robjv1 wrote:
BeyondIdolization wrote:
Yeah
I would say MB is easily the worst of the 'Tommy era' albums (Mariah
Carey, Emotions, MB, Daydream). Although Daydream is slightly overrated
because it does have its fair share of schlock ballads that are no
better than the blander MB ballads (Open Arms, WISY, Forever). Those
ballads really bring DD down imo. If she hadn't felt forced to keep
churning out that kind of ballad at the time, DD would've been a true
masterpiece like Butterfly (as evidenced by a brilliant track like
Slipping Away being pushed to the side). I feel like DD has an urban
cool to it that wasn't fully realized.
In terms of her whole career I would rank MB towards the bottom along with Rainbow and E=MC2.
Yeah, I think a fair assessment of the DD ballads (although I personally love Forever) and she was definitely caught in between worlds at that point.
What elevates Daydream up for me above some of the pedestrian material on the album and definitely above MB is the sincerity of her delivery and the overall style of the material. Most of her other material has fairly direct -- where Daydream is just sort of vaguely somber and melancholy, which gives it a really "haunting" quality to me. It's so unlike most of her other work (except stuff like Candy Bling which is very reminiscent of the DD tone), which I love and appreciate. Slipping Away would have fit in perfectly with the rest of the tone too -- drop WISY.
And let's just bury E=MC^2 down under about a thousand layers deeper than the rest of her work lol.
I think the overall banality of MB comes down to the fact that she was too happy and carefree. Sadistic, I know!
Daydream was elevated because there were some major struggles going on personally and professionally (just like Butterfly). It's like, if someone's on holiday, they take the typical holiday photos but if there is a sense of doom and darkness, they're scribbling secret messages on the walls and that's way more intriguing .