Singing is fun again! And so is Mariah. On her 12th studio album, Mimi gets a face-lift from urban music's current hit-king The-Dream and his sidekick Tricky. The duo's textured, often quirky brand of r & b has birthed some of the biggest hits in recent memory - Rihanna's "Umbrella" and Beyonce's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" - but here they opt for a lighter touch. "Ribbon" and crunk-laced single "Obsessed" are the closest "Memoirs" comes to hip-hop; the remainder is a throwback mix of ballads and midtempo r & b mini-sagas that let Carey wander into whispers, purrs, high-octave whistles and full-throttle force (check out "It's a Wrap"). Sassy and occasionally ridiculous lyrics ("love you like a freeze pop") bring out a playful side that offsets the time Carey spends languishing in lost love territory. She's at her best when dismissing, not missing, that no-longer-special someone, as on the track to download, "Up Out My Face."
BY LUCIFRID | 30. 09. 2009 | COMMENTS: 1 | SOURCE: BOSTON HERALD

"I should crack you right in your forehead," Mariah Carey sings on the breakup tune "It's a Wrap." The song, on her latest CD, "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel," finds a hungover Carey kicking her lover to the curb with particularly harsh words. "Another early morning, and you walk in like it's nothing ... ain't no doughnuts, ain't coffee," she sings with attitude in her signature high-pitch tone. "Let me take a breath and regain my composure, told you more time, if you (expletive) up it's over."

But even though she's spitting venom, Carey's cooing on the doo-wop sounding song is so sensuous and sweet, even the song's intended target will remain under her spell – as will her listeners.
BY LUCIFRID | 30. 09. 2009 | COMMENTS: 1 | ...MORE | SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS

Carey couldn't have picked a more ironic title for her latest CD. While the singer dubbed it "Confessions of an Imperfect Angel," much of the disc strives for a perfectionism you'd expect of someone caught in the dark grip of O.C.D.

From the treatment of the vocals, to the strategy of the songwriting, to the use of instrumentation, "Angel" reeks of idealization and self-consciousness.
BY LUCIFRID | 30. 09. 2009 | COMMENTS: 0 | ...MORE

There's always a moment on a Mariah Carey album when her voice sounds like a helium balloon suddenly released to drift into the stratosphere. She trills, she wails, she coos, and then somehow she crash-lands back into the melody right on cue with her diva tresses perfectly in place.

Her voice, with its many peaks and valleys, has always been her calling card. But "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel," her 12th album released today on Island Records, presents her as more of an emotive vocalist and not just a singer with an impressive range. Make that Mariah Carey, song stylist.
BY LUCIFRID | 30. 09. 2009 | COMMENTS: 0 | ...MORE | SOURCE: BOSTON GLOBE

When exactly did Mariah Carey stop singing? Even when she began flirting aggressively with hip-hop in the mid-1990s she was happy to impose her titanic vocals atop even the scrappiest production. And no matter how grimy her surroundings became - Ol' Dirty Bastard, anyone? - she remained inexorably Mariah, an impenetrable acrobat of technique.

Of late though, Ms. Carey has been whispering, as if newly scared of grand gestures. In 2005 it made for a surprise success with "The Emancipation of Mimi", one of her best-selling albums, but also one of her most deceptive. Though the melodies were straightforward, Ms. Carey was working hard, imbuing them with vulnerability and ache even while keeping her vocal power in check.
BY LUCIFRID | 30. 09. 2009 | COMMENTS: 0 | ...MORE | SOURCE: NEW YORK TIMES

Nobody in contemporary R&B - not even Beyonce or Rihanna - plays the wronged woman quite so convincingly and dynamically as Mariah Carey. Her best songs this decade seem to emanate from the very moment when despondence becomes determination, as Carey gathers her composure and kisses off an errant man with so much style that he comes across as romantically radioactive.

Presumably, there are no personal reasons for this mix of vulnerability and strength: She has a publicly happy marriage to a much younger guy, which suggests she graduated from minx to cougar gracefully. So perhaps the subjects of these songs are critics and detractors who made "Glitter" a punchline and had a ball with her public breakdown a few years ago. To her credit, she has come back stronger after each pitfall, ultimately establishing herself as one of the most commanding pop presences of the decade.
BY LUCIFRID | 30. 09. 2009 | COMMENTS: 0 | ...MORE | SOURCE: EXPRESS NIGHT OUT

"I should crack you right in your forehead," Mariah Carey sings on the breakup tune "It's a Wrap". The song, on her latest CD, "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel", finds a hungover Carey kicking her lover to the curb with particularly harsh words.

