[CLICK___]

Loved every track ... . I will support.

[Mr. Duff]

Angels Cry + I Want To Know What Love Is + H.A.T.E.U. are EPICS!!

[Mariah]

Put all your **** in the elevator, it's going down like a denominator

[Mariah]

Album review: Mariah Carey's 'Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel'
Greg Kot, Chicago Tribune

Rating: 3 stars (out of 4)


Who says being a pop diva is easy? There is the constant pressure to look great and sound all-conquering while staving off a legion of younger sisters nipping at your stiletto heels. Which brings us to Mariah Carey, she of the 175 million worldwide record sales and the multitude of comebacks.

Carey’s voice isn’t what it used to be, and her last couple of records were lightweight even by her modest standards, brimming with adolescent lyrics and tarted-up production designed to keep her sounding fashionable. They restored her standing as a commercial force, but as an artist she sounded adrift.

On her 12th studio album, “Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel” (Island), Carey doesn’t resort to vocal histrionics or production gimmickry. Instead, she plays it low-key, and ends up with her best album since the ‘90s heyday.

A few caveats: The first single, “Obsessed,” isn’t typical of the album as a whole, with its Eminem-baiting video, distorted wordless vocal hook and accusatory lyrics. Neither are the rap cadences Carey adopts for the combative “Up Out My Face.”

Otherwise, Carey focuses on introspective ballads. Her voice has lost range off the top, but she’s learned how to inhabit a song rather than simply knock it around like a rag doll with her rocket-propelled trills. Rather than farm out songs to a series of producers, she primarily sticks with the songwriting/production team of Tricky Stewart and the Dream, who frame her voice in subtle, low-key arrangements. Using sparse keyboards, a spritz of strings, a kick-drum rumble here and there, and lots of slow-motion handclaps and sensual finger snaps, they dial down the bombast considerably. In response, Carey turns in some of the most measured and beautifully understated singing of her career.

Her voice is frequently multi-tracked to create the illusion that she’s dueting with herself, with counterpoint melody lines. The effect is nothing new in R&B; Marvin Gaye turned this studio technique into an art form on his 1971 masterpiece “What’s Going On.” But the old-school soul connection is appropriate: This is Carey building on slow-jam R&B and adult-themed ballads to create a loose song cycle about love lost and regained.

As the album title suggests, the melodrama can get thick at times, and a few of the songs are a bit slow in developing, revealing their hooks reluctantly. “Betcha Gon’ Know” aptly sets the melancholy, inward-looking mood, but as an album-opener it’s a bit of snooze. It’s not until “Candy Bling,” with its back-in-the-day reminiscences, that things pick up.

Carey really hits her stride on “It’s a Wrap”; she sounds refreshingly raw, surrounded by minimal instrumentation. As she emotes with just a hint of grit, a small squadron of Carey voices loop in and around her lead vocal, giving the song just the right amount of decoration.

“Impossible” is almost impossibly fragile, but Carey turns it into a tour de force of soft-core texture, as if whispering into a lover’s ear. “Angel (Prelude)” brings out the high-pitched vocal flights that were the singer’s signature earlier in her career. But instead of showing off, she’s going for something eerier with a muted, otherworldly tone.

A cover of Foreigner’s “I Want to Know What Love Is” is an appropriate closer. After an album in which the distance between pillow talk and recrimination, seduction and betrayal is painfully thin, it’s a potentially potent gospel plea. Unfortunately, it resorts to the soft-to-loud-to-louder formula that has ruined many a power ballad in this “American Idol” era. Perhaps this was Carey’s opportunity to prove that she can still climb those Everest-like octaves. Fortunately, the restraint she brings to much of the rest proves she’s maturing into more than just a vocal acrobat.

[Delicious]

UP 0UT MY FACE BW0Y!
ITS A WRAP!
R!BB0N!

CANDY BL!NG!
I WANNA KN0W WHAT L0VE IS!
M0RE THAN JUST FRIENDS!
LANGUISHING!
H.A.T.E. U!

[Delicious]

Originally posted by Mariah

<333333333 she looks so good!


1. Betcha Gon' Know (The Prologue) 7/10
2. Obsessed 10/10
3. H.A.T.E.U. 10/10
4. Candy Bling 10/10
5. Ribbon 10/10
6. Inseparable 8/10
7. Standing O 8/10
8. It's A Wrap 11/10
9. Up Out My Face 11/10
10. Up Out My Face (The Reprise) 20/10
11. More Than Just Friends 10/10
12. The Impossible 7/10
13. The Impossible (The Reprise)
14. Angel (The Prelude)
15. Angels Cry 9/10
16. Languishing (The Interlude) 10/10
17. I Want to Know What Love Is 10/10

[Duca]

MY REVIEW:
First of all, bow to Mariah, she's really back!
The album is her best without doubt, and the best she made since "Daydream".
Her voice sounds great, back in the shape too.
I must say she's outdone herself.
This is the best album this year and one of the best albums EVER (10/10) and I'm speechless.

