推 honkwun:Blender 沒有一次不高分的 04/17 15:11
Blender
by Jody Rosen
May 2008 issue
★★★★☆
Don Diva
On her best album, Mimi gives it rough and likes it rougher.
Practically the first thing you hear on Mariah Carey's 11th studio album is
the sci-fi chirrup of auto-tune - the warble made ubiquitous by a certain
dreadlocked R&B cyborg - a sound that, on first listen, is a bit of a shock.
For much of her nearly two-decade career, Carey has been pop's biggest
showoff, a vocal athlete on a mission to awe and overwhelm and, around the
three-minute mark in most of her songs, to shatter your finest stemware. But
Carey's T-Pain impersonation heralds a new ease and irreverence and, yes,
modesty: The old Carey would never have dreamed of burying her Hall of Fame
voice beneath a robot drone. In 2008, Mimi has definitively been emancipated
- from her need to decorate every damn song with more octaves than Maria
Callas.
E=MC2 is Carey's most-fun album, and her best. Not coincidentally, it's also
her most propulsive, with strong contributions from A-list producers
including Jermaine Dupri, Swizz Beatz, Stargate and Tricky Stewart. The
hardest beat comes courtesy of Timbaland protege Danjahandz - on her starkly
funky "Migrate," Carey trades lines with T-Pain himself. It sounds like a
surefire hit, but Carey is in an eclectic mood, veering from buoyant
neo-disco to mid-tempo ballads to "Last Kiss" - as catchy a piece of pure pop
as she's ever recorded. In "Cruise Control," she even goes ragamuffin,
crooning over Dupri's skittering reggae track in a Caribbean-tinged patois.
The '90s model Mariah was sickly sentimental - the queen of inspirational MOR
- but in recent years she's been indulging her inner thug. Here, she
name-checks Biggie and Tupac, threatens to kick ass if her lover posts their
homemade porn on YouTube, confsesses a preference for tough guys ("If you're
inked-up thuggin', that's what I like") and in general spends much of her
time dissing, dismissing and demanding.
This is partly a nod to the zeitgeist: The charts today are packed with
hard-edged divas. But the fact is, Carey sounds better and more comfortable
spitting out her songs in a state of high dudgeon than she ever did cooing
about heroes and butterflies and rainbows. Here's hoping she never gets over
her attitude problem.
Download: "Touch My Body," "Migrate," "Last Kiss"
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New York Post
by Dan Aquilante
April 15, 2008
Single Her Out! Mariah's Upbeat and Record-Setting
Mariah Carey gets high - wayyyy high - in a vocal riff on the song "Migrate."
The song is on the much anticipated "E=MC2" CD, which drops today.
With that opening display of vocal acrobatics, you brace yourself for a
collection peppered with more glass-busting notes. Instead, Carey displays
the newfound restraint that served her so well on her career-saving last
disc, "The Emancipation of Mimi."
Along with a powerful crew of urban music's top artists and producers
including Swizz Beatz, T-Pain, Jermaine Dupri and Young Jeezy, Carey sustains
the "Mimi" momentum with a diverse collection. Hip-hop, reggae, R&B balladry
and propulsive dance collide in a pleasing mix.
While that might seem like a stylistic scatter, "E=MC2" is the record of the
future. These days, the single is king. Sure, the songs are a part of a
collection, but each song manages to stand on its own merits.
Besides the monetary advantage of a singles-packed album in today's market,
the notion just might push Carey into the record books. The album's current
single "Touch My Body," which went to No. 1 on the charts, was Carey's 18th
career No. 1 hit - surpassing Elvis Presley's 17 No. 1s. With a collection
that has 14 tracks, Carey could well surpass The Beatles' all-time high of 20
No. 1 hits.
On the above-mentioned "Migrate," she lets us tag along on a girl's night
out. In "Cruise Control," she falls in love island style, and in "I'm That
Chick," she brags about the power in her hips and lips.
With so much upbeat music on this record, it might seem like Carey drops the
ball on the last two tunes - one an introspective power ballad called "Bye
Bye" and "I Wish You Well," a gospel flavored song about forgiveness.
While neither of these has the punch to be a mainstream hit, there's an
appealing moodiness to them.
On a like it, love it or leave it scale, this is a definite "love it" album.
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