"Another early morning, and you walk in like it's nothing ... ain't no doughnuts, ain't coffee," she sings with attitude in her signature high-pitch tone. "Let me take a breath and regain my composure, told you more time, if you (expletive) up it's over."
BY LUCIFRID | 30. 09. 2009 | COMMENTS: 0 | ...MORE | SOURCE: NEWSDAY

The title of Mariah Carey's 12th album portends an unrealized complexity. With no high-profile guests, little vocal gymnastics and use of the same producers - Christopher "Tricky" Stewart and Terius "The Dream" Nash - throughout, this is as fuss-free an album the native New Yorker has made in her 19-year recording career.

It's not completely without cheese: there's an unnecessary gospel choir on the Foreigner cover "I Want to Know What Love Is" and equally unnecessary dashes of Auto-Tune here and there. The weightiness shows up in the romantic drama that's explored throughout; worthy enough for Barbara Walters, Oprah Winfrey, Maury Povich and the "Harvard University graduating class of 2010", all of whom Carey namechecks.
BY LUCIFRID | 30. 09. 2009 | COMMENTS: 0 | ...MORE | SOURCE: TORONTO STAR

A dozen albums into her career, Mariah Carey is finally comfortable enough in her sexy skin to deliver a record that leans on songs rather than vocal acrobatics (and high notes that only dogs can hear). "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel" is a very different offering for Carey. The hip-hop elements were shelved for this project, and instead she delves into the music with old-fashioned emphasis on R&B grooves, dance rhythms and accessible vocals with which n ormal humans can sing along.

This disc is so different from her past few records that even devoted fans should be careful to listen - and then listen again - before judging the sweet molasses jams. Without question the powerful and percolating slow burn of "Obsessed" - in which she lets Eminem know he's "delusional" about their rumored affair - is the best on the record. Carey is also excellent on her cover of Foreigner's "I Want To Know What Love Is".
BY LUCIFRID | 30. 09. 2009 | COMMENTS: 1 | ...MORE | SOURCE: NEW YORK POST

Mariah Carey is facing 40, but her mesmerizing falsetto still rivals the chirp of basketball sneakers on parquet. It's as if her voice is somehow growing younger. It sounds higher. Lighter, too. And her fluttery brand of R&B seems to be following suit.

"I was, like, why are you so obsessed with me?" Carey asks before strutting into "Obsessed", a deliciously sly hit single that raises the question: "Like, why is a 39-year-old woman singing in the parlance of a high school sophomore?"

It's one of the stranger moments on her passable new album, "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel", a mixed bag of club bangers and slow jams where the singer's youthful exuberance begins to feel puerile. Playfulness has defined Carey's best work since 1997, when she morphed from prodigious ballad-belter to resurgent hip-pop princess. After a romantic break with mentor Tommy Mottola, the singer underwent one of the most mythic transformations in pop history, delivering a spate of bubbly albums with titles that most young girls would reserve for pet unicorns: "Butterfly", "Rainbow", "Charmbracelet".
BY LUCIFRID | 30. 09. 2009 | COMMENTS: 0 | ...MORE | SOURCE: WASHINGTON POST

Mariah Carey's Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel makes its way into stores today. Tricky Stewart, the hitmaker extraordinaire who had a heavy hand in producing the album, spoke to Rap-Up.com about working with one of music's biggest voices.

Tricky, along with The-Dream, previously collaborated with Carey on her 18th No. 1 hit "Touch My Body," but the dynamic changed once the Grammy-winning duo was called in to produce the bulk of her latest project. "This time it was totally different because when you spend that much time with someone, you get a sense for who they are on their good days, on their bad days–the whole nine," he explains.

The pop diva knows exactly what she wants when she hits the studio. "She's definitely a perfectionist. You don't get 18 number ones without being a slave to perfection. She always wants to be on top of her game at everything from the writing to the production to the vocals. Everything is about her giving her absolute best."

The experience brought the two friends closer together. "There's not a lot of people that can say that they have actually cultivated a friendship with Mariah Carey," says Tricky. "I can definitely say we consider each other friends. I've been to her home several times at this point. It will always be one of my greatest memories making this album."

Relive the memories on Mariah Carey's 12th studio album Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, available now.
BY LUCIFRID | 29. 09. 2009 | COMMENTS: 0 | SOURCE: RAP-UP

Once upon a time it was the norm on major pop albums for an artist to work with one producer or team of producers throughout an entire album. However, in recent years it has become more common to create an album as a hodgepodge of sometimes mismatched tracks recorded with various producers. For Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, Mariah Carey has collaborated primarily with the team of The-Dream and "Tricky" Stewart for songwriting and producing throughout the entire album. The result is a unique, cohesive musical glimpse of the inner life of Mariah Carey.

