Album Review: Mariah Carey - Butterfly

Mariah isn’t the type of artist to reinvent wheels from album to album as some of her peers have been known to. Some would look at Mariah’s albums and say that they all sound the same. Now…that’s not something I could really argue against without going into details that somebody who would say such a thing would even be able to acknowledge - because at a surface level, Mariah’s albums do kinda sound the same. There was definitely a formula at work for a time when it came to her albums. But this is not inherently a bad thing. But ‘all her albums sound the same’ is such a broad generalisation about Mariah’s albums, which discredits the growth which is definitely exhibited from one release to the next. Mariah has become a master at being able to acknowledge what she’s done and build on what works, and adjusting what didn’t. And Butterfly was one of the first albums where Mariah’s choices and the way she was moving pieces around the board was most evident. I say moving pieces, because Mariah been playing chess whilst everybody else was playing checkers.

Mariah’s shifts from album to album were more subtle than most. Far more subtle than the jumps Ariana made from Yours Truly to My Everything to Dangerous Woman. The jump P!nk made from Can’t Take Me Home to Missundaztood. That Christina Aguilera made from her self-titled debut to Stripped. That Destiny’s Child made from The Writing’s on the Wall to Survivor.

Mariah has an interesting discography, because each album is able to stand alone, yet also feel like part of a larger story when you look at it as the sum of a part. Let’s just call it the Mariah Carey Musical Universe. The MCMU. There are things on Daydream which set up the direction taken with songs on Butterfly. And there are stories told on Butterfly which are carried through on Rainbow. And there are also things on Butterfly which feel like the yanking of a thread which was pulled on as early as Mariah’s debut. And when you look at Mariah’s discography in this way, Butterfly feels like the centrepiece. Everything before it was leading up to it. And everything which came after would be because of it.

Some may have their own choices for which album in Mariah’s discography is the most dispensable, but Butterfly will never feature in any of those lists. There is just no way.

Mariah Carey - Butterfly | © 1997 Columbia Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment

When it came to the music, there are three major pieces that Mariah moved around the board. Ballads, R&B and Hip-Hop.

Mariah was known for her ballads. Not only were these ballads hugely successful singles, but they often became the song that people knew her for over anything else she had put out. If you asked somebody to name a song from her debut, the popular choice would probably be “Vision of Love”. If you asked somebody to name a song from Music Box, the popular choice would probably be “Hero” or “Without You” over “Dreamlover” and “Always be My Baby”. If you asked somebody to name a song from Daydream, it would probably be “One Sweet Day” over “Fantasy”. But if you asked somebody to name a song from Butterfly, the popular choice would probably be “Honey”. Butterfly was the start of Mariah really shedding the title of just being a balladeer, and placing a focus on her uptempo cuts and her smoother R&B numbers - songs which had placements on all of her prior albums, but were never the focus, despite how big some of these songs actually were commercially.

Now, this isn’t to say that Mariah shunned ballads completely. Mariah no-middle-name Carey is a business ‘ooman. And at the time of Butterfly, she knew she couldn’t not do ballads. Also, it’s not like Mariah didn’t like ballads. So of course she would still write and record them. Butterfly features what is probably one of Mariah’s best ballads, “My All”. But even this song felt like a slight bending and twisting of the ballad sound that Mariah was known for, versus a song like “Butterfly”, which was far more typical Mariah ballad fare. We love “Butterfly”. But we done heard this type of ballad from Mariah several times before.

The foundation of Mariah’s albums has always been R&B, but Butterfly was the first where it felt the most obvious and present to those who only identify R&B as being A or B. Some may have questioned whether some of Mariah’s previous albums were R&B at all, or if they were R&B enough - but there’s no debating this with Butterfly. Not between “Honey”, and that whole stretch in the middle of the album where we get “The Roof” (one of Mariah’s best songs), the criminally underrated “Fourth of July”, the classic that is “Breakdown”, and the Missy Elliott co-penned “Babydoll”.

Something that Mariah still isn’t credited with enough is for the shift which occurred in music where pop acts would regularly have rappers on their songs, and pop acts would also put out songs produced by Hip-Hop producers. And this wasn’t just something that impacted pop music in America. It had an impact all the way over in Japan too, with acts such as Namie Amuro taking a page or two out of Mariah’s playbook. Mariah first made her Hip-Pop move with “Fantasy”, to widespread success and acclaim, and she runs with it on Butterfly. Bringing back Sean Puff Diddy Daddy John to produce “Honey”, which would also receive a Bad Boy remix featuring Mase and The Lox. Having Trackmasters produce “The Roof”, which samples Mobb Deep’s “Shook Ones (Part II)”, who would also appear on an official remix. Putting members of Bone Thugs-n-Harmony on “Breakdown”, a song which sounds like a Bone Thugs song. Mariah wasn’t just picking talent and rappers who could sit in the pop space or would appear more palatable to pop audiences. She was picking the blackest, thuggiest of acts just based on her own love of Hip-Hop and what she was listening to. None of it was about optics, or which rappers were hot at the time. And there was never a question as to the authenticity of these choices, because the songs spoke for themselves. They were all great songs which didn’t feel like drastic left turns or stretches for Mariah. Especially after putting out a song with O.D.B.

