Love Didn't Actually Take That Much Time

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.

"There's Got to Be a Way" -- is this Mims' only stab at social justice?

A broken man without a home

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.

"You Need Me" -- straight up Taylor Dayne.

"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.