E=MC¿¿

by Mariah Carey

Overview

Two weeks prior to the April 2008 release of E=MC2 -- Mariah Carey's tenth album and the sequel to her big 2005 comeback, The Emancipation of Mimi -- the diva broke Elvis Presley's record of being the solo artist with the most number one singles on the Billboard charts. Lots of publicity surrounded "Touch My Body" reaching number one, as well it should: busting an Elvis record is always news, but this particular record served team Mariah well, as it paints Carey as being a diva who's bigger and better than the rest. An unintentional side effect of this very record is that it also tacitly pointed out that Mariah has been around a long, long time: 18 years, to be exact, roughly two years shy of the two decades that it took Elvis to establish his record. Unlike Elvis -- or any other major artist who's been around for two decades, for that matter -- Carey seems determined not to look back, to exist in some kind of eternal now, never acknowledging that she has a past, unless she's wielding her divorce from her ex-husband/ex-record label chief Tommy Mottola for some kind of sympathy, something she does once again here via vague allusions to naivete and "violent times" on "Side Effects." Mariah refers to that separation so often that it's hard not to think of it as something recent but it happened a long, long time ago -- well over a decade prior to the release of E=MC2, to be precise -- but as the separation was the pivot point for Carey's career, it's easy to see why she keeps returning to it, even if the emotional heft of her singing about the pain has long since diminished. After that separation, Carey restyled herself as a relentlessly modern R&B diva, chasing every passing trend in a given year, a move that often kept her on the top of the charts -- apart from the post-millennial stumble of Glitter, of course -- but had the side effect of making Mariah a musician who became progressively less mature with each passing year, culminating in the hazy soft-porn fantasies of "Touch My Body," the single that broke Elvis' longstanding record and will likely only be remembered for that achievement. Like so much of Emancipation and E=MC2, which is a virtual replica of its predecessor in almost every way, "Touch My Body" is all about sound, rhythm, and texture and not so much about song, something that helps sustain Mariah Carey's run at the top the charts, but something that also pushes melodic hooks, and in the process singing, into the background. As Carey's multi-octave voice has always been her calling card, the one thing that even her biggest critics have grudgingly acknowledged as her unassailable strength, this is a little odd -- especially on the T-Pain duet "Migrate," where she succumbs to auto-tune -- but it not only makes Mariah modern, it also camouflages her slightly diminishing range, so it does have a dual purpose. Sometimes all this production is good and occasionally it's married to a full-fledged, hooky song, as on the excellent "I'm That Chick," a sleek slice of Off the Wall disco that's nearly giddy in its energy and melody, and perhaps on "I'll Be Lovin' U Long Time," which also has a lightness that so much of E=MC2 lacks. Everything else pushes the rhythm and bass to the forefront and mixes Mariah into the middle, so it becomes a wash of sound -- sound that is designed to be fashionable, but like so much fashion, it's tied to the time and dates quickly. Which is why it's misleading to judge Mariah based on her new record of possessing the most number one singles, as she's not about longevity, she's about being permanently transient, a characteristic E=MC2 captures all too well. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Product Details

Release Date:	01/22/2021
Label:	Decca / Def Jam / Mercury
UPC:	0602435176314
Rank:	41976

Tracks

Disc 1

1. Migrate
2. Touch My Body
3. Cruise Control
4. I Stay in Love
5. Side Effects
6. I'm That Chick
7. Love Story

Disc 2

8. I'll Be Lovin' U Long Time
9. Last Kiss
10. Thanx 4 Nothin'
11. O.O.C.
12. For the Record
13. Bye Bye
14. I Wish You Well
15. I Wish You Well

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Mariah Carey   Primary Artist,Vocals (Background)
T-Pain   Primary Artist,Featured Artist
Da Brat   Primary Artist,Vocals (Background)
Jeezy   Primary Artist,Featured Artist
Damian Marley   Primary Artist,Guest Artist,Featured Artist
Crystal Johnson   Vocals (Background)
Rick Ross   Featured Artist
Dante Santiago   Vocals (Background)
The-Dream   Featured Artist
Mary Ann Tatum   Vocals (Background)
Syience   Keyboards
Bishop Clarence Keaton   Guest Artist
Lynette Williams   Keyboards
Sade Austin   Vocals (Background)

