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Re: A lengthy meditation on the album (86,306) (86,312) by Carlos from Brazil
Chill man, chill.
(Tuesday 20 November 2018; 20:30)
Re: Sales (86,289) (86,311) by Jamie from UK
Hilton I always love your positivity. We can do this.
(Tuesday 20 November 2018; 20:03)
Re: A lengthy meditation on the album (86,306) (86,310) by Bobby A from United States
Let's look at Caution's as Mariah Carey's debut album. I try not to think about her as artist who was once this huge vocal powerhouse from the 90's whose pengame was well ahead of her peers. She is putting out R&B music that is filled with hip hop lyrics and rapid repetitive style singing. This is what she is most comfortable with at this point in her life. I believe she is going to bring something different when she performs the album on the Caution World Tour. I am predicting huge things are coming in 2019 like Caution Part 2, a making of Caution DVD, and a DVD of the Caution World Tour. We have to hear those JD tracks in 2019. Can you imagine the things her team can do to the stage set and dancer performances on this intimate tour? Remember how good she sounded on the intimate Angel's Advocate tour. The 90's MC is gone from her mind at this point. Embrace the R&B Mariah because she is here to stay.
(Tuesday 20 November 2018; 19:47)
Re: A lengthy meditation on the album (86,306) (86,309) by Jamie from UK
Maybe it's how you perceive her to be? The balladeer wouldn't have lasted past the 90's unfortunately. Often early on in a musicians career especially back then the record company would turn people into who they wanted them to be (George Michael, Whitney to name a couple). Inevitably like every human we evolve and change over time.
I personally love this album and vocally it's stronger than MIAM. She's more edgy like on Butterfly. Is it a Music Box? No but that type of music isn't made anymore. Best thing to do is appreciate the journey she's been on, no ones perfect. Artistry comes and goes, who's to say she won't write a huge hit in 10 years time?
(Tuesday 20 November 2018; 19:41)
Re: A lengthy meditation on the album (86,306) (86,308) by bliss! from Brazil
Hey Chris, I really appreciate your words about the album, it's nice to read all kinds of opinions, especially from early 90s fans. I just keep wondering if the fact that she's singing about childish, casual, self-referential topics is a reflection of a woman who felt she found love (with Nick) - and got terribily devastated when it ended - and now has found that life should be taken less seriously, but always with an underlying caution? Maybe the light-hearted quality of the album is a reflection of how she's dealing with things right now, and maybe this approach is healthier for her?

And even, let's say, Mariah losing herself in this ghetto-princess fantasy is in fact Mariah losing touch with reality after all this years trapped in this celebrity world? I also think she gets frustrated with how she's perceived and how she sees herself, reason why she's always claiming to be a song writer first, and not only a singer. You really gave me a lot of food for thought.
(Tuesday 20 November 2018; 19:20)
Re: A lengthy meditation on the album (86,306) (86,307) by Bill from the UK
Well that killed the mood.
(Tuesday 20 November 2018; 19:04)
A lengthy meditation on the album (86,306) by Deleted from Czech
My honest appraisal of the album and general musings on Mariah's creative decline, as a fan of Mariah's 90's music. I have always defended Mariah and she will always be my favourite female artist, but I really do see this album as epitomizing everything wrong with the path she's been walking creatively for a long time.

-The Music is as synthetic and artificial as the blue tint of her skin on the album cover. Everything is so computerized now, everything is built upon digital beats and samples. Where "Emotions" brought to mind images of a live band of musicians putting it all together in some tucked-away studio in the back alleys of New York, "Caution" makes me think of a lonely sound engineer with dorito dust all over his face cutting beats in a home studio, copy-pasting some heavily edited vocals that Mariah's team just sent to his inbox. Everything feels so dead and inhuman. It really is the musical equivalent of all of her photoshopped album covers over the past few years. Of course, this is only a reflection of the general trends in popular music at large, which is one of the reasons we don't have talents like Mariah anymore. Why bother honing real authentic singing talent when people prefer synthetic music anyway? It's also one of the reasons Mariah lip syncs so much now, for what need is there to sing music as artificial as this with your natural voice? Nothing else about it is natural. I don't understand how people can complain about her lip syncing but apparently feel enthusiastic about the synthetic sound of her albums for the past 20 years, one follows quite logically from the other. Why should we demand natural vocals when we accept synthetic music made entirely on computers?

