Anyone with a radio remembers this verse from "We Belong Together" in 2005:
I can't sleep at night When you are on my mind Bobby Womack's on the radio Singing to me 'If you think you're lonely now' Wait a minute This is too deep, too deep I gotta change the station
Bobby Womack, The Poet, 1981
Soul and R&B singer Bobby Womack passed away on June 27th at age 70. As with so many other artists, Mariah provides a gateway to this amazing singer/songwriter of the 1960s, 70s, 80s, and beyond. Enjoy the next phase, Bobby!
Seems like everybody wants to weigh in on MIAMTEC these days. Obviously inspired by this blog, designer and important plastic person Dontella Versace has now thrown her hat into the ring. In a Vogue exclusive, Donatella opens up about what Mims has meant to her, favorite tracks from the new album, and what it's like to be friends with Mariah...The Conclusive Caboose (< new thing I just invented).
Mariah Carey is such an important part of my life, it feels like I've known her forever.
Word! With ya so far, Donz.
The first time I met her was at one of my fashion shows. Straightaway, she made me laugh, and I knew immediately that we'd be friends.
What did she saaaaaay? Need the deets! Probably something like, "Have you SEEN what Thalía is wearing??" (*Insider Tommy Mottola joke for the lambs).
A few years later, Mariah had a day off from her world tour, and she flew from Sweden to Milan, just to come see one of my shows. That season, Beyoncé was also my guest, and the two together caused a sensation. Mario Testino was there, and he said he felt like he was in heaven.
Straight namedroppin'.
We had a party that night in the Palazzo Versace which was pure magic. Mariah let her hair down, dancing and chatting with everyone.
Wheeeeeeeeee!
Like every Mariah fan in the world, I've been desperate for the release of her new album, Me.I Am Mariah… The Elusive Chanteuse. She is a maverick, a woman who doesn't follow the rules, so I wasn't surprised when she released the album in her own way. With this album, Mariah seems to write her own life.
Agree except please don't say "maverick." I should never be confused as to whether someone is referring to Mims or Sarah Palin.
Donatella then goes on to mention some of her favorite tracks:
on "You Don't Know What to Do" ft. Wale: "I love how in this track Mariah's vocals contrast with Wale's rapping, it's like poetry." This reviewer says: have you listened to much hip-hop? You might like it!
on "Meteorite:" "'Meteorite' is so fantastic. It is upbeat, and it is fabulous." This reviewer says: Actually it is the weakest track on the whole album. Look out for a future blog about "Meteorite" and musical pablum.
on "One More Try:" "...I feel that Mariah really understands every word that [George Michael] has written. At times her voice is angelic, at times pleading and then, towards the end, it goes into a crescendo reaching amazing heights. I'm sure that George would be very proud of Mariah's version of his much-loved song." This reviewer says: Fair enough, plus props for not trying to change "uptown boy" to "uptown chick" or some such nonsense. Enjoy.
As I'm sure anyone with a background in dance, skating, or gymnastics can tell you, there are certain songs that just cry out to be moved to. The flowing movements that are possible with skates on are the perfect companion for a (preferably '70s-inspired) fun, laidback beat. Happily, Mims' oeuvre is full of such movable music. One song that has caught my ear from MIAMTEC lately is "You Don't Know What to Do" ft. Wale, a disco-y soul extravaganza that is a confection for the ears and has me longing to tie on some roller skates even though I can only awkwardly clunk around. But I feel so free!
The vibe of this song feels similar to that of "I'll Be Lovin' U Long Time" from 2007's E=MC2, a party favor of an album that seemed like a congratulatory gift to herself after the massive success of Emancipation. Easy, breezy, sunny, drunk summer roller skating. Yes.
