Mariah Carey is a one of a kind singer. There’s nobody really quite like her. Sure, there are others who can do that dolphin-falsetto-whateveritscalled thingy. There are other sings who can do barritone, alto, soprano and beyond. But none of them are Mariah Carey. And after a troubling hiatus she’s made a comeback that’s spanned two albums and looming third led by a story-ridden hit single on the radio.
I wouldn’t mind if this comeback ended here.
Mariah Carey used to sing ballads. Now, she sings hip-hop/pop ditties with catchy hooks grooving beats and electronic versions of herself. That’s fine, I like songs like that.
But if she wants to be remembered as a singer, she needs to either stop making music now, or drastically change the songs she puts out. Why? Simple. Her songs, with very little exception, can be sung by anybody. The beats are catchy but the melodies are generic. There’s no depth, variety or spark of creativity in them. These kinds of tracks are a dime a dozen. For every new hit she comes out with I can point you to another artist who can do exactly the same thing. Britney Spears can sing ‘Obsessed.’ Hell, I can do it.
Except for this little slap you in the face section in the end of almost every song starting from Emancipation of Mimi. After the bridge and during the last chorus and on, out of nowhere she remembers, oh yeah I’m Mariah Carey I can do more than this, and busts out a range beyond Miss Spears. She throws in those crazy falsettos. She becomes Mariah Carey.
As if to remind us that she has an incredible voice capable of vocal ranges wider than a grand piano. It’s musically tasteless, obviously thrown in and only serves to prove a point.
There’s nothing Mariah-Carey special about the three minutes you just listened to.