Flights of Vocal Fancy
For fans of Mariah Carey, the quality of her singing and direction of her vocal arrangements are one of the first things looked for in a new album. As has become common since The Emancipation of Mimi, she spends most of her time singing in a midrange that eliminates much of the vocal acrobatics of earlier in her career. However, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel does insert enough moments of vocal fancy to keep most fans happy.

In the sad, painfully slow "H.A.T.E.U," Mariah Carey delivers one of the key refrains in a lower range narcotized vocal haze that serves to emphasize the song's message of the emotional torment of lovers being torn apart. "It's a Wrap" kicks off with classic ethereal Mariah Carey vocal runs followed by an impossibly high range note that has a sonic effect of a small comet zipping through the musical sky. Then there is the glorious vocal workout on "I Want To Know What Love Is" that closes the album. Mariah Carey fans will be standing and cheering.

It's Not So Much Fun Being Mariah Carey?

One of the key messages of Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel is that, emotionally at least, it's not always a lot of fun being Mariah Carey. "Obsessed" details anger and anxiety at being stalked. "H.A.T.E.U." explores the emotional pain of being trapped in a relationship where the writing is on the wall. "Up Out My Face" presents anger at an incompatible lover. The album reaches its most painful moments in the elegant "Languishing" about being in a relationship with someone you still don't feel you know after many years. Mariah Carey is left wondering, "Would you reach for me if you saw that I was languishing?" A musical up side of all of this emotional pain is that the gospel catharsis of "I Want To Know What Love Is" is gloriously effective.

Top Tracks on 'Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel'
• "H.A.T.E.U."
• "It's a Wrap"
• "Up Out My Face"
• "I Want To Know What Love Is"

Solid Musical Statement
Mariah Carey set out on this album to explore her inner self and lay it bare in song. Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel is a solid, cohesive musical statement that works as that very rare thing in today's pop music world, a genuine concept album. Mariah Carey has clearly suffered her share of emotional pain, but she remains standing, and, in the performance of "I Want To Know What Love Is," it sounds like she is positively resolute about heading fearlessly into the future. The recording standards here are of a very high quality, and the songs grow in interest with repeated listening. Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel is a worthy addition to the Mariah Carey catalog.
BY LUCIFRID | 29. 09. 2009 | COMMENTS: 0 | SOURCE: ABOUT

Mariah Carey, comedian? Jokes have never been Carey's forte, but on her 12th album, she gets in touch with her funny bone, adding a cheeky marching-band coda to the thumping club jam "Up Out My Face," threatening to out a cheating lover on national television in "Betcha Gon' Know" ("Oprah Winfrey whole segment, for real"); even poking fun at her own vocal signature, those stemware-shattering falsetto trills ("Love me down till I hit the top of my soprano," she coos in "More Than Just Friends"). The levity reflects the company Mariah is keeping: Every track on Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel was overseen by Carey and the ace duo of The-Dream and Tricky Stewart, who have been known to spice their dense, inventive R&B concoctions with yuks.

The result is Carey's most sonically and tonally coherent release, a mix of love ballads ("Inseparable") and sassy breakup anthems ("Standing O") that might have been her best album had it been several songs shorter. Memoirs sags in its second half, on songs such as the tepid "Impossible" and "Languishing (The Interlude)." By the time Carey's plodding cover of "I Want to Know What Love Is" rolls around, the joke's on her listeners.
BY LUCIFRID | 29. 09. 2009 | COMMENTS: 0 | SOURCE: ROLLING STONE

Recenze Memoirs z Musicserver.cz 7/10 (Katka Guziurová): Kdybych já prodala za svou kariéru přes dvě stě milionů desek, tak si koupím ostrov a plácám se v moři od rána do večera. Mariah Carey se ale přes desítky ocenění a milionů na kontě pořád s chutí plácá mezi notami a v jejím dvanáctém albovém záseku jí to zase zpívá fantasticky. Zvláštní je, že i když Mariah Carey působí na hudební scéně téměř dvacet let, jediné, co mi létalo z její tvorby kolem uší, byla Badfingerova předělávka "Without You" a později duet s Whitney Houston "When You Believe". Pak se kolem vířily bulvární historky o vyhoření, labilitě a ukončení kariéry. Nezasvěcení Mariah Carey poslali pod drn, aniž by věděli, že v roce 2005 vydá zpěvačka album, které zmizne z pultů v desetimilionovém nákladu. Loňská deska mě už ze židle tak nenadzvedla, od "The Emancipation Of Mimi" jsem měla totiž fůru času se seznámit s tvorbou Mariah, abych si mohla říct, že je to prostě jen odvar z let, kdy všechno kolem ní byla bomba.

BY LUCIFRID | 29. 09. 2009 | COMMENTS: 2 | SOURCE: MUSICSERVER.CZ | ...MORE