Mariah returns to form
Like Lopez, Mariah Carey begins her cheesily titled new album, Charmbracelet (Mercury), her first since Glitter, the flop soundtrack to her flop movie, by putting the past behind her. Through the Rain, a sweet slowie, is about picking herself up and starting again. Musically, however, it's the past Carey is trying to return to. Not the recent past, but the mid-1990s, when she was the new Whitney Houston. The good news is that those who loved Carey then will love her again. Out have gone the hip-hop/pop tracks that alienated middle America and back in have come the big ballads and that still astonishing, multi-octave voice.
Thankfully, Carey only gets mawkish on the power ballads My Saving Grace, I Only Wanted and Bringin' on the Heartbreak, a dramatic, strings-drenched production with bits of blues guitar that teeters on Celine Dion territory but sounds like a huge hit-in-waiting. The rest is mostly midtempo tunes about love. Finally, there are a couple of funky, uptempo tunes, ripe for a remix, including the playful, Rose Royce-sampling I'm Going Down. (Times Online) Many thanks to Mariah Buzz and MariahC.nu.
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