推 TwoTwo:喂~~愛摸嗎?有人在召喚你耶~~ 04/12 17:19
★★★／★★★★★
http://0rz.tw/4c3S0
by Eric Henderson
Posted: April 10, 2008
I've always thought of Mariah Carey as something of a math problem, one that
lacks either theorem or proof. To wit, the enjoyment of her music is directly
proportional to the gratuitousness of her vocal indulgences (chief among
them, her tendency to jump to her upper register without reason or warning),
the cheeky self-awareness to her own camp potential, and the unfailing
devotion to her own sense of continued legacy as the distilled representation
of pop culture. It's actually that last item that shows up most often in the
singer's curriculum; there's a reason that, until now, Mariah hasn't changed
the font for her CD-cover nameplate since day one. Some scoffed a few years
back when Garth Brooks flatly admitted his excitement over the prospect of
toppling the Beatles' record for most albums sold, but no one seems to bat an
eye when Mariah's PR machine focuses plainly on bookkeeping. Hell, I'm not
entirely sure that either "Touch My Body" or, before that, "We Belong
Together" didn't sound just a little bit better because of their statistical
potency, as opposed to their musical vitality.
But that's the bitch of having a winning formula. Eventually, it's going to
boil down to just that: a formula. The irresistibly titled E=MC2 stands
shoulder, at least according to my TI-85, with The Emancipation of Mimi in
that I honestly prefer Mariah in the loopier, more freewheeling territory of
Rainbow and Glitter, but I can't deny the dogged efficiency in action. Even
if I wasn't exactly sure what the "E" was supposed to mean in the album's
title at first (emotion? Ear-splitting melisma? Surely not energy…oh, it
stands for "emancipation," duh), there's little doubt that "MC" stands for
our own master of ceremonies, and she even threw in a little nod to her own
public schizophrenia for good measure. But those hoping for reinvention will,
in addition to being radically unfamiliar with Mariah's career trajectory,
probably be dismayed that the "2" also stands for "Mimi, Part 2."
Mariah's records have always credited a vocal engineer, but the first sound
on E=MC2 is that trademark throat howl from behind the all-too-familiar
digital curtain of Auto-Tune. "Migrate," a collaboration with T-Pain, kicks
off the definitely hip-poppy album, and it sets the tone perfectly. Just as
Mariah and Pain bounce from the taxi to the club to the house party to the
bar to the hotel, E=MC2 doesn't dawdle long enough for you to ever discern
just how overly deliberate it is: It's an album composed entirely of radio
edits. The only song that doesn't feel just about composed on the spot is
"Side Effects," but that's because it's been in the making for a decade. A
reasonably salutary tribute to 10 years of leaving Tommy Mottola behind,
Mariah sings about how she's still addressing the emotional wreckage. "I was
a girl, you was a man/I was too young to understand/I was naïve, I just
believed/Everything that you told me," she explains while Young Jeezy rattles
off the list of symptoms: "Drowsiness, loneliness, how's this?" Frankly, I
fought the same set of maladies getting through the song, but if Mariah has
spent a decade not letting people get too close, who are we to deny giving
her four minutes to emote it out? On the other hand, I guess I would deny her
that, especially when, on "For the Record," she expresses the desire to "just
press rewind."
There's a big mathematical difference between pop instincts and pop
manufacturing, and most of E=MC2 demonstrates the latter. "Touch My Body," as
it turns out, was just about the only choice for a kickoff single, what with
its slow-growing guilty-pleasure quotient, its cheesy-easy-breezy
disposability (in the packrat world of pop culture, it always turns out to be
the hardest to throw away the throwaway), and its frontloaded
Mariah-being-Mariah flourishes. References to YouTube, t-shirts, and favorite
jeans are turned kinky against the insistent imagery of her voluptuous
thighs. And leave it to Mariah to transmute the sex appeal of teddy bears
into the same territory inhabited by leather bears: If yiff culture is going
to cross over, it will be through the guiding help of Mimi's plush fantasies.
Furthermore, the blatant sexual advances come embedded within a downright
rudimentary backing track (I've seen it been called glorified karaoke
multiple times) that, were it not for the lyrics, would've been just as
appropriate for the Backyardigans or the Wiggles, confirming that the "G" of
Mariah's g-spot stands for "general audiences." The disparity between the
song's hyper-polished sterility and its almost prepubescent sexuality (as
made literal in the song's stupid-brilliant promotional clip) epitomize that
elusive pop instinct. With "Touch My Body," Mariah brings sexy back…to the
schoolyard.
Elsewhere, there are two and a half uptempo tunes (that's out of 14 on the
non-iTunes version). "O.O.C." has a nice, unforced looseness about it, both
in Mariah's loopy "s'cusa me" patois and in the flared-out drum pattern, with
a surprising emphasis on the open high-hat; maybe not completely "out of
control," as advertised, but certainly a welcome deviation from her more
uptight jams and even more uptight ballads. "I'm That Chick" is a retro
treatsicle in the best, most Glitter-iest sense. It's pinker than Pepto
Bismol and just as soothing, and for whatever reason, Mariah's fudged
enunciation on the chorus turns "I'm that chick you like" into "I'll have
chicken, lite." The triumph of the song is that, when all of our dance-floor
divas these days seem to throw one disco-descendant banger on their otherwise
hip-hop-hybrid LPs almost out of obligation, "I'm That Chick" doesn't feel
even as tokenistic as Janet's "Feedback" (which I like more, but only out of
context).
The aforementioned "half" song is the half-uptempo, half-brained, half-cocked
"I'll Be Lovin' U Long Time." Words fail, but what you get for your $10 here
is not only everyting you want (everyting!), but also Mariah simultaneously
in ridiculous mode and also pathologically free of irony or self-awareness.
Recruiting DJ Toomp for this one was a stroke of genius: "Long Time" sounds
like a hyperventilating cross between a graduation anthem and an early-'80s
family sitcom theme song. Listening to it, I felt face to face with a couple
of silver spoons: one heroin, the other grape jelly. Such are the rewards of
an album like E=MC2, in which one does reach a solution, but not before
Mariah bends over backward to show her work.
--
再度召喚翻譯魔人
--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc)
◆ From: 61.230.163.242