Album review: Mariah Carey - Charmbracelet

Charmbracelet is an unfortunate album in Mariah Carey’s discography for two reasons. Reasons which may vary depending on who in the lambily that you ask.

First of all, Charmbracelet released in the wake of the catastrophic rollout that was Glitter. And whilst the album itself wasn’t even remotely bad, the reputation of the film and Mariah’s highly publicised breakdown at the time completely swamped the album. Second of all was Mariah’s approach to Charmbracelet. There is a really subdued quality to this entire album, which gives it a different vibe to any of Mariah’s other work. Sometimes I listen to Charmbracelet and wonder if Mariah even wanted hits, because picking a strong 5 singles from this album would be a struggle. This doesn’t affect the quality of the music though. There are still great songs on this thing, because Mariah is about that quality control. But it causes Charmbracelet to feel like a slightly different beast, featuring Mariah as you knew her, but not quite - which would have a huge impact on the album that would come after.

Now before we get deep into this album, we have to talk about Mariah’s vocals. After all, can you even discuss a Mariah album without talking about the voice?

Something that Charmbracelet is often criticised for is Mariah’s vocals. Not because they sound bad, but because of Mariah’s whisper singing. This style of singing is something that she’d done throughout her career from the very beginning, but never to the extent of which she does on Charmbracelet. Near enough every song on this album has Mariah whisper singing and it gets really old REAL fast. Let me be clear. I don’t need Mariah to go off and give me belts and whistles constantly, this would jar me just as much. But for a vocalist who at this point in her career not only still had great vocal dexterity, but had shown so many different facets of her voice over a 10 year period - to just be so one note for an album was a let down. Especially after an album like Glitter, where Mariah showcased so much range in the ways she was able to sing songs.

Many speculated that Mariah adopted this singing style because she was either losing her voice or in order to preserve it, and given what Mariah gave on The Emancipation of Mimi, it was probably preservation, and I can’t be mad at that. Yes, bitch. Preserve the voice. But surely there had to be other ways Mariah could have sung these songs without straining her voice, whilst still giving us range and variety. Whilst the whisper singing works well for some songs, it causes the album to have a very flat sound because of how Mariah sings every song in more or less the same way. It’s one of the reasons why this album is the one I listen to the least, even though there are songs on it that I absolutely adore.

Whilst The Emancipation of Mimi is widely heralded as Mariah’s best album and a return to form, it was also applauded for managing to feel new and break the formula that had been at work in Mariah’s previous albums. But the truth is, the dismantling of the cycle started here on Charmbracelet.

The lead single off of this album was “Through the Rain”; which doesn’t seem that big a deal, given that it’s a style of ballad Mariah had done numerous times before. Except that it breaks the string of lead singles that we got from Glitter, Rainbow, Butterfly and Daydream. There is no song comparable to “Loverboy”, “Heartbreaker”, “Honey” or “Fantasy”. And whilst we love these songs, let’s face it - they are all pretty much the same song.

Charmbracelet was Mariah nudging herself into new territory whilst using the cushion of what she’d done prior. It’s like she always knew that an album like The Emancipation of Mimi was on the cards, but she needed to feel some things out prior, and know for sure there was a place for her and that album; and Charmbracelet was the key. The issue here is that some of Mariah’s instances of clinging to traditions cast a large shadow over the newness.

“Through the Rain” is a really nice song. It deserved to be far bigger than it was, but the timing of it and the somewhat muted release of Charmbracelet as a whole wouldn’t allow it. As nice as this song is, the Mariah ballad formula is at work. And whilst everybody doo-doo’d Glitter, the album spawned two of Mariah’s best ballads; “Lead the Way” and “Never Too Far”, which “Through the Rain” doesn’t come close to touching. It’s still a really good song though, with a beautiful set of lyrics which are personal to Mariah, with it being about the loss of her father and also overcoming her own mental health, well-being struggles and the harsh press during the whole Glitter debacle.

Then there’s “I Only Wanted”, which is pretty much “My All” (Part 3), after the Part 2 of “My All” that was “After Tonight” on Rainbow. What’s really cool about this however, is that “I Only Wanted” genuinely does feel like it’s connected narratively and is consciously part of a trilogy told through these songs. You can play “My All”, “After Tonight” and “I Only Wanted” back to back and it tells a complete story.