- Vocals are without doubt the worst we've ever heard from Mariah, and not because her voice is damaged. A damaged voice can still possess beauty, it can lend an air of wisdom or tragedy or world-weariness to the right music and actually enrich it. I know that Mariah's voice still has beauty and the right material could bring that out. The problem here is threefold... firstly, this is the antithesis of the right material, the songwriting is infantile and unbefitting of a woman of Mariah's talent and years. Secondly, her voice is buried under lifeless digital production which strips it of it's dignity, truth and character. Lastly, she can't hide just how indifferent she has become to the art of singing now... Everything is robotic, there's no passion or depth of feeling, she's about as expressive as Microsoft Sam on these cuts. Granted it's hard to sing material like this with conviction, but even her signature vocal melodies and melismatic phrasing are nowhere to be found... everything is sung straight, it's all flat and basic. Anybody could have written these vocal lines and anybody could sing them.

- She continues to write and sing in a completely false, contrived "street" idiom, now complete with obscenities and expletives. Who is she trying to fool exactly? Mariah, you're the daughter of an Irish American Opera singer from the midwest and you were raised by her on Long Island. You're naturally well spoken and remarkably eloquent as the countless interviews from the 90's prove but you insist on dumbing yourself down and trying to be something you're not. You're not ghetto, you're not hood and you never will be but you've been speaking and singing with a fake hood affectation for about 20 years, playing make believe as a ghetto princess. This facade has to fall some day. I suppose we can understand it through comprehending Mariah's fascination with Marilyn Monroe... Marilyn too put on a mask and turned herself into a product to be packaged and sold. She had to sacrifice Norma Jean to do it.

- The lyrical content is abysmal, it's actually cringe inducing at times. There's no substance, everything sounds like some kind of narcissistic self-referential in-joke, the songs are ill-defined and don't seem to have any organised theme... It's like she's going off on a lyrical tangent on every cut. A few pop-culture references here, namedropping a luxury brand there. This is not timeless writing. It's inane and juvenile. Nothing reflects any kind of higher values, there's no wisdom, no narrative, no storytelling, no tragedy, no catharsis. All that's left is money, sex, celebrity, and sass.

- The Mariah love ballad has now been all but replaced by the Mariah sex anthem. "One Mo Gen", "Stay Long Love You", "Caution", "With You" erase the distinction between love and lust. All the purity and the high romantic ideals that imbued her early music with an almost spiritual dignity have given way to vulgarity and artless references to sex acts. The woman who once sang "I had a vision of love, and it was all that you turned out to be" now sings "do you mind if we go back in one mo' gen?". When it was once "looking inside you my world is complete, I struggled to find you, now I'm free" it is now "you make me, make me wanna do that thing and do that thing, yeah". She's actually managed to become her own musical antithesis, you can't reconcile that Mariah with this one. Mariah will never write an honest love song again, will she? I don't think she believes in those songs anymore, she won't allow herself to be vulnerable like that. Everything has to be edgy, everything has to be "fun", which is so often just a cover for meaninglessness and nihilism. Even Portrait just feels like an insincere retread of something she said better a long time ago.

The way I see it, the basic problem with Mariah's music and image for a very long time has been this... for all of her otherworldly talent as a singer and a songwriter, she's never had a strong sense of who or what she wants to be as either an artist or as a person, she has no sense of her creative strengths, and so as much as it pains me to admit it she ultimately lacks artistic integrity. That explains how she was able to so quickly transition from her roots as a Soul/Gospel/classic RnB balladeer with an operatic twist (90-93) to a pop princess (93-97) to a Hip Hop diva (97 onwards). It explains how quickly and completely the image was able to devour the art, Mariah didn't know if she wanted to be known as songbird supreme or hip hop sex diva extraordinaire. She ultimately sacrificed her artistry for an image that had seduced her, an image she desired to present to the world, not necessarily who she was but clearly what she wanted to be... after achieving worldwide mega-fame she no longer desired to be seen anymore as the sensitive balladeer she was when she started, but instead as an icon of celebrity, power, sex and success. So she abandoned her true calling as an artist, the very thing that made her brilliant, her unmatched talent as a balladeer, to pursue the fantasy of being an international sex symbol and ghetto diva. She's been in creative free fall ever since. The girl can't decide whether she's a gangsta rapper from the hood or Marilyn Monroe. It's sad more than anything else, she can't just be herself, she's a tangle of contradictions and confusions.

