Amazon.co.uk Review
Linda Ronstadt was America's sweetheart of the 1970s, because she was able to combine a pretty face, a pretty voice and a safe personality. Her songs might be full of big notes and high emotions, but they satisfied every predictable expectation of a love ballad or good-time rocker. Mariah Carey is America's sweetheart of the 1990s for the exact same reasons.
Music Box topped the charts, yielding number-one singles like "Dreamlover" and "Hero." The titles, one a hollow Minnie Riperton knock-off and the other a stiff Barbra Streisand imitation, are tip-offs to Carey's reliance on untethered fantasy (she's the fantasizer in the lyrics and the fantasy object in the videos). These songs, co-written and co-produced like most of the album by Walter Anasieff and Carey herself, are constructed to show off her dizzying soprano, not to provide an original approach to a well-worn subject. Even when she gets a strong ballad to sing, like her current singles--Babyface's "Never Forget You" or Badfinger/Nilsson's "Without You"--she overdoes the self-pity bit so much that the song loses its dramatic tension.
--Geoffrey Himes
CD Description
Mariah Carey's ascension to the top of the charts is an affirmation of her deep affection for the roots of popular music, to wit, gospel and R&B. She's not the first pop vocalist to find commercial and artistic bliss in black music, but her efforts are among the most heartfelt and convincing. And with the surehanded support of contemporary music's most creative producers and songwriters, Carey has developed a smooth, brassy sound signature all her own.
What makes it all happen is that luminous, vaulting voice, one of the surest most impassioned instruments in all of pop, capable of leaps in register most vocalists can't even imagine, yet alone execute. Her dark ornaments and trilling upper register cries on"Dream Lover" make this plain. On power pop ballads like "Hero" and "Anytime You Need A Friend"--with their gospelish "To dream the impossible dream/The greatest love of all" cadences--Carey's over-the-top expressive range sparks these arrangements to one emotional catharsis after another.
It isCarey's new found restraint--reining in her voice to suit the emotional fabric of each tune--that marks her growing maturity. The lush understatement of her singing and Walter Afanasieff's charts on the title tune, allow the tender grace of the song's lyrics to shine through--without superfluos vocal acrobatics. Ultimately it's Carey's reserves of vocal power, barely constrained on "Never Forget You" (with Babyface), that brings her fans back time and again.