With only day left until the release of Mariah’s new album, Me. I Am Mariah…The Elusive Chanteuse, here are a selection of UK press reviews:
Sunday Express (Album of the Week): Mariah Carey built her career on huge ballads which showed off her  astonishing five-octave range. The strength of this, her 14th, album is how subtle much of it is.Singing loud is a skill but performing softly is a true art, and on the opening Cry, Carey gives a masterclass in solemn and soulful delivery. Dedicated (performed with Nas) is equally impressive, a beautiful, low-key breeze of a track, drenched in nostalgia that is reminiscent of the vocal group Tony! Toni! Tone! There are are some lovely instrumental touches too: the broken, twangy guitar intro to Beautiful, and the churchy organ that underpins her superb reworking of George Michael’s One More Try. It is a shame, and, seems rather pointless, that one or two tracks feature the ‘f’ word, especially at this stage in Carey’s career, but for the most part Me finds the singer/songwriter at the very top of her game. Rating: 4/5
Sunday Times: Clearly a complex, even eccentric character, Mariah Carey is rarely as intriguing on record; would that the often unintended glimpses she offers of her off-camera personality were matched by her songs. The queen of crazy coloratura’s long-delayed 14th album is mainly on camera, alas. The big ballads (Cry, Camouflage) are formulaic, by-the-numbers throwaways. it’s when she tones down the melisma, cuts loose on the sonics and inches open the door, as she does on Money, Make It Look Good and last year’s still fabulous-sounding single, #Beautiful (with Miguel), that Carey hints at a different album, and artist, entirely.
Irish Mail on Sunday: Mariah might have appeared as bat-crazy as any diva at times, but she never lost possession of that almost unique vocal instrument that justifies her success. The melismatic style is dialled down a little but on tracks such as Make It Look Good, Meteorite and Beautiful she sounds like she’s having fun. Nas, Explicit and Miguel sound like they have taken time on their contributions rather than the ‘phoned-in’ contributions of too many hip-hop artists guesting on other albums. Even for non-fans, like me, this is very agreeable. Rating: 3/5
Scotland on Sunday (Album of the Week):Â Impossible to resist courtesy of that brilliant, bonkers title, Me. I Am Mariah… is million-selling diva Mariah Carey’s first album since giving birth to twins three years ago, and it rather impressively manages to consolidate her position as the Western world’s premier pusher of histrionic power ballads, while offering a few harder-edged and carefully pitched concessions to the zeitgeist-this being her first album to carry a parental advisory sticker. It starts on a truly impressive vocal performance with Cry, Â a breathy, soulful piano ballad founded on some mightily sustained notes and a sense of drama which is positively Streisandesque. The minimal nu-soul of Faded gives way to Dedicated, a collaboration with New York rapper Nas which begins with a vocal snippet of the pair discussing their “most nostalgic moment for hip-hop ever”- the summer of ’88 says Nas- and then recreates that time with a laid-back summer groove. The co-opting of rap by this most mainstream of artists continues apace through the album, not least on the lo-fi soul of #Beautiful, which sees guest vocalist Miguel rhapsodise Carey (and her backside) with the words “You know you’re f***in’ beautiful”. As the album progresses, it slips back into some of the old tropes of pillow-soft balladry which fans will love, but its lack of real brashness in the end is balanced by the clean, up-market preparation of these songs, allowing a neat harmonica backing on Make It Look Good, Madonna- style club beats of Meteorite and the swaggering horn groove of Money to showcase Carey’s mighty vocal ability. Rating: 3/5
Mariah Carey’s new album “Me. I Am Mariah… The Elusive Chanteuse,” is available for pre-order from:
iTunes by clicking one of the following links: Standard Edition | Deluxe Edition
Amazon is also offering pre-orders of the CD editions of the album by clicking one of the following links: Standard Edition | Deluxe Edition
Source: Sunday Express | Sunday Times| Irish Mail on Sunday | Scotland on Sunday