Re: Mariah Carey - Nuevo Album [Info] **Download: Nuevo single**
Crítica de "The Guardian"
"The Emancipation of Mimi" - Cool, Focused and Urban
Jenny-from-the-block Lopez made a big mistake when she tried to convince the world that there was a plantain-frying homegirl under the Versace jerkins. The disbelief and scorn it provoked has clung to her ever since. Undeterred, "Mimi" Carey is renouncing her own highfalutin' past and reverting to her childhood nickname (though the album sleeve reveals that designer vixenwear is exempt from emancipation).
It's easy to scoff (a sleevenote extract: "Emancipation: to free from restraint, control, oppression or the power of another"), but Carey does seem to have undergone a transition, presumably generated by the knockback of being paid to leave her last record label. The result is a tough cookie of an album.
Despite its grim title with its visions of messy self-absorption, The Emancipation of Mimi is - mostly - cool, focused and urban. Her buddies Nelly, Twista and Snoop Dogg set the hip-hop tone, making Carey sound like a guest on her own record, but even when she lets them dominate, it's quality domination. A headbanging Fatman Scoop rap may define It's Like That, for instance, but Carey is very much a presence, unfurling her three octaves judiciously.
Judiciously is the key word; there's the odd lungful of diva-belting (Mine Again is horridly reminiscent of that nightmare duet with Westlife), but in the main, she's sparing with it. She's at her most persuasive on the skittering Stay the Night and the gently sensual Get Your Number, which are the first Mariah Carey tunes in years I wouldn't have to be paid to listen to again. Not bad, "Mimi".
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Crítica de VIBE
Mariah Carey - "The Emancipation of Mimi" - * * * * (Excellent)
Carey's overwhelming vocal ability and knack for crossing boundaries to appeal to a diverse hip pop and R&B audience have not changed
Mimi pulls Carey in two opposite directions. Most of the tracks find her paired with the hottest hip hop producers of the day; there she exercises restraint and settles into a groove. But on the rest, she does what comes most naturally to her-belting to her heart's desire
The first single It's Like That, is an aggressive, off-kilter joint with a harshly stiff beat, produced by Jermaine Dupri. Obviously, this is the kind of tune that's going to solidify her comeback to the MTV crowd. Carey's voice adds a thick layer of gloss to Dupri's heavy bass. Her phrasing is more staccato than ever, and her interplay with late-night New York radio personality Fatman Scoop on the outro gives this song a credible hip hop feel.
A more typical R&B composition from Dupri is We Belong Together, a broken-hearted lament for lost love. Here, Carey's vocals ride in and out of a kick-drum, finger-snap-driven track. The hip hop,slow-jam hybrid, combined with her bottle-breaking high notes, creates an appeal that will cut across generations.
Joints like the funky break-up song Shake It Off and the Twista assisted street jam One and Only prove Carey's continuing hip hop affinity. But her vocal pyrotechnics push the boundaries of that genre while keeping more conservative heads in the loop. And nothing on this album says that more than the Neptunes-produced Say Somethin'
Meanwhile, Mine Again is sure to resonate with the old guard and give the new generation another Carey groove to emulate. The track starts out as a ballad-just Carey, accompanied by an electric keyboard and a rhythmic vinyl sound-then builds into a traditional gospel R&B song.
The slightly jazzy Fly Like a Bird is another down-home production that's a cry for unconditional love. Its inspirational message allows Carey to fully exercise her vocal acrobatics, proving that she can still blow her army of imitators off a stage.
Mariah gets back to her winning formula with Mimi. Her yin and yang method, with its schizophrenic mix of the '80s and 21st-century hip hop, works wonders for Emancipation
To read the entire review pick up a copy of the May issue of Vibe.
-- D. Ehrlich.
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Mariah en Japón