The consequences? Creatively, her art has become lifeless and infantile, there is absolutely no wisdom to be found in it when she once showed wisdom beyond her years, and I believe her legacy has been permanently compromised. Personally I wonder what her inability to mature means for her... you can't be 12 forever. If you won't take the mask off yourself, time will inevitably strip it away.
(Tuesday 20 November 2018; 18:43)
Re: Understocked album (86,300) (86,305) by Myles from CT, USA
My cousin and I went to Target and they had no more copies left. By the grace of God they had 2 left in the back.
(Tuesday 20 November 2018; 18:41)
Re: Understocked album (86,300) (86,304) by B from USA
It's also sold out at my local Walmart. I've been streaming Caution nonstop on Spotify and despite not owning a cassette player I'm buying the Caution cassette for the nostalgia, lol. Caution is short and sweet and endlessly repayable which makes it an excellent streaming experience. It's definitely a mood.
(Tuesday 20 November 2018; 18:39)
Re: Caution next single should be? (86,295) (86,303) by Bobby A from United States
MC needs to move fast with sending The Distance to Rhythmic and Top 40 radio stations. And send A No No remix with Lil Kim and Cardi B to Urban and Hip Hop. If she doesn't do this, Caution is going to fade after Christmas CD sales.
(Tuesday 20 November 2018; 18:36)
Re: Understocked album (86,300) (86,302) by Bobby A from United States
I mentioned last week that a physical copy would be hard to find in many retailers. The Target store I purchased mine from in the DFW area had to be asked by me to put it on the shelf. Call your local Barnes and Nobles or check back at Target since they will be selling Caution for $7.00 through Black Friday according to Mariah's Twitter. Epic must be sending more copies to Target stores for Black Friday. FYE in the malls has copies for $9.99.
(Tuesday 20 November 2018; 18:30)
Re: A No No feat. Cardi B and Li'l Kim (86,291) (86,301) by B from USA
Word of mouth and the critical acclaim should keep this album on the charts longer than the two months MIAM was. The music speaks for itself.
(Tuesday 20 November 2018; 17:52)
Understocked album (86,300) by 123 from USA
So I went to Target in downtown Chicago and they had no more copies. She only had one slot. Buble had a whole top shelf and all his copies were gone. Mullford and Sons had half a shelf but plenty of copies. Looks like retailers understocked the album since her last projects didn't sell. I a lot of other lambs have complained about not being able I find a physical copy to purchase. So she would have never been able to obtain a #1 album unless people ordered online, bought a downloable copy, or streamed. Hopefully retailers order more for Black Friday. I will continue my hunt and in the meantime stream away.
(Tuesday 20 November 2018; 17:49)
Caution (86,299) by B from USA
Unlike Memoirs or MIAM I don't have to force myself to listen to the whole album. I'll queue up GTFO and the next thing I know Potraits is playing and I'm left wanting more. It's easily one of Mariah's best albums and is deserving of the critical acclaim it's receiving.
(Tuesday 20 November 2018; 17:45)
Re: A No No feat. Cardi B and Li'l Kim (86,286) (86,298) by Elena from The Netherlands
Since both Cardi and Kim fans want both of them to jump on a track since forever and A No No is a golden opportunity and an open invitation by MC herself, I believe if Mariah pushes this through we will have her 19th number 1 due to Cardi's chart domination and dream collaboration for fans. This is an ultimate slaying combo. Being a huge fan of all 3, I'd die in peace. Make it happen.
(Tuesday 20 November 2018; 17:24)
WWHL (86,297) by Licia from USA
Just got done watching. I'm so happy she may do Glitter medley on tour. It sucks that it took 17 years for us to appreciate it and for her to finally feel she can be proud of the album, but better late than never. I appreciate Andy for speaking on that good side/bad side crap. I loved how she dropped that knowledge about publishing and people recording her songs. Businessriah/Smartriah kills Divariah all day. The highlight for me was when she mimicked Aretha lol. All in all it was a great and fun interview.
