Search and Destroy: Mariah Carey

&, yeah, to piggyback SS's endorsement of Pope Dang, "Vision of Love" makes her first album.

May I direct you to "Knockin' Boots" by Candyman, in which he decides to "break off a bottle of Asti Spumanti, pop off the top, and rock with my posse."

Yeah, I pulled that "five year" thing out of the buttocks - I'd love to know when it ("Bacardi / party") first popped up, tho.

Destroy: "Hero," "The Beautiful Ones" cover w/ Sisqo

Most of these ballads I'm bitching about, now that I think about it, are more from R&B-influenced folks (cf. teenypop) than from actual R&B artists (though I'm not sure such a distinction means a damn thing).

Conclusion: I'm full of it; carry on.

Sorta on-topic (& I swear I've brought this up before): there's a bit during The Kings of Comedy where Steve Harvey goes off on how no one does love songs anymore, & it's all blustery dick-swinging bullshit (my words, not his). & then they put on some Teddy Pendergrass, & most of the people in the crowd stand up, & SH is yelling at people that haven't moved - "STAND THE F*CK UP!" (again, my words) - & he's kicking over the small endtable on stage & the mic stand & he's FEELING IT, lipsynching and swaying, and Spike Lee cuts to women in the audience, clutching their hands to their chest and singing & swaying along. &, yeah, he might have a point, but then love's changed a bit, too, Steve, so the woo you pitch isn't going to be the woo your son or daughter pitches (though it's coming from the same place).

Is "ballad" (musically speaking) a matter of tempo & sound or of subject matter?

Um, OK?

yeah the mary j version of "hate it or love it" came on the dancefloor at this hip hop club in Seattle while I was there with my newfound EMP pals and it was lush and pretty damn heart-tuggin' -- a great song . . .

I really wish that people would actually have some clue as to what they were talking about before uccumbing to the impluse to say stupid, ignorant bullshit.

also, going along with what i wrote on the blog about mimi, "it's like that" isn't even a mariah song -- it's such a mary j track! (the weirdest thing on the disc is jermaine dupri's nelly impersonation on "got your number").

the aversion to ballads among (GENERALIZATION ALERT!) white R&B/hip-hop listeners comes from being beholden to only the beat, and not considering the lyrics, tone, subject matter that those productions deliver. the bangers are where you lose yourself in a crowd, but the ballads are where you lose yourself in yourself...

I think this is a good explanation, Jams, but I also think it smacks of injunctions as to how to listen 'correctly' (your generalization point is noted, though!). I'll freely admit to preferring the beat straight up, but I would prefer this most of the time in just about ANYTHING, r'n'b or not. Reflective musical introspection from where I sit more often than not relies on music providing/enabling that mood rather than lyrics, tone etc. Not universally, sure, but consistently and much more often than not for me at least.

Oh, and Mariah Carey is viscous, foul-smelling stain on the already soiled underwear of vomitous popular culture.

Um, rather xpostish.

I don't understand what you mean at all. "It's Like That" has been all over radio and TV for months and "We Belong Together" is just now starting to get airplay. the latter may have been a teaser single before the former was released but it's currently being treated as the follow-up.

also I love how Eric Roberts has continued his streak of weird video cameos from "Mr. Brightside" into both of the new Mariah vids. she leaves him at the alter in "We Belong Together"!

Pitchfork talked to a few people about the recording/release of the Chick album: https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/the-story-behind-mariah-careys-secret-90s-alt-rock-album/