Butterfly

Not unpleasant, and I can see how R&B fans would like this, but it's not for me. Every track sounds exactly the same. Mariah doesn't really sing songs so much as just moan scales.

She has such an incredible voice and such average songs

World class voice (5) and sub par songs (2) IMO.

Cars crashing, the sound of metal twisting, two pie tins rubbed together, nails across a blackboard- all these are more enjoyable noises.

Try To Listen To A Non-Christmas Album Without Thinking Of Christmas: Impossible Edition. It's got chimes. It's got Mariah Carey. It's got P Diddy. It sucks.

It's pretty bad. It fits every cheesy 90s stereotype, even the guy in the background whispering *MC* and *Break it down*. The only redeeming factor is it gave me a laugh

I know she has an amazing voice, but I find it jarring when she (or anyone) goes really high with loads of notes added in and she isn't even singing words - essentially just showing off. Also, pop r&b is probably the only genre I find virtually no enjoyment in. I don't care if millions of people love this album, objectivity can do one. 4.5/10

More whining and oooOOoOooOoos than words.

I don't think I realized how much 90s r&b was used in Disney movies credits but this really brought me back to childhood. It's definitely a genre I can't totally get into but none the less this album is a gem. Breakdown is my favorite. But how can we get Fourth of July to be an actual holiday classic?

Music to a late-night cuddle.

Almost 1 hour of Mariah Carey? That is...at least, unexpected. A good album if you want to listen to the same song for 50 minutes. That clean and inoffensive hip-hop/pop/soul mix does not mean anything in the end, but I assume that there are some nice songs for some busy days when you won't turn off your mind and do not think or enjoy the music at all.

Mimi's best album by fat, Emancipation might tip her crown but for now, I am a Butterfly stan. Lead single is one of the best songs about (sea-men_ ever and her vocals are incomparable Breakdown deserved to go diamond, I love the layering and the verses, Mariah's pen goes as hard as ever on this album and it's so cohesive and vital to her imperial era. Definitely a leg up from Daydream But surprisingly my favourite song is Fly Away reprise, David Morales popped off with the house remix, something for the gays and girls to dance to in the summertime I see. Happy Pride everyone. That's a real fucking legacy to leave. No notes. Not a single skip.

Like an hour of Disney credits music.

Musical pollution. In the case of the people vs. Mariah Carey, this is evidence for the prosecution.

Not really a huge fan of the whole diva thing (it sounds too much like when people sing the Star-Spangled Banner and they feel compelled to go "AND THE ROCKETS' RED GLAAAAAEEOUUOOAAIIIEEEEEUUUUUER" for some reason). Also not a huge rap guy. Best song: Close My Eyes, which was the only one I really liked and wouldn't be out of place on a Zero 7 album.

amazing album

Loved the sample from Mobb deep's song (don't know the original sample)

Mariah Carey, pop darling, is known for her silky smooth voice which has graced 17 albums thus far. This her 5th album. Do you want to know something I didn't know? Carey is credited as the PRODUCER for this album! He made these songs!! All this time I thought she was a pretty face with a voice being used by other producers in the game, but no! She's the songwriter, producer, did her own background vocals too. That's hilarious. Anyway, this album marks a turning point in her discography (from what I read). She pivoted from a more watered-down adult contemporary pop sound to a more hip-hop + R&B sound. This is evident in Honey, the album's opening track. Unfortunately, Honey is also the strongest track as the rest of the album falls back into slow jams that are just okay. It's a bit disappointing because it feels like I listened to the same song in 10 or 11 different ways, just not very engaging. Mariah Carey is a wonderful voice that is delegated to the same shtick over and over and over again. This is also a divorce album, so maybe it's warranted. Marvin Gaye did it better, in my opinion.

There have always been great vocalists - but traditionally it's understood the vocals serve the song by complimenting the music or telling a story. Ideally both. There were vacuous warblers before Mariah, who treated the vocal track like a 1980's hair metal guitar solo. (Whitney turned to the dark side on Bodyguard, for example). But Mariah really nailed that "listen to the notes I can hit - and praise me!" Sadly it really connected. Girls across the world sang her songs into their hairbrushes, and her influence is still obvious at every singing talent show anywhere across the world. Her voice is a beautiful and powerful force. If only it could be used for good.

Well I just listened to an hour of syrupy nonsense. Mariah just makes noises and ooohs and aaaws her way through this drivel while some faceless backing band play soulless music. Every now and then some random guy will shout "oh yeah!" or something equally inane in the background. Truly appalling and an affront to musicality in every way. The vocal performance is like she's practising in the shower in an absent-minded way, rather than actually singing on something that would be released to the public.

