Mariah Carey: "IT'S TIME" 👑

[jenglisbe]

Oct 22, 2024 14:54:50 GMT -5 colson said:

Lyrics but not the vocal cadence. She's singing WISY as if she's literally in a Daydream like most of that album.

True. Plus the lyrics have her in a sort of 'daydream' as she's transcending space and time, so it definitely works in that sense.

Anyway, another one of these with Mariah in it was just done:

[Dammn Baby]

This has to be one of her best live performances. She made sure no one else would EVER sing this song.

[Coco Villain Era]

Forever was one of her most unheralded gems in her catalog of music. The sound, the vocals the pristine tone. I also love how timeless it sounds even though it was from a older specific era of music.

[Coco Villain Era]

Mariah keep smoking the weed I love this energy and the adlibs MAMA ATE

[Dreams]

Oct 22, 2024 23:32:02 GMT -5 Coco Villain Era said:

Forever was one of her most unheralded gems in her catalog of music. The sound, the vocals the pristine tone. I also love how timeless it sounds even though it was from a older specific era of music.

!!!!!!!!!!! This whole post 💞
I live for the day she’ll bring this one back on her concerts. I’d love to hear it even as a snippet, with Daniel playing the piano and her just singing a verse and some of the chorus, like she did the song “Music Box” on the Caution tour.
“Forever” is so, so beautiful. As though it’s from an older specific era of music, yet still timeless, like you said. Put it next to, I don’t know, some 50s ballad, say “In The Still Of The Night” by The Five Satins, and it fits right in.

[felipe]

Oct 22, 2024 9:10:58 GMT -5 Ivy Leegue™ said:

Oct 22, 2024 7:21:40 GMT -5 felipe said:

Random question, but does Oh Santa sample Hey Mickey? I always thought it did, but couldn't find anything about it online or on the song's credits.

Nope!

Thanks. All these years I was sure it did, so I was surprised not to see it on the credits lol Guess they're just similar then.

[sundaymorningguy]

There was one point where she had like 4-5 high profile mentions of projects she is working on, and now, she has almost none of them on the radar anymore. She was working on a series with Lee Daniels based on her memoir: nothing. A new album: pushed to 2025 supposedly. The Butterfly Lounge: it was hot for a minute, now nothing. Someone’s Ugly Daughter: she made a point to really discuss this and finding her lead vocals and trying to bring that to fruition, now nothing aside from a recent oh yeah I should do that, but was probably a big deflect. Some of us like offerings other than holiday fare. I love ya girl, but I can only digest All I Want in so many ways before I’m like eh.

[jenglisbe]

Oct 23, 2024 10:47:08 GMT -5 sundaymorningguy said:

There was one point where she had like 4-5 high profile mentions of projects she is working on, and now, she has almost none of them on the radar anymore. She was working on a series with Lee Daniels based on her memoir: nothing. A new album: pushed to 2025 supposedly. The Butterfly Lounge: it was hot for a minute, now nothing. Someone’s Ugly Daughter: she made a point to really discuss this and finding her lead vocals and trying to bring that to fruition, now nothing aside from a recent oh yeah I should do that, but was probably a big deflect. Some of us like offerings other than holiday fare. I love ya girl, but I can only digest All I Want in so many ways before I’m like eh.

This isn't just a recent thing; this has been Mariah's career post-Tommy. Remember that at one point Merry Christmas was going to be a Broadway show, and at another point an HBO project. In 2004 she was supposed to sing the Olympics anthem, but that didn't happen. Along with the recent stuff you mentioned, there is whatever she was working on with Millie Bobby Brown. A lot of us assumed that was related to Someone's Ugly Daughter, and it still might be, but it could also be yet another project that hasn't been released. I don't think there is anyone on her team right now who can help keep her focused; Tommy's methods were bad, but one thing he did was keep her focused on her work.

Having said that, Mariah has put some work into non-holiday stuff. She did the new dance remixes for "Portrait" and "Rainbow's End," for example. Those obviously aren't the same as a new album, but it is work not related to the holidays.

