IS it me or is Mariah less focused on the industry and stardom?

mikesdyke said:

It's not you: She told USA Today that it's unlikely she'd launch a major tour in support of the new album.

mikesdyke said:

It's not you: She told USA Today that it's unlikely she'd launch a major tour in support of the new album.

Ribbon is a hot track.

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(Newsday) Associated Press Review


MUSIC REVIEW: CAREY'S "IMPERFECT ANGEL" IS PERFECT

"I should crack you right in your forehead," Mariah Carey sings on the breakup tune "It's a Wrap". The song, on her latest CD, "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel", finds a hungover Carey kicking her lover to the curb with particularly harsh words.
"Another early morning, and you walk in like it's nothing ... ain't no doughnuts, ain't coffee," she sings with attitude in her signature high-pitch tone. "Let me take a breath and regain my composure, told you more time, if you (expletive) up it's over."
But even though she's spitting venom, Carey's cooing on the doo-wop sounding song is so sensuous and sweet, even the song's intended target will remain under her spell - as will her listeners. "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel" is an exceptional album that is about love - being in it, out of it, over it and trying to reach it. While the subjects are tried and true, they are never tired, thanks to Carey's approach, which mixes a good dose of humor and wit with her multi-octave voice.
"Betcha Gon' Know", the disc's opening track, sets the tone as Carey compares the seriousness of her broken heart to news programs like "60 Minutes", "20/20" and "The Oprah Winfrey Show". Carey produced and wrote the majority of the album with Christopher "Tricky" Stewart and Terius "The-Dream" Nash - and those hitmakers add their own touch to "Imperfect Angel" without overdoing it.
"Ribbon", which bumps with southern flavor, is radio-friendly, showcasing The-Dream and Tricky's signature sound. As does "Standing O", with its addictive hook. Other notables tunes include "H.A.T.E.U." ("Having a Typical Emotional Upset"), a beautiful heartbreak ballad, and the top-notch "Candy Bling", a teenage love affair tune that finds Carey so in love she "can't delete your picture from my mind".
Some of the tracks use samples: "Inseparable" interpolates Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time" and "The Impossible" finds Carey "layin' in the bed bumpin' Jodeci". The latter samples the R&B group's hit song "Forever My Lady".
"Imperfect Angel", though helmed by The-Dream and Tricky, still maintains a classic Mariah sound - especially on the soothing "Angels Cry" and its accompanying prelude, and the personal "Languishing", highlighted by a piano. No one is perfect - that's obvious. This CD is - that's obvious too.

(Newsday)

Funny how reviews are nothing more than an opinion, someone needs to post the Daily News NYC review, her hometown, One star.

And here it is.....


New York Daily News
By Jim Farber
Rating: 1 / 5 stars

Mariah Carey's 'Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel' obscures any chance at vocal perfection
Carey couldn't have picked a more ironic title for her latest CD. While the singer dubbed it "Confessions of an Imperfect Angel," much of the disc strives for a perfectionism you'd expect of someone caught in the dark grip of O.C.D.

From the treatment of the vocals, to the strategy of the songwriting, to the use of instrumentation, "Angel" reeks of idealization and self-consciousness.

That's most obvious in the way the producers dealt with Carey's signature feature - her voice. Rarely do we hear it clearly. Nearly every syllable sounds like it's been tricked up by a war room full of compressors, echo-chambers, filters, audio-tuners, and God knows what other contraptions too much time and money can buy.

At the start of the opening cut "Betcha Gon Know," Carey's voice gets flattened into an affectless monotone that makes her sound like Hal from "2001." In "Why Are You" the hooky parts sound as artificially treated as any vocal trick from T-Pain. In places, so much air and echo whooshes around Carey's voice, she seems to hiss.

Isn't this how producers treat stars who can't sing?

Then again, non-singers regularly score big singles these days. So perhaps it was a savvy move for Carey to mimic their style.

Certainly, it's a cynical move, if hardly a new one for the singer. Carey's last CD, "E=MC2" also applied a heavy layer of gauze to her voice, though a less gloppy one than this time. Likewise, her last CD pushed her further into hip-hop's most melodically spare palette. The more years that pass following Carey's time with Tommy Motolla, the more she shuns her broad and tuneful ballads in favor of something melodically bare and rhythmically slovenly.

This time, Carey takes that m.o. to the extreme. Like some female equivalent to R.Kelly, most of the new songs feature no more than 3 notes a piece, repeated in a sing-songy drone. As sheer craft, it's so depressing, even something like Foreigner's "I Want To Know What Love Is" (which Carey covers at the CD's close) sounds like The Beatles by comparison.

To camouflage the bare tunes, Carey over-indulges her most mocked features: those rococo melismas and that shrieking tea-kettle whistle. One track, "Angel (The Prelude)" consists of nothing but the latter.

The instrumentation proves just as eagerly artificial. If there's a non-synthezed instrument here, it's keeping itself well hidden. Carey even carries over the impersonal nature of the CD to her lyrics. Despite the "Memoir" moniker, there isn't a single telling disclosure. Or so we have reason to presume. Though this is her first CD since she married Nick Cannon, only two tracks treat love as anything but an act of betrayal or a spur to longing.

The result may mean to mirror the youthful frustrations of hip-hop-inflected R&B but it's an antique version of it. R&B stars like Beyonce and Keisha Cole have lately progressed into something far more sophisticated than this. Coupled with the nervous over-correction of her voice, the result makes Carey seem like the proverbial aging actress who's trying so hard to cover her perceived flaws, all she does is call more attention to them.


Say what you want about the actual album and view of it, but that line about "this is how you treat singers who cant sing, is dead fucking on point", and i hate Jim Farber, but thats where he nailed it on the production
[Edited 9/29/09 17:14pm]

Bumped it in the car today and caught even more adlibs. Definitely a fun disc.

JackieBlue said:

i was just listening to Impossible and discovered a cute nod to Crybaby! it's at the 3:00 mark:

"ok so it's 5 am" (followed by a cute laugh).

I bought it the day it came out (yesterday), and I love it. Perfect autumn disc.

I bought it the day it came out (yesterday), and I love it. Perfect autumn disc.

I went to a big-box retailer early in the a.m. and picked up 2 copies. I feel that artists should be compensated for their craft. Her first-week sales projections look promising. Go get 'em, Mimi.

No, I used a more reliable method of tallying CD sales: I spoke with a cashier at Target.

Copycat said:

No, I used a more reliable method of tallying CD sales: I spoke with a cashier at Target.

Copycat said:

"her new CD is merrrvelous!"