#389 Mariah Carey, 'The Emancipation of Mimi' (2005)

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This album bears a lot of similarities to Britney Spears’s ‘Blackout’ (#441) in backstory. In 2001, Mariah suffered a major emotional and physical breakdown following the flop of her film, ‘Glitter.’ Her label, Virgin Records,’ dropped her and her divorce from her previous label boss at Sony, Tommy Mottola still fresh, Mariah was done. She released her intended “comeback” album, ‘Charmbracelet,’ in 2002, which unfortunately didn’t live up to expectations. Deciding to give it one more try, Carey released this, her ACTUAL comeback album. It became her first album in 8 years to chart at #1, selling over 404,000 copies in its first week. It would go on to become the biggest selling album in the US in 2005 and to date has sold over 10 million albums worldwide. Now THAT’S a comeback!

Admittedly, I’ve never been a major Mariah Carey fan, but there’s no mistaking her talent. She has a massive 5-octave vocal range. For those not well versed in the technicalities of music, I’ll put it this way; Pavarotti, Bowie, Prince, Beyoncé and Freddie Mercury all possess/ed a 4-octave range. Mariah can sing a whole 8 notes higher than them. Songs like ‘It’s Like That,’ ‘We Belong Together,’ ‘Get Your Number’ and ‘To The Floor’ take me back to being a 21-year-old in da cluuub. Her vocals are stunning, but the slow jam tracks between the hits didn’t do much for me at all. The record is dated, firmly stuck in 2005. Nostalgia is not always a bad thing, but in this case, it doesn’t work for me. Sorry Mimi!

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