Meanwhile, "Obsessed" continues to grow:

[The Black Bird]

Oct 23, 2024 12:05:58 GMT -5 jenglisbe said:

Meanwhile, "Obsessed" continues to grow:

At this point, Obsessed feels more like a #1 than Touch My Body. The longevity.

[Coco Villain Era]

[Coco Villain Era]

The setlist is out.

[#LisaRinna]

Oct 22, 2024 23:32:02 GMT -5 Coco Villain Era said:

Forever was one of her most unheralded gems in her catalog of music. The sound, the vocals the pristine tone. I also love how timeless it sounds even though it was from a older specific era of music.

BUT NOW WE SAID IT!

[JamaicaFunk²]

Is there any difference in her Xmas tour setlist this year?

[jenglisbe]

Oct 24, 2024 19:36:37 GMT -5 JamaicaFunk² said:

Is there any difference in her Xmas tour setlist this year?

Assuming that's the actual set list, in comparison to last year she's added/brought back "O Holy Night," "Charlie Brown Christmas," and "Miss You Most."
She's potentially dropped "Fall in Love at Christmas," "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," "Jesus Born on this Day," "One Child," and "Christmas Wrapping" (but some of those were pre-recorded or her band so they might still be in there).
"It's Like That" and "Fantasy" would be new, too. She had a lot more non-holiday songs last year, but they were in a big medley so we'll see how those are done this year.

[Dreams]

I somehow doubt that she pretty much gave the setlist away that way with no surprises saved for the actual shows; but if she did so, that setlist is… meh. Where’s “The Star”?!???

[God]

I've never seen her before so I'm sure to be content with whatever but

I'm ready for new music 😭😭😭

[#LisaRinna]

Oct 25, 2024 10:40:48 GMT -5 Dreams said:

Where’s “The Star”?!???

Right.

[shakemaki]

Got around to watching the whole Culturistas interview, wow that was great. They were both such lambs, it was heartwarming. Was hoping for a Memoirs love fest at some point in there, but alas it seems I will continue to be in the lamb minority of thinking it’s maybe second only to Butterfly from her…

[Coco Villain Era]

[shakemaki]

Well, at least Obsessed has certainly gotten its flowers by this point! And ofc we had Its a Wrap’s virality (my long-time fav on the album). I still think the album as a whole body of work though is quite overlooked.

[Coco Villain Era]

💜❤️ speaking of legends. RIP to another vocal queen. One of the greatest voices of our generation his catalog is deep 😍 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBjuBhigIET

[jenglisbe]

Oct 25, 2024 14:06:31 GMT -5 shakemaki said:

Well, at least Obsessed has certainly gotten its flowers by this point! And ofc we had Its a Wrap’s virality (my long-time fav on the album). I still think the album as a whole body of work though is quite overlooked.

It's wild how 2 albums in a row were stopped in their tracks by poor choices for a second single, seemingly because of Mariah and team trying to go with what had worked before (i.e. ballad as the second single) without considering that the quality of the songs wasn't on par with previous efforts and that ballads weren't in by the late 2000s.

E=MC2 had her biggest debut ever, and she of course had a lot momentum from TEOM even if it had been over 2 years since that era ended. "TMB" did well enough to at least hold some momentum, but then they went with 'ballad-with-a-beat' "Bye Bye" and momentum stopped (the quickie marriage didn't help either).

At that point Mariah had lost a lot of momentum, but in the end "Obsessed" did pretty well by hanging around and ultimately going top 10 and 2x platinum (at that time). Mariah was in position to have at least a mid-sized hit with the next single, except for some reason they went with "I Want to Know What Love Is" despite that not fitting the 2009 music climate at all. To be honest that album in general didn't quite fit what was going on at the time, but "Standing O" or maybe "Ribbon" should have been next as 'bangers' were the way to go.

[shakemaki]

Yes, I Want to Know What Love Is as the 2nd single is the most baffling single choice of her career, and I don’t think it’s close. I mean… just why? All I can guess is she quite literally didn’t care about hits at that time and just wanted to push the song she liked?

Ribbon, Standing O, More Than Just Friends, The Impossible, even It’s a Wrap were all solid follow up options to Obsessed. They would have made total sense coming off the success of that too, very cohesive.