These songs and Mariah’s approach to music generally, show how much she knows her own sound, and how good an ear she has for knowing which songs will catch on and with whom. Butterfly gave Mariah more creative freedom, but Columbia were still calling shots, having opinions, and would ultimately have the final say on things. Columbia were not here for Mariah and her growing proximity to Hip-Hop. So songs like “The Roof” and “Breakdown” were not promoted, despite being released as singles. And yet, they still caught on, are regarded as MC classics, and the audience they were intended for found them and made them hits within circles. And just the act of Mariah doing these songs would pave the way for her being able to release a song like “Heartbreaker” with Jay-Z, and then a remix with Da Brat and Missy Elliott. And whilst Columbia wanted to keep Mariah pop and ‘outta the hood’, Butterfly is adored because of Mariah’s choice to delve deeper into R&B and Hip-Hop, and these are the things that helped define Butterfly and make it stand out in a discography that some would regard as ‘too samey’. I done told y’all. Mariah is a business ‘ooman.

Mariah had long been an artist who was having to walk a thin line between things. To not be too R&B. To not be too Black. To not be too sexy. All of that went out of the window with Butterfly. Mariah said ‘Darling, this album is R&B’. ‘Darling, this is Black people’s business’. ‘Honey, get into these legs and these titties in this boob tube.’ And the great thing about all of these things is that none of it felt sudden, disruptive, like some out of character shift, or a declaration. It all felt like a very natural progression that Mariah would make from an album like Daydream. Decisions Mariah chose to make in her personal life and where she wanted to venture creatively had perfectly aligned. Well… Not so perfectly, as Mariah would go on to reveal. But enough to a point where Mariah was in a better place, and in a position to steer the album in the direction she wanted, which would chart a course for every one of her albums which would come after, as well as giving many other female pop / R&B acts a checklist.

Mariah Carey - Butterfly | © 1997 Columbia Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment

The songwriting on Butterfly is also something which stands out about it, and something which is influenced greatly by the additional creative licence Mariah was granted following the separation from her husband.

A huge theme of Butterfly is desire. And Mariah expresses it in a way here that I don’t think she had done before. Pre Butterfly, Mariah’s songs were always from the perspective of somebody who longed for love, or somebody who was so deep in love that it was affecting their entire being; for better or for worse. With Butterfly however, the songs all come from the perspective of somebody who desires to feel true love, or to recapture something they had lost. It gives Butterfly a pretty melancholic and sombre disposition, which may seem at odds with it being Mariah’s emancipation before The Emancipation. But it also makes sense that Mariah would be open about her desires, as these wouldn’t have been things she could openly express on records whilst she was still with her husband. I mean, how would she explain “The Roof” and “My All”? ‘Babe, who did you meet on the rooftop on a rainy night in November? Because I know it wasn’t me’.

But Mariah delving further into Hip-Hop also influenced the way in which she wrote. Hip-Hop beats don’t always have a melody in the way pop and R&B productions do. So what Mariah was able to do on songs like “The Roof” and “Breakdown” showcased the way in which Mariah is able to approach melodies, and lock them in such a way that you can’t imagine the song having any other melody or rhythm. And this also seemed to really set Mariah’s pen free in terms of her cadence on songs, and how much she could cram into verses and choruses. “The Roof”, “Breakdown” and “Babydoll” in particular were unlike anything Mariah had written prior. The verses, the b-sections and the chorus on “The Roof” are pretty short. Yet, they feel like whole chapters, because of the way Mariah is setting the scene, painting the picture, telling the story, and how she manages to sing through her lyrics in a way where she sounds like she’s only giving us one line of a song, when she’s giving us about five. On “Breakdown” Mariah is spittin’ actual bars. And this wasn’t a common thing commercially in R&B, especially not for female acts.

There is a greater sense of storytelling with Butterfly, which makes each song feel like its own story, with a beginning, a middle and an end, or in some cases a ‘To be continued…’. But each song also paints very vivid pictures. It’s no surprise that the music videos from Butterfly are Mariah’s best, because there is so much to work with when it comes to how to visually represent each of the songs.

Lambs will all debate when Mariah’s vocal prime was. But honestly around the time Butterfly came out, I don’t think there was any debate around this, because Mariah was still whistling, still belting and still being virtuosic as all fuck. But Butterfly was the first album where Mariah really started to play around with her voice. Mariah’s always been far more varied in the way that she sings than her most popular singles would have you believe. But on Butterfly, there was definitely more of a concerted effort on Mariah’s part to show that not only can she still sing without having to belt all of the time, but that not every song required all of that from her. And these happen to be the songs that are most revered on this album; “The Roof” and “Breakdown”.

