therooftop wrote:
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.
Good point there. Of course, I'm EXTREMELY grateful that TEOM came along, and WBT with it, because that was nothing short of the
"miracle rain" after a VERY LONG DROUGHT.
Still, I can't help but agree with a comment by Jon Pareles of the New York Times (one of the few critics who have consistently evaluated Mariah with
objectivity, and maybe even some affection): with TEOM, as she was so eager to get back into the good graces of radio and the public, it seemed like she had
ditched all of the eccentricities (that made us fans and addicts in the first place) and concentrated on what was instantly likeable.
And that TEOM approach, of course, was applied with even more single-minded focus in E=MC2.
So while I do love E=MC2, and the 7 (more or less) excellent tracks (i.e., I could do without hearing Last Kiss ever again), and I think it's a cohesive
album, it could have done with a few sublime album tracks, in pretty much the same vein as Close My Eyes for Butterfly or Underneath The Stars and Melt Away
for Daydream.
Then again, I should be careful about what I wish for, because we might get another Charmbracelet, God forbid.
The hooks are catchy, the melodies are very good, the lyrics are streetsmart (I love the Migrate Mariah-isms, despite the criticism), and the production is,
for the most part, extremely competent. I guess that's just it. It's a very competent piece of work, but what does it in, ultimately, is the almost
palpable, single-minded focus on generating a multitude of hits (which, ironically, never happened).