Charmbracelet also holds the honour of being one of the last albums where Mariah would deliver a cover at a point in her career when she still had near enough her full range, opting to eschew covers for The Emancipation of Mimi and E=MC2 - only returning to them for Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel and Me. I Am Mariah; two albums where Mariah’s voice had noticeably changed, along with her questionable taste in song covers and unfortunately, execution. But we ain’t gonna talk about that mess here. We’re gonna talk about her cover of Def Leppard’s “Bringin’ on the Heartbreak” and how good it is. Mariah may have come into this album a little burned after the underperformance of Rainbow and then the disastrous release of Glitter, but she still had that fire and a fearlessness, which she channels into this cover.

The energy of Mariah’s cover is completely different to Def Leppard’s original, to a point where I can’t even outright compare the two. Def Leppard’s version is full of angst, almost as though somebody is revelling in the despair of a heartbreak and succumbing fully to it. But Mariah’s version is like somebody is completely fearful of the pending heartbreak and the uncertainty that comes with it.

Mariah opting to cover a Def Leppard song is truly a choice for somebody whose musical style couldn’t be any more different. But it really shows Mariah’s level of musicality, that she was able to navigate the song how she did, and reconstruct it in a way that fits her.

Mariah Carey continues to not get the credit she deserves for the part she played in crossing hip-hop over into mainstream pop radio, even though Mariah lays her love for hip-hop bare on every single album. Charmbracelet is no different. In fact, Charmbracelet might just be the album where Thugriah is laid at her most bare.

“Boy (I Need You)” is one of the few songs on this album which is an obvious single contender, and unsurprisingly, it was released as a promotional single, although it didn’t get near enough the love it deserved. The song basically uses the same instrumental as Cam’ron’s most notable hit “Oh Boy” and was released not even a year after it. Sampling a song so soon after its release is always a risk, but Mariah ain’t your average chick. Not only is her pen game strong, but she knows she won’t be able to truly make the song this entirely separate thing from the original. Therefore she wrote a song which felt more like a companion, and then put Cam’ron himself on it with a whole new verse for a stamp of approval and credibility. AND brought Just Blaze in to produce the song, who also produced the original song. The respect. The taste. Your fave could never ever. And the end result is a genuinely great song, which gets unfairly left out of discussions concerning good Mariah singles and collaborations.

Hoodriah steps out with the D’ussé and the Henny with “You Got Me”, which features Freeway and Jay-Z, with production once again coming courtesy of Just Blaze. Mariah, as she’s always done, gives her rap collaborators all the spotlight. It’s a full minute into the song before Mariah even comes in with her verse, with Freeway eating up the entire first 60 seconds of the song. Jay-Z’s presence isn’t quite as impactful, turning in a wholly forgettable verse which isn’t anywhere near as memorable as what he gave on “Heartbreaker”, and that was by no means an amazing verse. But still, “You Got Me” is a really good song for the drop tops, Jeeps and the Hummers. This would’ve made a nice summer single and something for the clubs to eat up.

But Ghettoriah ain’t done yet, as she samples Leon Hayward’s "I Want'a Do Something Freaky to You" on “You Had Your Chance”, which was later popularised by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg’s “Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang”; a Westside theme which carries through to the song "Irresistible (Westside Connection)” which features fellow Dr. Dre affiliated rapper Ice Cube as part of his rap unit Westside Connection. Both of these songs are pretty forgettable and so similar in vibe that the album didn’t need the two of them. You could argue if we needed either of them, especially due to the fact that the samples use in both songs is so damn lazy. Sure, all Mariah did was sing over Cam’ron’s “Oh Boy” for “Boy (I Need You)”, but she wrote a son that actually stuck and added something to the original to a point where it’s understandably the preferred song of choice for some. “You Had Your Chance” and “Irresistible (Westside Connection)” are fine as background music, but don’t add much to the original songs aside from Mariah’s vocals, which isn’t enough. Cripriah did a far better job with the Westside vibes on Rainbow’s “Crybaby”. We didn’t need either of these songs, and they kinda drag the album down.

The newness is where Charmbracelet sparkles, albeit fleetingly.

“Clown” is a song unlike anything Mariah had done before. Mariah has become a master of pointed shade. But whilst she’s always managed to take life situations and spin them into a song, it’s not always easy to pin a media story or life event of Mariah’s that we know of to a song she’s put out. But with “Clown”, there was no mistaking that this song was about Eminem, who dragged Mariah in the song “Superman” on his album Encore, where he went on record to say how the two of them had a fling. Mariah’s not one for gossip, but she’s also not one for deformation of character, and she wanted to make it clear that she did not fuck that man, and did it in the best way she knows how - through song. “Clown” is beautifully petty. Not just in its directness, but in how typically Mariah it is in terms of her lyrics, her wordplay and her approach. It’s also a reminder that Mariah has BARS.

