The Ballads

Performer: Mariah Carey
Artist: Trey Lorenz; Joe; Nas; Luther Vandross; Usher
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: Few need to be reminded of Mariah Carey's prodigious vocal talents, or her unimpeachable string of chart-topping singles, but this succinctly titled Columbia Legacy retrospective neatly avoids potential redundancy by focusing on Carey's slow-burning ballads, which served as showcases for her legendary five octave vocal range. Though all of these selections are heavy on vocal pyrotechnics, Carey never lets her virtuosity overwhelm the solidly original songwriting in evidence on numbers like "Dreamlover" and "Vision of Love." As Carey's career progressed, she began to lean more towards the dance/R&B market, so though BALLADS includes selections from all of her albums for Columbia, it's track list is weighted towards her earlier releases like MUSIC BOX and MARIAH CAREY. In 1998, it would have been a cheap joke to say that Mariah Carey had no other kind of hits than ballads, but in the ensuing decade she steadily remade herself into an R&B diva, obscuring if not quite erasing the well-mannered adult contemporary singer of the '90s. The 2009 compilation The Ballads -- released just before Valentines Day 2009 -- attempts to turn back the clock by focusing just on those AC tunes -- 18 of them, in fact, including such mammoth hits as "Hero," "One Sweet Day," "Vision of Love," "I'll Be There," "I Still Believe," "Dreamlover," and "Always Be My Baby." Of course, this concentration on middle of the road ballads is a side effect of label affiliation: The Ballads is a product of Sony, who had Mariah during the '90s, before the club R&B overshadowed these office-friendly hits, so it's easier for them to cobble together a comp of Carey at her most sentimental. And that's what The Ballads is: nothing but big love songs sung in a big voice. For fans who have missed this side of Mariah in the 2000s, this is a welcome reminder of what they used to love. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

With her multi-octave voice and more than 80 million records sold worldwide, it's no surprise that pop diva Mariah Carey is viewed as the successor to Whitney Houston. She emerged as the premier R&B/pop songstress of the 1990s, and by the end of the decade had shifted gears a bit by collaborating with the likes of Ol' Dirty Bastard and incorporating elements of hip-hop into her sound. Though her 2001 big-screen debut, GLITTER, was a total flop and something of a blow to Carey's seemingly Teflon career, her 2005 comeback record, THE EMANCIPATION OF MIMI, solidified her status as a true pop-music diva.

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