Mariah Carey "Butterfly" (1997)
For album number 6, Mariah dialled back her usual vocal acrobatics and
explored some other genres outside of her pop ballad sound with the help
of a bevvy of collaborators, including Puff Daddy, Missy Elliott and
Q-Tip. Those names don't diminish Mariah's own role in her creative
path though. She had been slowly pulling away from the influence of her
controlling husband, Sony Music executive Tommy Mottola (who she broke
up with around this time) to take a few creative risks and court the hip-hop/RnB market a bit more.
There is still straight ahead-diva pop like the choir-backed title
track, but there's also the RnB of "The Roof (back in time)" and "Baby
Doll", the collaboration with the brilliant Bone Thugs-n-Harmony "Breakdown" and even a stonking rendition of "The Beautiful Ones" from Prince's "Purple Rain" album.
Mariah's not an artist that I spent a lot of time investigating in the
90s, and this is still not my favourite style of music, but this is a
strong album, and obviously she has an incredible voice.
No comments:
Post a Comment