Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel [Digipak]

Performer: Mariah Carey
Artist: Gucci Mane
Engineer: Kevin Guarnieri; Andrew Wuepper; Carlos Oyanedel; Damien Lewis; Brian Garten
Producer: C. "Tricky" Stewart; Terius "the Dream" Nash; Mariah Carey; Randy Jackson
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files. Personnel: Julio Miranda (guitar); Arturo Solar (trumpet, flugelhorn); Tricky Stewart, Leon Bisquera (keyboards); Alex Al (bass guitar); Ronnie Gutierrez (percussion); Sherry Tatum, Mary Ann Tatum, Sherry McGhee (background vocals). Audio Mixers: Dave Pensado; Phil Tan. Liner Note Author: Mariah Carey. Editor: Johanna Cox. Photographers: Rachel McIntosh; Rachel McIntosh; Roger Wong; Alexei Hay; Kip Meyer; Steve Mundinger; Bill Boatman; Michael Thompson ; Dennis MacDonald; Mariah Carey; Bill Boatman. A play on the title of Minnie Riperton's album PERFECT ANGEL, Mariah Carey's 12th career outing, MEMOIRS OF AN IMPERFECT ANGEL, sees the singer flexing her prodigious vocal gifts on 13 tracks structured like intimate conversations or entries in a private diary. Written and produced by Carey along with a host of longtime collaborators including Bryan-Michael Cox, Jermaine Dupri, The Dream, and Tricky Stewart, the album features the hit single "Obsessed" along with a cover of Foreigner's classic `80s ballad "I Want to Know What Love Is." Like many big-budget albums of the last years of the 2000s, Mariah Carey's Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel faced shifting release dates, all as the final product was tweaked in light of disappointing reactions to early singles, particularly the Eminem-baiting "Obsessed." Unlike many of those big-budget albums, including several made by Mariah herself, Memoirs isn't the product of a stable of producers and collaborators; it is almost entirely the work of The-Dream and Tricky Stewart, the team best known for their tracks for Rihanna. Certainly, there are echoes of "Umbrella" to be heard on Memoirs, just as there are elements of the gauzy "Touch My Body," The-Dream and Tricky Stewart's previous single for Mariah, although working with mainly one set of producers does give Memoirs a cohesion that can sometimes lapse into sameness, but not in an unpleasant fashion. Even if it doesn't smack of the confessional autobiography of the title, there's no denying that Memoirs is an album, not a collection of tracks, possessing its own flow and mood, which gives it a personality the slightly desperate E=MC2 lacked, even if it never manages to kick out a song that is all that distinctive on its own terms. Nevertheless, what it also lacks is the pandering, heavy-handed sexuality Mariah has relied upon too heavily this decade -- and in doing so, it feels age appropriate in a way she hasn't in a long time, despite a collection of silly, jumbled lyrics. All Memoirs needs to push it over the edge is a great pair of singles, and their absence does hurt the album a bit, but not enough to prevent it from being her most interesting album in a decade. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Rolling Stone (p.66) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "The result is Carey's most sonically and tonally coherent release, a mix of love ballads and sassy breakup anthems." Entertainment Weekly (p.56) - "[With] the brash synth kiss-off 'Obsessed' and a soaring cover of Foreigner's schmaltz-supreme ballad 'I Want to Know What Love Is.'" -- Grade: B Billboard (p.36) - "'The Impossible' takes its cue from early-'90s group Jodeci's `Forever My Lady.' Overall, Carey's throwback vibe on `Memoirs' is refreshing and much welcomed."

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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