Another place, another time - to be honest too tied up with work and business to really get the most out of Mariah’s beautiful whistling voice but undoubtedly she is God

Favorite tracks: Honey, Butterfly, My All, The Roof (Back in Time), Fourth Of July, Babydoll, Outside Least favorite tracks: The Beautiful Ones 9/10

This is my wheelhouse! Loved hearing some R&B; takes me right back to my high school days.

6/3 Mariah's golden voice over flawlessly executed blends of R&B and Hip-Hop production. Standout Tracks: Honey, Butterfly, The Roof (Back In Time), Breakdown, Babydoll, Fly Away (Butterfly Reprise)

There’s some really good tracks on this thing. Very mellow, the group vocals and harmonies are really nice, I think some songs feel maybe a tiny bit redundant. Babydoll is a standout. Feels so sexy and groovy. Honestly I had a great time with this lol

In my opinion Mariah Carey's Butterfly doesn't signify her apex, but her decline. Butterfly is the point that she starts falling victim to the 'Diva' personality that would consumer her. The problem is, most of the music on this album is not diva-esque. Why is on this list? I'm not sure when her earlier albums are more representative of her influence. Here she's just a harmonizer that works with the 'Make-It-Big' writers and producers of the era that stumbled upon a formula for hit records. She has the hit records, but the quality of her music is behind her at this point. 2.5/5.

Spotify. Fave song “Honey”. Give me the singles.

Once again, review deleted.. Something something waa-aaa-ah-ey-eyey-eye-aa-lll paper music to me but pleasant enough. Who chooses to listen to this?

Fairly bog standard 90s r&b asides from superfans don't think anyone is still listening to this. Totally inoffensive stuff 2*

The Roof Shook Ones Part II sample 🔥, otherwise a very well produced album and Mariah Carey obviously has an incredible voice. Just not the type of music for me

amazing spectacular never the same totally unique

C’est juste plate, ça devient vite de la musique de background de centre d’achat

Go girl give us ✨️nothing✨️ I'm not a fan of Mariah's apart from her iconic Christmas song. She is undeniably talented but this album was such a snoozefest Someone get this girl some caffeine and belt out them notes like I know she can. Instead she just kinda yuuuuuhhuhuhhhuhh'd all over the place Wasn't as bad as I had expected tbh but it does lose a star due to the fact it was too damn long 2 ⭐️

Been a while since I’ve quoted my wife’s reactions here, so I’ll throw in a review-in-progress from the car: “This sounds like H&M music. Who would go to see this in concert?” I would buy a reasonably-priced T-shirt to this album. Clearly a painstakingly-machined exemplar of its genre, I applaud Carey’s vocal aerobatics while finding the music vapid.

She's definitely a great singer. And she knows it. But I don't think that necessarily translates to good music, in the same way that I don't think Joe Satriani's music is a good listen, or why I'd rather watch Cordarelle Patterson run a return than watch Usain Bolt run a 100 m. Bolt is obviously the better sprinter, and one of the greatest athletes ever. But the context matters. The way it works with other elements. And Carey shows off "range" technically, but artistically and conceptually, this is a very limited album. I never wanted to just turn it off, but I never really engaged with it either. It's a high floor, low ceiling work, and I would love to hear her push outside the rhythm & pop genre.

Her voice is so pure and amazing, but the music and lyrics on this record are not good.

Overrated! (I just listened to Carol King/Joni Mitchell previously - maybe I am just fatigued?)

I’m not going to lie to you, we’ve been through far too much for that. I made it through about 30 minutes of this record, started losing interest and then put on Guided By Voices. I hope you can forgive me.

I will defend Mariah Carey’s first album to my grave and would defend it on this list but this is garbage. Not sure why it was picked over the other one. She’s very talented though so I can’t really justify 1 star.

Bit of a gear change from Nick Drake to this one. Gotta say a couple of the poppier tracks are pretty groovy. But her vocalisation is not for me and the rest of the album is just a compilation of RnB ballads which gets boring. Slick production but often feels overproduced. 1 star felt too harsh but it's definitely not for me!

Great voice and respect to her success. Prefer the R&b vibes to the ballads. The R&B stuff is pretty nostalgic of some 90s teenage house party vibes. But on the whole, not for me.

Truly awful. Enough to put me off listening to music ever again.

Horrible

Lots of ooooos not a lot of good songs

Couldn't listen to this garbage

sorry

The crap that crap crapped

Look, Mariah undeniably has a great voice and that's on display here. And if one of these tracks popped up while I was shopping, or on hold for some company's customer service, I'd be fine with it. But listening to 1 hour straight of what felt like essentially the same song was more than I could take.

She does have a pretty voice and some of the sounds are nostalgic for me as a kid growing up in the 90s. With that being said, fuck this shit for me personally.

