Search and Destroy: Mariah Carey

2020 ilm asked about 2001 ilm:

(gif didn’t load, put a nail in it)

she’s no annie

This is like saying Sally Rooney is no George Eliot.

it's fun to watch them come around on her when "we belong together" started smashing

big search: memoirs of an imperfect angel; caution

Caution still sounds marvelous.

otm, such a great album

"a no no" is so much fun

oh my god, i hadn't seen the video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sap-GTtCiU

No one seems to have brought up the revelation that Mariah secretly wrote, recorded, and sang backing vocals on an alternative rock album in the midst of recording Daydream.

Fun fact: I did an alternative album while I was making Daydream 👀 Just for laughs, but it got me through some dark days. Here's a little of what I wrote about it in #TheMeaningOfMariahCarey 🤟 S/O to my friend Clarissa who performs the lead w/ me as a hidden layer #Chick #TMOMC pic.twitter.com/Re23t5whcd

— Mariah Carey (@MariahCarey) September 27, 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aekQTU_pRaE

in the least surprising opinion in the history of time I think this rules

Mariah's now saying there are versions of these tracks where she sings lead.

this was on beavis and butthead. probably the best promotion it received.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1pCtaeo3_0

until today obviously

That video’s awful, but the song’s not bad. Has anyone here listened to the full album?

(Tried to find a contemporaneous review, but no dice.)

not to get all serious but this is a really good example of just how easily a lot of '90s pop-alternative albums fell into the memory hole, regardless of stature or major-label status

(that said, it is, uh, findable via the usual means)

I wonder how much the single copy on Discogs was going for, prior to Sunday's reveal (it's currently at $350.00).

I also wonder how fast that seller scrambled to the computer to adjust the price, LOL

That's a new listing but one sold a couple of days ago for a few quid.

I’ve listened to half of it so far on YouTube, with interest. 1995 alt-rock is dead center of my musical universe, so I’m very well-versed in the milieu. The songs are good, and well-written. Of course it has sort of a generic/anonymous feel, which isn’t surprising.

Man, I don't know. Mid-90's alt rock was also very much my cup of tea in those days and I feel like it's pretty unremarkable and not at all surprising that this feel by the wayside with everything else in this vein back then. Which doesn't minimize the "holy shit" factor of Mariah's involvement, but it's not doing a lot for me.

"fell"

I really wish I could find a CMJ review on Google books or something.

thought this was a really good piece:

https://www.theringer.com/music/2020/9/29/21493233/mariah-carey-unified-theory-the-meaning-of-mariah

this was on beavis and butthead. probably the best promotion it received.

Ahh, that's why this song and video seemed so familiar. Not because I necessarily saw it on Beavis and Butthead at the time, but because of my more recent experiences of going down the rabbit hole of watching forgotten music videos that were played on Beavis and Butthead, because "90s Videos Played on Beavis and Butthead" is totally my aesthetic.

I feel like that article is trying to make me feel old!

She has transformed from mousy girl-next-door (do you even recognize this version of her from 1993?)

xp I actually couldn't find B&B watching Chick on Youtube but it's probably deep in there somewhere.

There's so little about this album online (only 4 pages of Google hits if you search chick "someone's ugly daughter" -mariah), you would almost think it's a hoax, if not for the apparent authenticity of some of those hits!

Present-day Mariah Carey is in the same category as Bruce Springsteen for me: interviews are often very interesting, zero interest in hearing the music.

xp Like, Sony must have baaaarely released it. I wonder how much radio play "Malibu" got (if any).

The top Amazon review is interesting:

C. Hughes
5.0 out of 5 stars Chick was fun.
Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2015
Verified Purchase
I loved making this CD- glad (a couple of) people are enjoying it. There is a secret ingredient ;) CDD

Can't find it, but wasn't there a thing that went around tumblr (inspired by the rumored existence of this album, I think) about how people who think Kurt Cobain wrote Live Through This are overlooking that it was actually Mariah?

I didn't find anything in Lexis Nexis from before this weekend.

If there had been any knowledge of Mariah's involvement in the Chick album prior to this weekend, the price for it would've gone up a long time ago. This was new news.

Find it impressive she managed to sit on this secret for 25 years.

Found it! (in this old tweet I liked)

this is mine pic.twitter.com/T0WSyfVxTx

— Peyton Thomas (@peytonology) August 6, 2018

Doesn't mention Chick specifically, but I wondered why this news seemed familiar. Not sure what interview is being cited, though.

lol @ that final point

My bff has ordered The Meaning Of Mariah and is listening to it as an audiobook rn and says it is completely amazing, that Mariah has gone through some unspeakably insane shit and she retells this stories with an "...awkward! lol" kind of off-handedness that is devastating. He's gonna lend me the hard copy when it arrives and I can't wait

I really wish I could find a CMJ review on Google books or something.

― I Hate the Aedes (morrisp), Tuesday, September 29, 2020 11:54 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Billboard reviewed the single.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ei8SjAHXcAAMrDs?format=png&name=small

Nice find!! (and pretty on-point blurb)

Nice work, jaymc!

I didn't find it! Annie Zaleski posted it on Twitter.

Those cultural refs are perfectly aligned with what bands like Bunnygrunt were singing about that same year ('70s kitsch, cheesy TV, etc.)

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/