MEMOIRS OF AN IMPERFECT ANGELMariah Carey
The "Emancipation Of Mimi" and "E=MC²" propelled Mariah Carey back to the spotlight, and eventually proved that she is still a commercial force despite debuting in the industry some twenty years back.
Her twelfth studio album named "Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel", finds the best selling female artist in the world doing away with the mercantile sound, guest rappers and production stratagem in lieu of a low-key, return-to-form. She brings her music back to the heydays when her voice takes the center stage, and ends up with her best effort since the critically-acclaimed "Butterfly".
Carey's decision to stick with the production tandem of Tricky Stewart and The-Dream made "Memoirs" her most coherent album to date as well. Laying foundation on her old-school sound - slow jam rhythm and blues, plentiful mid-tempo ballads and urban grooves, the team managed to come up with a seamless story of love and loss, told through all fourteen tracks.
The likes of "Obsessed", the summer anthem that never took off, and the revamped "Shake It Off", "Up Of My Face" with its Drumline-inspired reprise, however, stick out as exceptions to the otherwise amalgam of melodrama.
"Betcha Gon' Know" lucidly paints a scorned woman's vulnerability. It does a great job of being the album opener as it perfectly sets the mood for the rest of record. "H.A.T.E.U." (Having A Typical Emotional Upset), "Candy Bling", "Ribbon", and "Standing O", despite their eye-rolling titles, are perhaps the best-penned, creatively produced tracks unintentionally geared for multi-format success. Their melodic hooks are just solid gold.
"Inseparable" remains catchy with its interpolation of Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time". "More Than Just Friends", on the other hand, is Memoirs' nearest counterpart to her usual upbeat releases like "Fantasy" and "Honey". Perhaps a remix which features a guest rap from Jay-Z or Diddy will make it livelier than it already is. "The Impossible" wraps up the listener into a sensuous groove with Carey's soft and intimate outpourings. Meanwhile, "It's A Wrap" makes use of the diva's raw vocal prowess layered over her own BVs. This is as vintage Mariah Carey as Mimi can be.
The last stretch of "Memoirs" has the songbird singing her heart out on tracks like the emotionally-charged "Angels Cry", the introspective prelude "Languishing" bleeds well into the gospel-tinged power ballad "I Want To Know What Love Is" which closes the album. A well-placed reminder of her legendary octave-scaling voice.
But she is so much more than that - a vocal acrobat, and even at its lavishness, Mariah Carey's singing has always been accessible. It remains warm, sensuous and ever-adapting and this sets her apart from every other regularity. "Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel" shows just that. Even at her most subtle, Carey is still in a league of her own. Her craft remains incomparable to the disposable pop that thrive in this era's airwaves. The record may not be the confession of sorts that everyone was expecting, but it certainly catalogs the diva's musicality at its finest.
DOWNLOAD: Betcha Gon' Know, Obsessed, H.A.T.E.U., Candy Bling, Ribbon, Inseparable, Standing O, It's A Wrap, Up Out My Face/Up Out My Face (The Reprise), More Than Just Friends, The Impossible/The Impossible (The Reprise), Angels (The Prelude)/Angels Cry, Languishing (The Interlude), I Want To Know What Love Is