Boring and bland. I remember hearing this type of music everywhere when I was a child, I hated it then and I hate it now.

Highlight: The Beautiful Ones (Prince cover) The problem with Butterfly is that Mariah uses her melismatic style WAY too much. It’s predictable- go low, go high, flutter (pardon the pun) around one syllable. All the songs sound the same, which is a trap many pop and pop adjacent acts fall into. This album might be on the list largely because it’s a departure from Mariah’s usual style. It embraces hip hop and subtle samples (see Honey). The Prince cover is good, not spectacular. Sorry, honey. This album has not aged well. Overall: 1/10

Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Absolutely nothing to distinguish it from the tsunami of pop R and B in the nineties/early noughties than her voice. Which is a taste I have yet to acquire.

That was painful. I feel like I spent an hour drowning in a field of marshmallows with unicorns farting rainbows all around me and believe it or not, but farting unicorns sound exactly like Mariah Carey does on this record.

BL: Almost dreading myself for this one, I've never at all considered myself to be a Mariah fan or even know much at all outside the obvious hits, I've always cast her aside and never really paid any attention to her or the music she produces, maybe this will turn out to have been a mistake, and I'm removing any bias I may come into this listen with but truth be told I'm not holding out much hope. We'll see Mariah - We'll see. AL: Just as bad as I expected. Over produced late 90s girl vocal pop is some of my personal least favourite forms of music. I felt the same with the Brittany Spears record, I find this type of music to be almost entirely devoid of substance. One track stuck out to me but only because of the rap feature which was quite catchy, but still incredibly mellowed out and weak as opposed to some potential other offerings this album could've served up. Maybe it's unconscious bias to this genre as a whole, but overall I found this to be incredibly weak FT: "The Roof" 1/5

I couldn't make it through this one, to be honest. The songs themselves are pretty by-the-number R&B tracks of the time, but I can't stand her whistle notes. It goes right through me.

Are ye fuckin serious

Could not get through it. Her voice is like nails on a chalkboard for me. I do appreciate that she diversified her sound (expanding from pop to include hip hop) but I don't really like it any better.

Fuck this stupid album. (Lora left me yesterday).

Could not listen to this

Woof

A classic, DUH

To preface, I love Mariah Carey. "All I Want For Christmas Is You" is one of my favorite songs and yes I heard it a million times working retail. Yes Mariah often over sings, to the point of bringing the song down, but I still love it. Each song here is gold and even the Prince cover is not bad, but makes me wish I was just listening to the original. The Butterfly reprise is amazing, and the album as a whole is perfectly produced. It sounds great

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Finally. Mariah is my all-time favorite singer. If I could give this album 100 stars, I would. I would certainly appreciate more of the artists like Mariah I actually listen to, and way less garbage that you've been showing. I don't listen to garbage at all. I am extremely picky about my music.

Great album. Carey has such a great voice. peak mariah carey

solo llevo dos canciones, y sinceramente m tatuaria el album. Chiquito espectaculo, una cosa d locos my all es legal? sin palabras, los tiempos, el ritmo, como juega con los tonos de la voz, la letra... mis bendiciones fouth of july? breakdown? cada cancion m da un microinfarto, que locura estoy blessed

Incredible voice and lyrics…Always!!

beautiful!

Love

That girl can SING - on top of just loving her notes, I Love the beats, and reminding me of the time.... brings me back. I Love this album.

The Golden Hour!

Love

The best Mariah album hands down

Not my usual music, and I find the artist to be unrelatable in interviews I've seen, but this was quite good. Pretty remarkable album, really.

Mariah Carey Butterfly Honey is a classic. She is really an incredible singer. I love all the super slick production on the 90’s r&b ballads. Well done album the whole way through- I liked the butterfly reprise too. The prince cover is sounds so drastically different from the rest of the album but it works.

absolute perfection from start to finish.

I was under the impression that I did not particularly care for Mariah Carey's music. I was so wrong! I really dig this album. Outstanding.

Brings me back to childhood

Surprisingly pleasant. I would have hated it when it was released

Definitely worth a re-listen. Nice cozy album with some unknown (to me) bangers.

I enjoyed this album a lot more than I thought I would. Subtract a half-star for the P Diddy collab, but then give it back for the Bone Thugs-n-Harmony appearance.

Maybe I'm just feeling generous today, but damn, this was kinda great? Not really my kind of music, but I'm impressed.

I initially hated this, but when I realised every single little thing is in service of Mariah Carey's Voice™ it's actually kind of amazing. It's musically and lyrically so light it needs to be tied down, but just Mariah Carey's Voice™ OMG.

