There was Mariah Carey before the “Fantasy” remix and Mariah Carey after the “Fantasy” remix. Prior to this remix, Mariah seemed to be headed down a direction that could charitably be described as “middle of the road”. Inspirational ballads, soft-rock covers, and the occasional dance-informed tune to remind her fans that she was a) still… Read More “Fantasy (Bad Boy Remix)” by Mariah Carey feat. ODB (1995)
“Emotions” was the first single from Mariah Carey’s second album, also entitled Emotions. It was her record-setting fifth number one pop record. No artist before or since has seen their first five singles hit the top spot. Actually, given the current music industry’s lean towards featured appearances, it’s very likely that this will never happen… Read More “Emotions” by Mariah Carey (1991)
Mariah Carey’s first two albums were…interesting from a stylistic standpoint. She was clearly a soul singer, but there seemed to be an emphasis on making her music not incredibly progressive. The edgiest early Mariah got was the new-jack remix of “Someday” (who can forget her regrettably doing the running man in the video?) or maybe… Read More “Dreamlover” by Mariah Carey (1993)
I have a weird appreciation for pop balladry from the early ‘90s, particularly the trebly, semi-new age production of Walter Afanasieff. He did a ton of work with primarily (exclusively?) Columbia Records artists (Celine Dion, NKOTB, Michael Bolton). His productions were the sound of adult contemporary radio for quite a long time. While his productions… Read More “Can’t Let Go” by Mariah Carey (1991)
Time for a little re-assessment. Bumping two songs from the last batch of four star songs up a notch. Also dropping back for two final “B” songs. “Butterfly”, on its face, is a prototypical big ‘90s Mariah ballad. That’s where the comparisons to “Hero” (which is awful), “One Sweet Day” (which is pretty bad), or her cover of “I’ll Be… Read More “Butterfly” (Mariah Carey, 1997)/ “Bye Baby” (NaS, 2012)
OOOPS. For some reason, “All I Want For Christmas Is You”, Mariah Carey’s huge 1994 holiday single, was not in my iTunes library. I occasionally tend to hide my Christmas songs because no one wants to hear about jingle bells in April. Or July. Or really anytime before, like, December 15th. Oh, is that just… Read More “All I Want For Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey (1994)
Five Star Jamz 