There's a sense of irony in Mariah Carey calling her latest album - her 16th studio LP - Here For It All, as her performative nature as of late have proved quite the contrary. Sluggish movements, a detached mentality, even the question of how live her vocals truly are have followed the singer more so than anything related to genuine interest around the album.
And now that it's here in all its 11-track, near-40-minute glory, is it enough to forgive a public persona that's almost comically self-serving at this point? The opening line of starter track "Mi" - "I don't care about much if it ain't about me" - certainly feeds into that diva, ego-centric notion, and whilst it has a certain air of MC classicality to it, its mid-tempo arrangement never rises above itself, setting the album off on a sonic journey that indicates Here For It All will be a more mellow affair.
Starting off the album with such a song as "Mi", and introducing the new era with single choices "Type Dangerous" and "Sugar Sweet", at least lets the fans in that there'll be no musical curveballs thrown and that her voice will stay in a relatively safe lane throughout, with only the more Motown-inspired "In Your Feelings" giving us a glimpse of an altered tone in her vocals that suggest, when she wants to, she has the ability to care about more than the minimum.
To be fair to the aforementioned "Sugar Sweet", as simple as it is, its dancehall sound breaks up the near-monotony of the majority of the album, as does the disco-inspired "I Won't Allow It", which serves as a female-empowerment anthem that enjoys its strength-among-women temperament more than a self-congratulatory effort ever could.
But, unfortunately, Here For It All appears to be mainly here for a soaring ballad moment, and the titular track comes close to being that "expected" sound from the singer. The various offerings in getting to it though may test some listeners' patience though, with "Jesus I Do" proving basic in spite of its evident inspirational spirit, "My Love", a cover of the classic Paul McCartney and Wings classic, unable to bring anything new to its history, and "Nothing Is Impossible" almost too desperate in its chasing of Mariah's own "Butterfly" that it amounts to little of impact.
Perhaps a little too relaxed for its own good (though that does seem to be on brand for the singer as of late), Here For It All doesn't adhere to any type of theatricality - which is something that is so often linked to Carey and her removed from reality persona. It's not necessarily a bad album by any stretch, it just fails to develop much of a personality or submit to a theme. There's never any danger of Miss Carey becoming irrelevant (for better or worse), but she may want to consider giving her all next time.
Two and a half stars (out of five).
(The AU Review)
|
|
