I think "E" is a very confident, consistent and cohesive album.
I think the problem with the newer songs are that they are too short. Most of the songs are only a little over 3 minutes. Thats where "TEOM" and
"E" suffers. With the old songs, she continues doing adlibs, scatting and whatnot for about an additional minute. That's why the fans had
something new to discover every time.
Mariah ditched those for commercial appeal. Someone in her team probably told her that her songs were too long, and when she came back with TEOM, her songs
were notably shorter, more repetitive and end more abruptly. Perfect for radio. Bad news for fans
Unlike fans, critics don't put Mariah CDs on repeat for weeks. Thus these 2 albums got a better critical reception. Fans, however, were disappointed
because they ruined the songs for themselves.
To sum it all up, The older albums had a longer playing time (well not exactly because some just have 10 tracks, but you get the point.) More stuff to discover
and less chances of getting sick of.