Even if you have no idea about the context of the song and who it’s about, it’s still just a great song, and one which is unfortunately still relevant in an age where men straight up lie about events concerning their interactions with women - knowing full well that because of the world we live in, it will damage a woman’s reputation far more than their own. The only problem with the song is that it feels a little too short. The bridge comes in a chorus too early, and the song ends a little abruptly.

“Lullaby” is a bit of a double edged sword, in the same way that “X-Girlfriend” from Rainbow was. A really great song, but one where the sound of the producer and the reference material looms over it, which is also what kinda makes you like it in the first place. With “X-Girlfriend” it was the She’kspere sound that was everywhere during 2000, and the Kandi ‘No good n***a bitch’ lyrics. And with “Lullaby” it’s Dre & Vidal turning in a production which sounds like Michael Jackson’s “Butterfly”, a widely considered album highlight from his final album Invincible, a song that Dre & Vidal also produced. “Lullaby” is a stand out on Charmbracelet because it is so different from anything Mariah had done prior, but it’s let down by its monotony. Mariah’s whisper singing starts to grate because she never comes out of it for the entire song which clocks in at almost 5 minutes long. And the song has no melodic changes from verse to chorus, and no discernible middle-8; so the entirety of “Lullaby” stays at the same level from start to finish in ways that “Butterflies” did not.

Charmbracelet is such a strange album because of where it sits in Mariah’s discography and the perception of it as a result. Being sandwiched in-between Glitter, an album that got eclipsed by the spectacular bombing of the movie and Mariah in the press, and The Emancipation of Mimi which was not just a comeback, but the comeback of all comebacks - Charmbracelet just gets lost. But just looking at the quality of the album itself, I wondered what else it was that has caused Charmbracelet to be so overlooked amongst the line up of Mariah’s albums, and I think it’s that there’s no song on this album that you could say is a classic song. Does Charmbracelet have great songs? Absolutely. But could any of them sit alongside classics from each of Mariah’s albums? And the answer to that for me is no. However, this isn’t a reflection of the album being bad. But it does somewhat explain the lax vibe of it, which ties in with what I’d surmised about what seemed to be Mariah’s approach to Charmbracelet - which was to not chase hits or something classic, both burdens that Mariah shouldered with every album which came prior. It’s because of this that we got a Mariah album which is a little more vibey than we’re used to, and one which feels like Mariah just doing what she likes - which isn’t a drastic departure from what she’d done leading up to this album, but still presents a difference.

Charmbracelet isn’t an album that will blow you away or change your perception of Mariah Carey as an artist - but there is still value in this album, because it does feature good songs, it is consistent, and as a whole it was such a vital stepping stone to Mariah being able to do an album like The Emancipation of Mimi, something Charmbracelet isn’t given any credit for. There’d be no "Fly Like a Bird" if it weren’t for "Subtle Invitation". This album was the emancipation before The Emancipation. Mariah was never once given the chance to just try things for the sake of trying things, and she got to do that on Charmbracelet, without the pressure of having to produce a hit or prove anything, because everybody had already written her off by this point. Charmbracelet was a divining rod for Mariah in trying to figure out where she should venture musically and what her place in music was at a time when there was a notable shift towards pop and bitches who dance. Of course none of this will matter to anybody coming into Charmbracelet cold, and it’s a framing that only a fan would give. But it at least partially contextualises what it is that makes this album different to the others. And strangely, the only other album I’d compare to this retrospectively would be Me. I am Mariah, another instance where Mariah said ‘Let’s try things’ at a point in her career where nobody had any real expectations of her, and once again, had written her off.

Charmbracelet is an easy album to skip in Mariah’s discography because of its lack of standout songs and punchy singles. But skipping it would omit great (albeit not entirely classic) songs, and a look at an artist on a path to rediscovery. Charmbracelet perhaps isn't the best starting point album for those new to Mariah, but for fans it'll feel like a conversation between friends.

VERDICT: BLING BLING

Highlights:
■ The One
■ You Got Me 🔥
■ I Only Wanted 🔥
■ Clown 🏆
■ My Saving Grace
■ Lullaby
■ Subtle Invitation 🔥
■ Bringin' On the Heartbreak 🔥