#1 [url]

Apr 27 11 2:18 PM

robjv1 wrote:
what I think makes it so remarkable is it's dreary tone that's so unlike most of her catalog.  Most of her songs either have a vocal that's built to be uplifting, despite the sad words or are fairly sunny in terms of production and vocals.  It reminds me of the beaches (not like the one in her video haha) here in the winter -- cloudy, dark, foggy, cold, raining softly, but constantly. 

This song and "Betcha Gon Know" both tread pretty dark places for a Mariah Carey song, as both songs play on the revenge theme a bit.  Usually it's more like "you'll be sorry you let me go because you'll miss me" with her portrayed as taking the higher ground, but both of these songs have a mean-spiritedness that's not jokey and more serious that is fun to hear from her.

Great points. HATEU is easily her best ballad of the 00s imo as well as one of the best of her career, and one of her most unique songs. And as for the production, while I do think it's great and adds to the mood of the song, as that Linkin Park mashup shows, the song would've been great with any production. The only minor criticism from me is that the high note after the chorus wasn't necessary (although I looove the high note right after the bridge).

I feel like HATEU is kind of typical for Mariah's career - a standout in her catalogue that should have been one of her biggest hits, but that was released at a weird time in her career and not fully supported. We've seen this before with UTS, Butterfly, Breakdown, The Roof, Crybaby.