Funnily enough, there is actually a Mims video that features roller skating, although the song doesn't make me want to clunk it up like the the above two do: the "Heartbreaker (Remix)" ft. Da Brat and Missy Elliot. Watching the video again today, I (of course) appreciated it on fresh levels. First, Mims is so beautiful, and 1999 was really when she was coming into her own. Out from under the thumb of Tommy Mottola, the late '90s saw our girl frequenting clubs and sucking on lollipops. Innocent, carefree days! Second, the remix video offers its own spin on the video for the original song, featuring Mims and her evil double wrestling in goo (?). Thirdly there is an obligatory car wash scene (makes Jessica Simpson look like an amateur) that features Snoop Dogg casually surveying this spectacle from the driver's seat, a nice touch as he's not featured on the track but his song "Ain't No Fun (If the Homies Can't Have None)"is liberally sampled.Happy Friday everyone.
I missed a momentous anniversary yesterday. A fellow lamb reminded me that it was exactly 24 years ago -- June 12, 1990 -- that Mariah Carey (the album) was unleashed upon the world. It would eventually reach the top of the charts and spawn four #1 singles: "Vision of Love," "Love Takes Time," "Someday," and "I Don't Wanna Cry."
Mariah Carey, "Vision of Love," 1990
What to say about this album now, nearly a quarter of a century later? There are several highlights for me.
"Vision of Love" is still one of the greatest Mims songs of all time. Any doubts that a tremendous new talent was on the scene are dispelled at about the one minute mark ("Prayed through the NIIIIIIGHTS...."). Also, the video features Mims on a swing holding a fluffy cat, lonely and abandoned in a black bodysuit.
Desperate and so alone A victim of society No one really wants to see
Some of us don't even wonder Some of us don't even care Couldn't we just help each other Isn't there enough to share
#SOCIALISM
"Vanishing" is a gorgeous piano ballad that is also one of the strongest of her entire oeuvre. Simply lovely performance. The above-mentioned lamb has favorably compared "Vanishing and "I Wish You Well" off of E=MC2, a topic that probably merits a future post.
"Prisoner" -- more Taylor Dayne with an embarrassing "rap." Definitely merits a future post.
My friend Kristi had this album on cassette before I did but I bought it with my allowance after hearing it at her house. Eleven-year-old me used to prop myself on my windowsill and serenade the front lawn with "Vanishing." At that time we had an orange cat who used to climb trees and hang out on the roof of our house. During these sessions he would often come and peer over the gutter to check from whence these dulcet tones emerged.
I was texting recently with a wonderful friend who has been doing some serious listening to MIAMTEC. We were comparing notes last night, and she shared this bit of analysis:
(Obviously this friend shares some of my most deeply held beliefs.) The song she is referring to is "Supernatural," an ode to #dembabies buried deep in the middle of MIAMTEC. I remember a time when I was wary that Mims' next studio album would see her divesting herself of her trademark, intricately produced pop/hip-hop tales of unrequited love to instead mushily wax poetic about mom stuff, but I shouldn't have doubted her. She had my back! She has restrained herself to this single ode to reproduction. Giggles and spoken word from #dembabies are interspersed with some blandly pleasant lyrics about a love as "beautiful as the sun" (yawn). It's one of those songs that, while not a favorite, I still find myself singing along to but not in a way that distracts me from my normal train of thought, like being pissed off about work. Unfortunately, the last 20 seconds are gratuitously given over to toddler dialogue, but you know what, I'm glad she's happy.
Incidentally, the "top review" on Amazon for MIAMTEC includes this misguided musing:
9. "Supernatural" featuring Dembabies is a soothing ballad that actually sounds a little jarring considering the sexy sound interpolated with cooing babies but it's a good song and reminds us what a loving mother Mariah has become. 7/10 Uhhhhhhhhh IT'S ABOUT MATERNAL LOVE. Also you're using "interpolated" incorrectly. Anyway, we all know that the only song where baby sounds are appropriate is this masterpiece, where the baby giggle becomes the subtlest of warnings.
Lately a snippet from the new song "Money ($/*...)" ft. Fabolous has become lodged in my ear:
And I dream the impossible dream When you and I are alone
It kept repeating, calling back to some other Mims lyric...but what? With 14 studio albums plus a host of other singles and collaborations, there's a lot of material to pick through when you're on the trail of a vague memory of another line.