Technical Credits

Shawn Stockman   Composer
Shawntae Harris   Composer
Shirley Elliston   Composer
Steven Stanley   Composer
Berry Gordy, Jr.   Composer
Swizz Beatz   Composer,Producer,Audio Production
Bernie Grundman   Mastering
B.J. Robinson   Composer
Bob West   Composer
Stargate   Producer,Audio Production
J. Jenkins   Composer
Lawrence Smith   Composer
L.A. Reid   Executive Producer
E. Jordan   Composer
Jalil Hutchins   Composer
Dylan Dresdow   Mixing Engineer
Ben Margulies   Composer
Wanya Morris   Composer
James Poyser   Composer,Producer
David Morales   Composer
Jay-Z   Composer
Robert Clivilles   Composer
Johnta Austin   Composer
T-Pain   Composer
June Shellene   Composer
Mariah Carey   Composer,Producer,Audio Production,Executive Producer
Rod Temperton   Composer
Sass Jordan   Composer
Sean Combs   Composer
Narada Michael Walden   Composer
Jermaine Dupri   Mixing,Composer,Producer,Mixing Engineer,Audio Production
Bernie Taupin   Composer
Nathan Morris   Composer
Walter Afanasieff   Composer
Randy Muller   Composer
Josh Houghkirk   Engineer,Mixing Assistant
Nate Hills   Composer,Producer
Kasseem Dean   Composer
Kamaal Fareed   Composer
Mikkel Storleer Eriksen   Composer,Engineer,Recording,Instrumentation
Adrian Belew   Composer
Tina Weymouth   Composer
David Cole   Composer
Hal Davis   Composer
Balewa Muhammad   Composer
Nick Banns   Engineer,Assistant Engineer
Willie Hutch   Composer
Brian Garten   Mixing,Engineer,Recording,Mixing Engineer
Jaycen Joshua   Mixing,Mixing Engineer
Da Brat   Composer
Manuel Seal, Jr.   Composer,Producer,Audio Production
James "Big Jim" Wright   Composer
will.i.am   Producer,Recording
Kuk Harrell   Engineer,Recording
Bryan-Michael Cox   Composer,Producer,Audio Production
Kenneth Edmonds   Composer
Christopher "Tricky" Stewart   Composer,Producer
Patrick Moten   Composer
Chris Frantz   Composer
Crystal Johnson   Composer
Elton John   Composer
C.J. Johnson   Composer
Mark DeBarge   Composer
Lincoln Chase   Composer
Phil Tan   Mixing,Mixing Engineer
A. Davis   Composer
Miguel Bustamante   Mixing Assistant
Tor Erik Hermanson   Instrumentation
Dave Pensado   Mixing,Mixing Engineer
Fabian Marasciullo   Mixing,Mixing Engineer
Damian Marley   Composer
DJ Toomp   Audio Production
Scott Marcus   Artist Coordination
The-Dream   Composer
James "Scrappy" Stassen   Engineer,Recording
Derrick Selby   Engineer,Recording
Kelly "Becky 4 Real" Sheehan   Engineer,Recording
Jay Jenkins   Composer
Michael McCary   Composer
Toomp   Producer
Tara Podolsky   A&R
John Fletcher   Composer
Michael Richardson   Management
Doug Joswick   Package Production
Paulinho Do Cavaco   Stylist
Mary Ann Tatum   Composer
Mario Sorrenti   Photography
Aldrin Davis   Composer
Ken "Supa Engineer" Duro   Mixing,Mixing Engineer
Shawn Thistlethwaite   Project Manager
Karen Kwak   A&R
John Horesco IV   Engineer,Recording
Benny Medina   Management
Carol Corless   Package Production
Caron Veazey   Product Manager
Gina Rainville   Management
Jonathan Benedict   Artist Coordination
Padraic Kerin   Recording
Charlotte Tilbury   Make-Up
Etterlene Jordan   Composer
Dave "Jam" Hall   Composer
Sidney Allen Johnson   Composer
B.M.C.   Instrumentation
Roque Jimenez   Hair Stylist
Melissa Ruderman   Management
Carlos Oyanedel   Assistant Engineer
Kendrick Dean   Composer
Mark Sudack   Management,Executive Producer
Tor Erik Hermansen   Composer
Faheem Najm   Composer
Adonis Shropshire   Composer
Keith Harris   Composer
Marcella Araica   Mixing,Mixing Engineer
Terius Nash   Composer,Producer
William Adams   Composer
Jeffrey Cohen   Composer
Scott Storch   Composer,Producer,Audio Production