Link: Mariah Carey
The Inside Pulse:
It’s been many a year since Mariah Carey was considered a serious adult contemporary artist. However, as she gets older, she acts younger and younger. The culmination of this behavior is The Emancipation of Mimi, another in a long line of dance-pop oriented R&B/hip-hop releases from Ms. Carey. Her strong pipes are still present, although quite subdued on this release. And the songwriters and producers she can attract given her status are still churning out radio-ready beats to match the world around her. So what does this mean for the listener? Hmmm… a whole lot of everything we’ve already heard before and continue to hear spun mercilessly on mainstream top 40 radio. It’s not horrible on the ears, but it’s definitely not noteworthy.
Positives:
Mariah can afford herself some Jermaine Dupri, who contributes probably the best effort of the album, “Get Your Number.” Here and there are a couple of other songs created to be hits, so if that’s your sound, you’ll find it here.
Negatives:
Complete creative abyss. Even if you don’t care about quality songwriting, you’ll find hundreds of better dance songs on the radio.
Cross-breed:
Britney Spears with Nelly. Or choose any other pairing of female pop acts with popular hip-hop dance artists, it’s all the same anyway.
Reason to buy:
You can’t get in any top 40 radio stations and you absolutely need your fill of generic tripe.
