg, and "To the Floor," featuring Nelly -- have beats that make you move, but the songs' pop hooks don't stick. Here and elsewhere, the thirty-five-year-old songbird employs the thin and airy warble she's used since the turn of the millennium with breathy, anonymous results. On Kanye West's "Stay the Night," she rides the opposite extreme, blaring and straining with a vengeance. West's low-rumbling smooth rhythms lay a comfy foundation, but Carey seems uncomfortably forced. She's upstaged on Dupri's "Get Your Number," where the Atlanta producer does Nelly better than Nelly himself while sampling Imagination's Eighties club classic "Just an Illusion"; at least here, though, Carey's belabored voice finds a pleasurable medium.

Still, on ballads like "Mine Again," she wails notes that don't need emphasizing, then whispers what would ordinarily be climactic phrases, and the outcome doesn't make emotional or musical sense. Carey seems to be past the worst in her career, but Mimi's A-list hitmakers don't bring her all the way back.


BARRY WALTERS
(Posted Apr 21, 2005)



The Entertainment Weekly review:

The Emancipation of Mimi
Mariah Carey

Grade: B

Reviewed by Tom Sinclair


What's in a name? Mariah Carey is calling her 10th studio CD The Emancipation of Mimi. It's the sort of bold title that promises big changes, exciting sounds, a fresh outlook. Both the word emancipation and the sobriquet Mimi (a nickname used by friends and family) imply that Carey's latest will be soaringly free and intensely personal. Could those words also signal that this is the disc on which Carey throws caution to the wind and explores alien genres? Is this where her previously unsuspected love for artists like, say, Jimi Hendrix, the Smiths, or Pere Ubu finally rears its head?

Of course not. (Ah, but it's fun to dream, isn't it?) Our girl is attempting to extricate herself from the prolonged career slump that began with the abysmal failure of the Glitter soundtrack in 2001 and continued through 2002's Charmbracelet, and neither she nor her handlers are likely to take any crazy chances. (She's probably never heard of Pere Ubu anyway.) In fact, the superstar producers and guest artists on Emancipation (the Neptunes, Kanye West, Twista, Snoop Dogg, Nelly) are no less than the hottest — and most over-exposed — names in urban music.

If such a stacking of the deck seems predictable, it gets the job done: Every song on Emancipation showcases Carey's undeniable vocal strengths. Heavy on ballads and midtempo love songs, it always keeps at least one foot (more often both feet) planted firmly in comforting old-school diva soul. This is an R&B record for folks who think there hasn't been any good R&B since Minnie Riperton died.

Even the rappers are on their best behavior, with Snoop playing an amiable around-the-way lothario on ''Say Somethin''' and Twista motormouthing his way through ''One and Only'' (''Twista and Mariah/Together like a grip on a tire,'' he raps, and it must be admitted that Carey does a fair job of trying to keep up with him).

''It's Like That'' isn't the old Run-DMC song, but it's almost as cool, with Carey fantasizing about easing into a nightclub buzzed on Bacardi. ''No stress, no fights,'' she sings, making it sound like a trip to a vacation spa. ''To the Floor'' is another hooky dance-floor anthem that ought to get a party started (although it does sound like Nelly phoned his part in).

But the crux of the album is to be found in its heart-on-my-sleeve numbers. Perhaps the best of these is ''Fly Like a Bird,'' a veritable prayer that explicitly references God. ''Sometimes this life can be so cold/I pray you'll come and carry me home,'' Carey sings melismatically. ''Carry me higher, higher, higher.'' It's so moving that we'll resist the temptation to be crass and interpret the song as a plea for heightened record sales. Help from above is always welcome, but Emancipation sounds like it just might do fine all on its own.

(Posted:04/11/05)

Good reviews far outweigh the bad this time out, it seems.

And that is the cover of the limited edition digipack in the US.

Voices, you have it no?
Would you recommend it to a not that big Mariah fan?

jayaredee said:

It's a good record. Not artistic brilliance or anything but a really pleasant listen. What have you liked by Mariah in the past?

VoicesCarry said:

I was going to say if you like Mariah previous and up to Butterfly, you may like this one. And that's the LE cover? Ugh.

RipHer2Shreds said:

Pretty much.

funny how RS counts 9 albums whereas EW counts 10.....