1. Betcha Gon' Know (The Prologue) 10/10 - This is the best song on the album, lyrics, music, vocals - BOW, and she says the album title
2. Obsessed 10/10 - I know that it might not be 10/10, but it has that something and it was the **** for me this summer
3. H.A.T.E.U. - 10/10 - I love this song, one of her best ballads, the lyrics are great and I love the acronym
4. Candy Bling - 8/10 - It's a good song, chill out, I really like it
5. Ribbon - 7/10 - I like it, it's similar to "Candy Bling" though
6. Inseparable - 9/10 - I really like it, one of the best album only tracks
7. Standing O - 10/10 - I love it, one of her best songs, and one of the catchiest songs on the album
8. It's a Wrap - 9/10 - Not one of my favorites, but the song is really powerful, and her vocals are bombastic
9. Up Out My Face - 10/10 - The catchiest song on the album, I love the line "I shouldn't let another mechanic under my hood"
10. Up Out My Face (The Reprise) - 10/10 - Amazing, I love the military beat
11. More Than Just Friends - 6/10 - It's an OK song, I shouldn't have been on the album, sounds like a "E=MC2" reject to me
12. The Impossible - 9/10 - One of the best songs on the album, and I love the line "Love you like my lover and my best friend"
13. The Impossible (The Reprise) - 10/10 - I love the music, it should have been used in the original
14. Angel (The Prelude) - 10/10 - This just proves why she's the biggest voice of music, she
15. Angels Cry - 10/10 - I love the song and I love the metaphors, and I especially love her vocals in the end
16. Languishing (The Interlude) - 9/10 - Her best interlude ever, I love it, and I love the piano thing
17. I Want To Know What Love Is - 10/10 One of the best album tracks, has the 90's Mariah feeling, even better than the original

[Press]

The album has really grown on me

[SwagLikeALegend]

Originally posted by Guý 4 Gáls

I guess she gets fatter with every hit she accumulates

She would've been fat by Musicbox's release

[Manuel MC Forever]

Strong album!!!

1. Betcha Gon' Know (The Prologue) 10/10
2. Obsessed 8/10
3. H.A.T.E.U. 9/10
4. Candy Bling 9/10
5. Ribbon 8/10
6. Inseparable 9/10
7. Standing O 10/10
8. It's A Wrap 08/10
9. Up Out My Face 10/10
10. Up Out My Face (The Reprise) 10/10
11. More Than Just Friends 10/10
12. The Impossible 10/10
13. The Impossible (The Reprise) 10/10
14. Angel (The Prelude) 10/10
15. Angels Cry 9/10
16. Languishing (The Interlude) 10/10
17. I Want to Know What Love Is 09/10

Highlights of the album

Betcha Gon' Know (The Prologue) ( One of the best song she has ever done, you can feel her pain!!! you can see her face, you can see the story)
Standing Ovation
Languishing
The Impossible
Hate u

[spc08]

...so addicted to this... just wish it was a long extended version of this!!

[Rico Shameless v2]

I know I've said this but I love this album.

[dmp171]

check my youtube channel dedicated to MC please ?
http://www.youtube.com/user/dmp171

[Mariah]

Originally posted by Delicious

1. Betcha Gon' Know (The Prologue) 7/10
12. The Impossible 7/10

[Mariah]

Originally posted by dmp171

check my youtube channel dedicated to MC please ?
http://www.youtube.com/user/dmp171

Nice!

[1-N-Only21]

more than just friiiiiiends...>>>

the biggie sample <3

[dmp171]

Originally posted by Mariah

Nice!

thanks!
Im trying to promote the album! Want to help?

[Reeces]

It's amazing how a few more listens can make you change your mind about an album. I'm a fan again :heart:

Candy Bling, Ribbon, Inseparable, Up Out My Face, H.A.T.E.U, Angels Cry, Languishing, Angels Cry, Obsessed, I Want To Know What Love Is

[Delicious]

Originally posted by spc08

...so addicted to this... just wish it was a long extended version of this!!

i agreeee .. there should be like a extra verse on it or something b/c its really short ):

[Mariah]