Mariah making this vocal choice was probably in part due to her realising that she had to start working to preserve her voice. But another part of it was probably her making a creative decision to just not give ‘the voice’ all of the time, simply because it was what people knew her for. It wouldn’t surprise me if Mariah had a strange relationship when it came to her voice, because it became such a commodity which overshadowed everything else. People always spoke about the voice, but never Mariah’s lyrics. And her voice was probably a constant reminder of her ex husband Tommy Mottola, as it was the reason he signed her, became enamoured with her and the thing that would make him a whole lotta money. So in keeping with the theme of the album, and Mariah exercising creative control, I do think her making the choice to sing a bit different on this album was about her reclaiming her voice and choosing how she uses it on songs, and not singing how people told her to or expected her to.

Mariah Carey - Butterfly | © 1997 Columbia Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment

There’s very little wrong with Butterfly. My only two gripes with it are the songs “Fly Away (Butterfly Reprise)” and “The Beautiful Ones”, for two completely different reasons.

“Fly Away (Butterfly Reprise)” is amazing. Mariah’s vocals on this song are insane. She really goes to church on this shit. But the song stands out so much because it’s a club record just slapped at the tail end of the album, the same way that “Daydream Interlude” was flung as the penultimate song on Daydream. Something else that Mariah isn’t credited enough with is featuring club songs (which sound like remixes in and of themselves) on albums as part of the standard tracklist, at a time when most were just putting them on singles as either remixes or B-sides. The gays always got Mariah’s vision, but not everybody else did. And now we’re at a time, 25 years later, where Beyoncé is putting out a whole club record. Mariah was living in 2022 in 1997, which makes sense. Because Mariah is managing director at the TVA and has no concept of time. BUT, “Fly Away (Butterfly Reprise)” does feel so out of place on this album, and yet I couldn’t imagine this album without it.

Then there’s the tradition of Butterfly featuring a cover song. Now, Mariah at this point in her career had a voice on her that could cover whatever the hell she wanted and sound good doing it. But just because you can sing any song, doesn’t mean that you should. And I do wish she had chosen a different song to cover other than Prince’s “The Beautiful Ones”. The music on Mariah’s cover (which features Dru Hill) sounds identical to the original, only a bit slower. And Mariah sounds great on the song, but she adds nothing to it. Purple Rain is such a widely revered classic, so I get why Mariah would want to cover a song from it. But it is something she shouldn’t have done unless she was going to do something new with it. But the worst thing about this cover is that I think it would have been better had it just been Dru Hill. The energy Sisqó brings to the table manages to capture the spirit of the original, yet also something a little different - far more than Mariah does. Sisqó and Mariah’s voices don’t sound all that nice together anyway. But when you throw in two completely different approaches to the song, they REALLY don’t sound great together. Just because you put two great singers on a song, it doesn’t mean they will sound good together. Now, a voice that Mariah sounds great with? Brian McKnight. I don’t even play the album version of “Whenever You Call”, because the version with Brian McKnight sounds like it was intended to be the original version, and he and Mariah sound SO good together. “The Beautiful Ones” is the only instance on Butterfly where I feel like the album would have been better off without it. There’s just no value to this song. You’d have to be a real Dru Hill and / or Mariah fan to play this version of “The Beautiful Ones” over the original.

Butterfly is widely regarded as Mariah Carey’s best album, even by Mariah herself. And it’s not hard to hear why. It’s a good album. Not that Mariah has a bad album. But Butterfly is a definitive album in Mariah Carey’s discography, because it was a turning point in Mariah Carey’s career. Not just personally and creatively, but culturally. So much of the Mariah that we know now, and the ways she approaches her music, her singing, her collaborations - it stems from this album. And when it comes to the blueprint which was set for many of the girls out here (Ariana to name the most obvious) - Butterfly is the album which is looked to. But just as a body of work, Butterfly is a solid album which manages to wrap up all of the great things Mariah had done since the days of “Vision of Love” and channel it into one album that feels like a fuller reflection of her artistry. But Butterfly also showcases Mariah’s savvy when it comes to songwriting, song selections (“The Beautiful Ones” is a misstep, but she’s allowed one) and being smart about shifts. It would have been easy for Butterfly to either have been a straight rehash of something Mariah had already done, or something completely different for the sake of being different. But Mariah was smart in building on the foundations of Daydream and delivering something in the vein of what she was known for, whilst also embracing newness and venturing further into new territory that she knew would benefit her career and fulfil her creatively in the long run.

But for all of the conscious choices and calculated decisions made on Butterfly, by both Mariah herself and the decision makers at Sony, Butterfly manages to feel organic and effortless. When you really peel back the layers of this album, you realise that Mariah is doing so much. But on the surface, it just seems like it’s all in a day’s work for Mariah - which speaks to the level of artistry that Mariah has, and that for all the credit that men around her have been given throughout her career, nobody can steer the Mariah ship and know where it charts, quite like Mariah does.

Verdict: Feeling liberated

Highlights:
▪ Butterfly 
▪ My All 🔥
▪ The Roof (Back in Time) 🏆
▪ Fourth of July 🔥
▪ Breakdown 🔥
▪ Close My Eyes 🔥
▪ Fly Away (Butterfly Reprise) 🔥
▪ Outside