Lost in music: Memoirs of an imperfect angel
 "Welcome to a day in my life..." Carey sings on the opening track of her twelfth studio album, 2009's Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel. The album was intended to tell fans what life was really like for Mariah Carey, she of the big hair, ensembles and high heels. Carey said each song was intended to be a "snapshot of a moment in a story". It's a concept that was intended to create a personal album, a phrase that is often overused in music, but in this case we do seem to get a real sense of Carey's personality coming from the song-writing.
Lead single "Obsessed" addressed, whether she denied it or not, the feud between her and Eminem that had been on-going since his 2002 track "Superman". She had retaliated with 2003's "Clown", a track buried on the underrated Charmbracelet album. Eminem continued the feud with "Bagpipes from Baghdad" in which he referenced Carey's husband Nick Cannon. "Obsessed" was absolutely the wrong single choice to launch Memoirs..., as it's neither representative of the album's content or sonic direction. But when you're at Carey's level of fame, ego can affect the senses and allow bad decisions to be made. The video to accompany "Obsessed" showed Carey being stalked by a hooded rap-wannabe who bared a striking resemblance to Eminem, though never referencing him directly.
So, in the eyes of the media, who if we admit it can make or break an album, or even a star - Glitter anyone?! - Carey was following the path that had seen her increasingly referencing the hip-hop genre since she came out with the "Fantasy Remix (Feat. ODB)", which couldn't be further than the truth. This direction has lost Carey much of her fan base over the years. Throughout the 90s the MOR/Adult Contemporary market lapped up Carey's sound and made her a superstar and this album leans toward that audience more than any she'd released in a decade. So "Obsessed" being the lead single was a fatal error, further alienating the artist's waning audience.
The second single, a gospel-tinged cover of Journey's "I Want To Know What Love Is" was released shortly after and saw Carey quickly change her image to appeal to the market that had bought her debut, 1990's Mariah Carey. Her hair was permed once more, the black leotard top was back, the black leggings were brought out of retirement and her ample breasts were hidden from the light of day for the first time since the "Honey" video. But even this kind of PR backpedalling couldn't save a campaign that had been doomed since its chosen first single. Incidentally, "I Want To Know What Love Is", though a little trite, is a classic Carey track; she's always favoured reworking 80s power ballads.
Memoirs... saw its release two weeks later with opening sales of 168,000 units in the US, the lowest of her career, which granted it a number-three position on the Billboard Hot 100. As of June 2013 the album had only sold 546,000 copies, making it the only album in her career not to reach platinum status.
The album's strongest track was released a mere six-weeks later. Carey's choice for first single, "H.A.T.E.U." sees Carey in familiar sonic territory; "Bliss" from 1999's Rainbow, is a track in the same vein that finds Carey using her famous whistle-register to perform the melodic line. An excellent track, discussing Carey "Having A Typical Emotional Upset" would have been a perfect choice to lead the campaign and could have seen the album perform more favourably commercially. The album by this point, however, had sunk without a trace, and the single followed a similar path, proving that a hit is as much about timing as it is about the song itself.
A subdued, smooth album, it rarely gets above mid-tempo. It's a level at which Carey is becoming increasingly comfortable. The cooing and hushed tones of 2003's Charmbracelet return, but without that album's obvious weathered quality of Carey's world-famous instrument. It's an album of dedication to her husband, Nick Cannon. It's an album that seems to demonstrate their genuine love for one another (many had doubted that the union would last when they hastily married in 2008).
Lyrically, Memoirs... contains some of Carey's most inventive and least cliched content of her career. Even if she's not to a listener's personal taste, there's no denying she has a personality; and that personality has never been displayed as much as it is here.
Before the much publicised feud with Nikki Minaj on 2013's American Idol, Carey & Minaj had duetted on "Up Out My Face", an album highlight. At this point Minaj was a relative unknown and Carey was one of the first major artists to feature the rapper. The "Up Out My Face (Reprise)" features a marching band breakdown which would have been a daring addition to the song proper.
The album's sonic consistency comes from the fact that it is solely produced by Carey, The Dream & Tricky Stewart throughout. It's a reference to simpler times before the producer became as important as the artist. This only works against the album in the sense that there is a lack of distinctive standouts; the mellow vibe created from classic R&B beats and layered backing vocals do tend to blend into one another, especially on the weaker tracks like "Angels Cry" and "Candy Bling".
However, there are inventive highlights, in particular "Standing O", "It's a Wrap", "Ribbon" and "More Than Just Friends". "Languishing" sees Carey reworking the subtle brilliance of "Looking In" and "Petals", perhaps not quite as well, but when it ends with a sustained note and the piano decoratively segues into "I Want To Know What Love Is" it demonstrates that Carey still can produce brilliance on a record.
Memoirs... is an important addition to Carey's back catalogue. In a way, she comes full circle with this album: she's been released like a butterfly, she's been emancipated, she was emancipated to the power of two and then she created an album that references all her earlier work in subtle and brilliant ways.
"The Art of Letting Go" is Carey's next studio album, and it could be the start of a new beginning for a superstar that is capable of much more success than she's had in recent years. This is probably why the album has had so many false starts - the campaign needs to be set with the right tone and a successful lead single (neither "Triumphant (Get 'Em)" or "#Beautiful" were the hits she was hoping for). Let's hope she's learnt to keep it simple and produce a solid album of R&B standards that demonstrate her unique selling point - the voice.
In the meantime, if you don't know Memoirs..., you should. Get to know Carey more intimately than you ever have, and realise that behind the big hair and the diva moments, Mariah Carey has a personality, one that you might really warm to. (So So Gay)
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