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Odd jobs
It may seem crazy to say so, but Bjork and Mariah Carey sometimes seem like sisters - twisted
ones at that. Think about it: Both are divas with singular pipes and acting joneses, both are
inclined to use their first names on album covers, and both have a taste for attire that is,
to be kind, peculiar. And both share a roller-coaster loopiness - evidenced this year in ways
amusing (Bjork's unfortunate choice for Oscar-ceremony garb) and not (Reports of Carey's pitiable
breakdown).
Glitter is Carey's new album and the soundtrack to the film of the same name, in which she plays
and up-and-coming pop star in the '80s. According to her website, the songs were "carefully
selected to reflect the time period". That should have made the album (delayed, at press time,
until Sept. 11) a camp classic, but with a few exceptions - a respectable remake of "Last Night
A DJ Saved My Life" and a cheeseball, faux-Prince-sounding cover of "I Didn't Mean To Turn You
On" - very little of Glitter suggests big hair, leggings, and headbands. Instead, it's Mariah,
business as usual: a few overemoted ballads, a few doses of lite-FM hip-hop, all of it as gauzy
and shapeless as her previous work. (We're subjected to not one but two versions of the
threadbare "Loverboy", which continues the Mariah Minimalist Movement begun with 1999's
"Heartbreaker"). The dichotomy between her styles on Glitter is further proof of her split
Madonna musical complex: One minute she's a wide-eyed innocent, the next minute she's "Wilma M.
Holla", as her party-girl persona is referred to on the album.
If you're looking for intimations of her collapse within Glitter, you'll find only hints, just
enough for one cow to chew on. Carey certainly sounds a tad unhinged, unleashing several avalanches
of eardrum-puncturing wails and laughing in the middle of "All My Life", an innocuous collaboration
with dubious role model Rick James. She laments the end of a relationship several times, most
believably on "Reflections (Care Enough)" - typical Mariah schlock sung with crushed-flower
loneliness. Other times, she's like her recent outfits - barely there. One several tracks, she's
reduced to going maniacally in the background while rappers like Ja Rule and Mystikal run with
the ball. Then there's "Twister", a ballad her handlers maintain was written about the recent
suicide of her stylist. "Feelin' kinda fragile and I've got a lot to handle/ But I guess this is
my way of saying goodbye," she exhales. Glitter is a mess, but its shameless genre hopping
(and Carey's crash) makes it a unintentional concept album about the toll of relentless
careerism.
(Entertainment Weekly)
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