(Tuesday 20 November 2018; 16:49)
Spotify (86,296) by Tevin from USA
I'm happy to see Mariah's sale projections, quick question. I'm purchasing one or two physical copies tomorrow. I pre saved the album on Spotify, but I'm wondering how do I make sure I'm streaming the album as a whole and not just a single or song from the album? As long as the album is saved can I skip around songs or will that effect the album streaming count? Sorry for all the questions I just want to make sure I'm boosting her album and not just particular songs. Thanks.
(Tuesday 20 November 2018; 16:46)
Re: Caution next single should be? (86,290) (86,295) by RibbonB from USA
B that's light work for mostly fans only. Sure It's a cool fun sounding song, attached to a familiar, funky sample. But Mariah's spitfire, rapid storytelling is both too coded and specific to draw the interests of the masses. This one needs a spontaneous challenge, with people spitting over the track, either guys shooting their shot to her constant no, or ladies co signing why she should say no. Lastly, since Mimi can't dance and this one is so fast ,it would make for awkward live moments with the song.
(Tuesday 20 November 2018; 16:26)
Re: A No No feat. Cardi B and Li'l Kim (86,288) (86,294) by jaker20 from US
This to me is the best Mariah effort since TEOM. The album definitely needs some high profile remix and ft. Even if the album doesn't top the charts, the tracks shouldn't go to waste. I hope she does some unexpected ft. collabs. I doubt she can get Sheeran but how about Drake returning the favor?
(Tuesday 20 November 2018; 16:04)
Re: Sales (86,289) (86,293) by jaker20 from US
Stream it and let the whole album loop overnight. Then on YouTube play the whole album and just let it loop all day or night. Fanbases do that in the streaming era. I know lambs doesn't have to but streaming is just as important if not more.
(Tuesday 20 November 2018; 16:00)
Re: A No No feat. Cardi B and Li'l Kim (86,286) (86,292) by Lexingz from Estonia
Agreed. Kim is of course the obvious choice but Cardi would be a great match for Mariah's whole vibe as well.
(Tuesday 20 November 2018; 15:25)
Re: A No No feat. Cardi B and Li'l Kim (86,286) (86,291) by Shezz from Pk
You know her saying it on Andy Cohen and putting it out there kind of sealed its fate. When has a collaboration that she has explicitly wanted ever happened? The only ones that happen are the ones that she is quiet about. Still hoping that it comes through. Other than it being epic, it would without a shadow of a doubt be commercially successful and that would definitely bring more general public attention to the album, otherwise it’s going to be off the album charts in a few weeks sadly. If the remix happens, it has to be the next single.
(Tuesday 20 November 2018; 15:25)
Re: Caution next single should be? (86,227) (86,290) by B from USA
In less than a month it has over a million views on YouTube so it's definitely not just fans feeling the song.
(Tuesday 20 November 2018; 15:23)
Sales (86,289) by T from USA
The sales projections were raised from early projections by 3k. They are reporting that it could end up on the high end of 55,000. Here's a reminder to keep streaming this week. We are doing it and if it can surprise the whole industry and get to 60,000 in its first week it will be a huge success. It could even mean more promotion and a longer era. So keep buying, keep streaming it will make a difference.
(Tuesday 20 November 2018; 15:21)
Re: A No No feat. Cardi B and Li'l Kim (86,286) (86,288) by T from USA
Mariah has made a return to form with her new album Caution. It literally is everything. But a return to her exciting remixes (with Carid and Kim) would be the icing on the cake. Make it happen.
(Tuesday 20 November 2018; 15:18)

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