[jenglisbe]

Oct 25, 2024 14:22:41 GMT -5 shakemaki said:

All I can guess is she quite literally didn’t care about hits at that time and just wanted to push the song she liked?

Mariah pretty much would always rather push a song she wrote as opposed to a cover. I think she has said Nick is the one who suggested she do "IWTKWLI." If she wanted it to be a single, my guess is it would have been as a way to honor him and their still-new marriage. Still, she could have done that by having it as an AC-only single, or by having it as like a fourth single. It didn't make any sense for it to be the second single.

Mariah also had diminishing returns in general with her cover songs. I've liked a lot of them, but she really was on a downslide commercially with them:

• "I'll Be There" - #1 on Hot 100, top 10 in Europe
• "Without You" - #3 on Hot 100 and #1 worldwide
• "Open Arms" - #4 in the UK but not a major hit elsewhere
• "I Still Believe" - #4 on Hot 100 but mostly off sales and not a huge hit in general
• "Against All Odds" - solo version not a hit, duet version was a big hit in Europe due to Westlife
• "Bringin' on the Heartbreak" - not a hit anywhere

Mariah hadn't had a worldwide hit with a cover song since "Without You" in 1994, so I don't know why Mariah and her team were still looking to a cover song as a single in 2009. Plus, as we've said, ballads weren't big in the late 2000s so that made the choice even more puzzling.

[shakemaki]

Ooh, I didn’t know Nick was involved, curse him lol. I think also maybe her team was hellbent on the 2nd single must be a ballad thing, and Memoirs simply isn’t a ballad album. The options were pretty much that or Angels Cry (another terrible single choice that era). You’d think they’d have learned their lesson from that blueprint with Bye Bye though.

[Positive Tension]

I remember "IWTKWLI" was getting a lot of attention at the music listening parties (or at least one I read about), and I have to admit it did stand out on the album, as lot of it was too samey for me.
She also went back to her 1990-1993 look around the same time, so I guess they were trying to go for another "Without You." It was a total 180 from "Obsessed" and didn't sound like anything on the radio, so while I could see it making sense in some markets, it was definitely the wrong choice in the US.

Tbh, outside of "Obsessed," I don't think anything else from Memoirs would've been a hit. While I respect that she went against the grain, she could've peppered in a few more songs that were on trend and radio-ready.

By MIAM, she and her team were still bad at picking the singles. I'm still baffled that they chose "You're Mine" as the single after the several month long break from "#Beautiful."

[jenglisbe]

Oct 25, 2024 19:06:16 GMT -5 Positive Tension said:

By MIAM, she and her team were still bad at picking the singles. I'm still baffled that they chose "You're Mine" as the single after the several month long break from "#Beautiful."

To me it seemed like Mariah just really loved the 'ballad with a beat' thing and maybe saw it as her trademark at that point? There was definitely too much released in that lane. After "We Belong Together" was huge, she had diminishing returns with "DFAU" (a #1 but off momentum), "Bye Bye" (top 20 but a disappointment), "I Stay In Love" (flop), "Angels Cry" (flop), and yeah then "You're Mine" (flop). They aren't all exactly the same, but they're in the same wheelhouse. Mariah said it herself, though - lighting don't strike the same place twice.

[sundaymorningguy]

I think she could have had some incredibly strong enduring R&B hits from Memoirs. I think Up Out My Face could have been a decent follow-up to Obsessed. Then, she could have slowed it down with More Than Just Friends, HATEU, or Angels Cry after. To be honest, I don’t know that Mariah was in a stable place with Nick Cannon in general. I think that relationship had many ups and downs that really affected her thought process on things.

[Coco Villain Era]

More Than Just Friends is immaculate hit that wasn't peridot.

[shakemaki]

This is what I love about Memoirs. It’s hard to talk about the “highlights” because nearly the whole album ends up revealing itself as a highlight once you sit with it. It’s also one of the best albums at sounding remarkably cohesive without the songs being too samey to each other that I’ve ever heard. That’s why I always call it Butterfly’s spiritual successor, bc that album mostly does a similar thing.

And yeah, I do think more hits were there following up on Obsessed. There were really so many options with the right push that probably would have seen similar success to Obsessed, even if nothing “smashed.”