Mariah Carey, "I Still Believe," 1999
Finally this weekend it hit me. The song I was thinking of is one of my favorite remixes and a little-known gem: the "I Still Believe/Pure Imagination (Damizza Remix)" ft. Krayzie Bone and Da Brat. In particular, this:
Baby I had a dream And it's more than my imagination Because I still believe we belong together
Tucked in as the last track on the "I Still Believe" single from 1999, it's a standout deep cut that deserves better than its current relative obscurity. As I believe the best remixes do, it takes its source material as a starting point only, becoming something completely different but equally as engaging through new vocals, collaborative input, and in this case, a fantastic interpolation of -- wait for it -- "Pure Imagination" from the 1971 musical Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory. Krayzie Bone lends his laidback flow -- part of what made 1997's "Breakdown" the finest Mims track around -- to the mix, and then Da Brat does whatever it is that she does (note: a full post devoted to the Da Brat is necessarily forthcoming). One of my favorite features of the track is that Mims' vocals aren't pushing at either end of her range -- it's all very comfortable within her capabilities, relaxed even, and reminds listeners of how she's such a damn good singer, plain and simple.
Let us set aside for the moment the unskilled Photoshop (MS Paint?) work here, and focus on the content. Mims's supposed surprise and unrest stems from the appearance of 20-year-old songstress Ariana Grande on the music scene. Grande had a hit with "The Way" ft. Mac Miller in early 2013, a catchy single built around a piano hook that always reminds me of Fat Joe's and Ashanti's "What's Luv" (a 2001 stone-cold classic). She released her debut album Yours Truly in June 2013. She is capable of producing whistle register. These are the facts.
What I realized when I listened to her latest single, "Problem" ft. Iggy Azalea, is that Grande's voice, while impressive, is limited -- from what I'm hearing it lacks flexibility, warmth, and expressiveness. She doesn't -- or can't? -- play around with her voice to produce different moods. I have a friend at the gym who always says, when we are required to run, that she has one speed -- doesn't matter if it's a sprint, a warm-up, a mile, whatever. One speed. This is how I feel about Ariana Grande's voice, and this is why it is utterly ridiculous to insinuate that Grande will ever match Mims in vocal and musical quality, the end, forever.
That being said, I do love "The Way." Like, a lot. The video is amusing. At the end, there is an incredibly awkward kiss between Grande and Miller that seems completely apropos of nothing. I read an interview with her where she said that "the director felt like there should be a kiss." You are a person, Ariana Grande. YOU HAVE AGENCY AS A PERSON.
Listening for the first time to the new album of a beloved artist is such a fraught experience. It's a greedy, grabby, grasp-y kind of listening -- one is trying to inhale the music, it seems, and instantly familiarize oneself with it. There is a good deal of fear. Will this be ridiculous?Will this sound like the _____ I know and love? Probably the greatest first listen of my life was The Strokes' second album, Room on Fire. When a group's first album is as perfect and iconic as Is This It, there is much at stake in album #2, and Room on Fire delivered in a big way.
I had some good driving time over the weekend to finish up with that inhaling-phase of MIAMTEC and move on to more familiar and comfortable listening. The song that seems to have jelled most quickly for me is "Money ($/*...) ft. Fabolous." It's an easy and breezy listen; the vocals aren't demanding, and Mims has room to play around vocally, finding a phrase or a bit of melody and then exploring it. Fabolous, to whom I last paid attention in 2001 when he released "Can't Deny It," is a good foil for the warmth of Mims's vocals here, laying down some rhymes in an effective but thoroughly unobtrusive way.
The song's horn hook comes from a 1970 recording by Dan Satch & His Atomic 8 Band of Aba entitled "Alabeke." The cut is representative of a genre called West African Highlife which originated in Ghana and eventually made its way to Nigeria, where Satch is from (Aba is a Nigerian town).This is all new knowledge to me, so check here for more info on Highlife and here for details on Dan Satch in particular. Take a listen to the original and jazz up your morning -- you will not be disappointed.
Then check out the Mims track -- love how by the end she's just singing the horn part.
