Upon its release, Emotions garnered generally mixed to positive reviews from contemporary music critics, many of whom both praised and criticized the album's content alongside Carey's vocal acrobatics. Bill Lamb from About.com gave Emotions three and a half out of five stars, complimenting the album as a whole, claiming it to be "tightened" when in comparison to the original. He described the album's lead single as "bone chilling," however criticizing some of the Carey's high notes as "vocal range overkill." Allmusic editor, Ashley Battel, gave the album four out of five stars, calling it a "musical journey." Additionally, Erlewine picked "Emotions" and "Make It Happen" as the album's standout tracks and wrote "The one emotion that prevails upon completion of the album is definitely a positive one: satisfaction." Parry Gettelman, editor from the Orlando Sentinel, was critical on Carey's vocal acrobatics, writing "Carey has become so enamored of the ultra-high-frequency part of her range that I'm starting to suspect she may be an intergalactic spy trying to re- establish communications with the far-off Planet of Dogs."Jonathan Kurant from the Sun-Sentinel gave Emotions a mixed review, writing "Oddly, the album gets more original at the end, where not all people will bother getting to." Further in the review, he outed "The Wind" and "Till the End of Time" as the album's stand out tracks, but felt most of the album was unoriginal and not an improvement over her debut.
Three commercial singles were released from Emotions. The album's lead single of the same name became Carey's fifth chart topper in the United States, making her the only act in history to have their first five singles reach the charts summit in the country.
She's truly gods gift to music, so many soulful ballads, great uptempos, vocal acrobatics second to NONE. I feel like getting familiar with her voice helped me learn more about vocals in General.
Her debut has the best number one singles from any pop girl era in the last 2 decades.
Omg Emotions is FAR better than her debut and it deserved more success than it got at the time.
Make It Happen, Can't Let Go are more classic Mariah than some of her Number One singles.
So Blessed, Till The End Of Time, The Wind, And You Don't Remember are immaculate, soulful, sensual, sultry. And they make the best use of her voice where as her debut was somewhat all over the place.
I'm not sure why critics didn't like this album over her debut when this song contains so much soul.
The Emotions album is definitely one of my favorites in her catalog. I use it frequently. One would think she woulnt be able to build on the momentum of "Mariah Carey" but this is a much rawer, gutsy and heartwrenching album. I prefer it over the debut for sure.
I prefer Emotions to the debut as well. There's more of an identity. But there's still some filler in it. And You Don't Remember, So Blessed, even the studio version of If its Over...they kinda weigh down the CLASSICS like Emotions, Can't Let Go, To Be Around You, and Make it Happen.
Omg Emotions is FAR better than her debut and it deserved more success than it got at the time.
Make It Happen, Can't Let Go are more classic Mariah than some of her Number One singles.
So Blessed, Till The End Of Time, The Wind, And You Don't Remember are immaculate, soulful, sensual, sultry. And they make the best use of her voice where as her debut was somewhat all over the place.
I'm not sure why critics didn't like this album over her debut when this song contains so much soul.
I prefer Emotions to the debut as well. There's more of an identity. But there's still some filler in it. And You Don't Remember, So Blessed, even the studio version of If its Over...they kinda weigh down the CLASSICS like Emotions, Can't Let Go, To Be Around You, and Make it Happen.
Weigh them down how ? The only fillers on Emotions are You're So Cold, and Just To Be Around You. Those songs weren't needed and serve no purpose and are the only true missteps in the album.
I'm not sure how those songs weigh down the album when they are miles ahead of most of her ballads and songs in her debut bar (Vanishing,Vision of Love,I Don't Wanna Cry).
She has more of an identity on emotions, and the album further cemented her more signature sound and singing style at the time (prior to Hero)
The Voice of 'Emotions'
Mariah Carey digs deep for a heartfelt second album
SPELLING OUT HER DIVERSITY AND TALENT
By Edna Gundersen
USA Today - 1991
Quote:
NEW YORK -- On MAKE IT HAPPEN, the most autobiographical song on her new
album, Mariah Carey sings: NOT MORE THAN THREE SHORT YEARS AGO/ I WAS
ABANDONED AND ALONE
WITHOUT A PENNY TO MY NAME/ SO VERY YOUNG AND SO AFRAID
At 21, Carey is still very young, but she's no longer going
hungry, crying herself to sleep or desperately knocking on record company
doors.
The vocal powerhouse who soared from obscurity to superstardom in
a matter of months is a Grammy-winning pop-gospel diva whose phenomenal
1990 debut album out-sold Whitney Houston's latest by almost 2 million
copies. With today's release of her second album, EMOTIONS, Carey hopes
to prove her Cinderella rise was no fluke. Early evidence supports her.
Th title tack is riding up the top 20 of BILLBOARD'S pop, R&B and adult
contemporary charts.
"There's more ME on this album," Carey says. "I let myself go a
lot more. I tried to sing from deep inside myself."
Producer Walter Afanasieff agrees. "Her heart and soul is all
over this record." He produced the debut's LOVE TAKES TIME and
co-produced EMOTIONS' six ballads. C+C Music Factory duo David Cole and
Robert Clivilles co-produced four upbeat tunes. But Carey's imprint -- as
singer, composer and producer -- is in ever throbbing groove.
"New pop singers are going to emulate Mariah," Afanasieff
predicts. "She has a very focused sense of what she whats to express
musically, and few artists have that at such a young age. She's developed
a wisdom and professionalism that goes beyond her 21 years. That's partly
because she was in the studio at 14, when other girls were hanging out
at the mall."
Hanging out at Right Track Recording, Carey hardly projects the
serious, seasoned and sophisticated persona implicit in EMOTIONS' adult
themes. She's the picture of girlishness in a white T-shirt, knee-length
cutoffs and dainty gold jewelry. Her long wavy hair is gathered in a
ponytail under a red cap. Sipping a chocolate milkshake, she doodles
snowmen on a pad.
Her impassioned tales of rapture and heartbreak, pulsating from
the speakers, shatter the teeny-bopper impression.
"I was a miniature grown-up by the age of 6," she says. "I've been
around adults my whole life. And I was alone a lot, so I had time to
think. I learned to be independent."
Carey began singing at 4 with encoragement from her mother, vocal
coach and former New York City Opera singer Patricia Carey. "But she's
never been a pushy mom," Carey stresses. "She never said, 'Give it more
of and operatic feel.' I respect opera like crazy but it didn't influence
me."
Instead, she studied gospel and R&B greats, especially Minnie
Riperton, Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder. Those traditions, coupled
with the soulful wallop of her voice, brought Carey crossover success.
She scaled black and pop charts and collected two Grammys and three Soul
Train awards, triumphs that led to persistent conjecture about her racial
makeup. It's a subject that still irks her.
"Why is race such an issue?" she complains. "Am I black, am I
white? I'm ME. Yes, I'm black. I'm also white.
She seethed when some speculated that she was concealing her
black identity. "Nobody asked me in the beginning," she says. "I couldn't
just blurt out, 'By the way, my mom's 100% Irish and my dad's black and
Venezuelan.' I think some people would like me to say, 'I'm black and
that's it.'
"It would have been false for me to talk about my father just to
get acceptance from a black audience. My parents divorced when I was 3,
and I saw my father sporadically. He's a good person, but we don't know
each other very well. My mother has been the mainstay in my life."
The flap was negligible considering the overwhelmingly favorable
reaction to her first album, which sold moe that 5 million copies and
yielded four consecutive No.1 singles. Those achievements gave her the
clout to steer the second album toward looser, vocally explosive pop
steeped in gospel.
"I didn't want it to be somebody else's vision of me," says
Carey, who agreed with critics that the debut was too slick. "But hey,
gimme a break. Let me get going. I'm still learning.
"When you're a brand new artist and a young girl and you walk
into a situation with fabulous established producers, it's intimidating. I
thought, 'Maybe they're right. They're big and famous and I'm just a new
up-and-coming hopeful.' That was difficult for me, but it was a necessary
evil, part of the growth process. This time, I really collaborated on
every level."
She was thrilled when her idol Carole King suggested they work
together. King had urged Carey to record A NATURAL WOMAN, but Carey said
she preferred to sing her own songs. So King flew from her home in Idaho
to New York, where the two co-wrote IF IT'S OVER at the piano in about an
hour.
"It was a true collaboration,"says King, who plans to enlist
Carey on her next album. "I'd come up with an idea. She'd come back with
something else...In the end we came up with what we both think is a
wonderful song. I love her voice. She's very expressive. She gives a lot
of meaning to what she sings."
Carey has spent months happily cloistered in the studio, but with
only a half dozen live performances to her credit, she has yet to
establish herself as an entertainer.
"She's becoming a more relaxed performer," says Afanasieff. "She
was timid initially. She gets nervous and she doesn't have that carefree,
flamboyant attitude. But she was really smiling when she sang on the MTV
Awards."
"I know I have to go out and perform eventually," says Carey, a
shade of dread in her voice. She has no plans to tour. "It's hard for me
because I'm not a ham. You have to be dynamic and showy, and that's not
second nature for me. I didn't get the chance to work my way up from
clubs. And all of a sudden, I was on ARSENIO HALL. It's scary."
Despite night-owl habits -- she sleeps until 2:30 p.m. and leaves
the studio about 5 a.m. -- Carey avoids New York's social circuit,
preferring the coziness of her Upper East Side apartment and the company
of her two cats. "I'm not a partier. I don't go to clubs, because the
smoke bothers my voice."
She's reportedly involved with Sony Music President Tommy
Mottola, the executive producer fo both her albums. Carey deflects all
questions about her love life. Does she have a boyfriend? "Sort of, but
I'd rather not get into it."
For now, music defines Carey. "I can't picture myself having a
baby. Girls growing up talk constantly about getting married and having
kids. I always talked about music. It was my hobby and now it's my life.
It's hard to focus on anything else."
Weigh them down how ? The only fillers on Emotions are You're So Cold, and Just To Be Around You. Those songs weren't needed and serve no purpose and are the only true missteps in the album.
I'm not sure how those songs weigh down the album when they are miles ahead of most of her ballads and songs in her debut bar (Vanishing,Vision of Love,I Don't Wanna Cry).
She has more of an identity on emotions, and the album further cemented her more signature sound and singing style at the time (prior to Hero)
I stated the same thing as far as her having more of an identity but on her first two albums in general she teeter-totters with CLASSIC GEMS and vanilla ballads. But then again I wasn't alive to experience the music climate at the time so maybe it was fresh lol