Oh yea, it's hot girl summer baby Butterfly is pure ascension This album is such a vibe I need to lay on the floor and listen to it full blast. I will be getting a noise complaint

I’m not usually into this sort of virtuosic singing style, but the vocals combined with the great mixing and production make this one great. This is the closest I’ve heard to replicating Stevie Wonder in the last 40 years. Favorite Track: Breakdown

Very good but not my thing

wtf this isnt christmas music

Favourite songs: - Honey - Butterfly

Listening to Mariah sing is like listening to Steve Vai play guitar for me. I don’t always care for the overall compositions, but I can not stop listening because she’s is so freaking talented. The tone and flexibility across registers is so mesmerizing. She can sing anything and I’d want to listen.

I’m at a 4.5 that I’ll bump down to a 4, but I was definitely at a 5 for a while, and it could easily go back up someday. A while back, I looked at the list – I imagine most people tend to, especially when they’re almost 400 albums in & pretty deeply entrenched & committed to finishing the list. I did a little CTRL+F, and I looked for Mariah Carey, because I kinda figured she’d have to have one, and I fully expected it to be Daydream. Instead, it was this album, and that’s stuck with me – Daydream is the one with Fantasy, One Sweet Day, Always Be My Baby, and some of the other massive hits, and it’s the one that I would think of when noting her presence as one of the biggest artists of the 1990s. Mariah herself has apparently called THIS album her magnum opus, which surprises me. The only track I knew off of this album was the title track, Butterfly, which is a seminal 90s ballad as far as I’m concerned. Past that, though… nobody really talks about the other singles (or tracks) on this album. They don’t really come up in “best of” conversations, and even now, after listening, I’m still a bit baffled about why Daydream wasn’t the pick here. Granted, I’m only baffled because I’m a sucker for pure pop, and this is not quite pure pop – this is pop with far more of an R&B/hip-hop blend, and when it hits, it REALLY fucking hits. There are some great tracks on this album, and I can’t say I ever really disliked any of them. It hits 12 for 12 in terms of like, enjoyability & easy listening, which is what I would expect from a Mariah Carey album. On that count, this album was probably always bound to get at least a 4 from me. However, I do think this suffers from not feeling as timeless as it could be – this production is heavily stuck in 1997, and while it might work for something seminal like Jagged Little Pill, it doesn’t quite work as well here when Mariah just has other songs that actively ARE timeless. That lack of “timelessness” links up to her vocals as well – besides Butterfly (which is again, all-timer as far as I’m concerned) and a few other tracks, I find her to be a bit… “breathy” on this album. Granted, who the fuck am I to critique Mariah Carey’s vocals, but I only say she’s “breathy” in the sense that so many of the choruses & bridges, which have great lyrics, tend to be buried by the production, instrumentals, and her own backing vocals – just enough to make her main vocals, normally a bit more potent & present in the mix on her biggest hits, feel a little lost in the shuffle, and it stops them from having the same impact that they could. The other thing knocking this album down for me is in how many of the tracks here are indeed big bombastic 4 to 5 minute long Celine Dion-esque ballads – Walter Afanasieff, one of the producers of this album, may as well be the Jack Antonoff of the 80s & 90s. Just look at the guy’s work. He is immensely prolific for Mariah’s career, and some of my favorite songs ever by her are steeped in his production. However, I do think Walter sort of stumbles here – I think he let Mariah get a bit self-indulgent around the middle of the album, where so, so many of the songs settle into a “first or second minute is the whole track” sort of phase that slowly becomes a bit tiring to listen to, no matter how great Mariah’s vocals are on those tracks. The same thing rings true with the Prince cover – it’s a great cover, but it’s an absolute momentum stopper on the album for me, because it’s just so tonally different from what surrounds it, and at 7 minutes, it really sucks the air out of the room, and stops “Outside” from truly hitting as the great album closer that it is. All of that said, it’s still Mariah Carey in the 90s, and I’m still a sucker for a lot of this album’s quirks, which is why I’m still at a 4.5 bumped down to a 4 – for as much as I ripped into this album hitting a “most of the tracks feel kinda similar” point, there’s something about them in the moment, where you’re just absolutely stuck in a zen state, mesmerized for a while about how someone can sound THIS goddamn good, with some pretty strong lyrics, where none of those complaints I had truly matter. It’s only when this album escapes that zen state (usually mid-track) where it starts to fall apart a bit, but I was in the zen state for most of the tracks for a long, long while there. I can hear every other female pop star of the mid to late 90s throughout this album, but there’s a few obvious influences in particular – “Fourth of July” feels a lot like a Janet Jackson track, and “Fly Away (Butterfly Reprise)” is remarkably similar to “Together Again”, even though Janet’s album came out after this one. There’s a bit of Celine Dion, obviously, but I’m surprised at how much of this album feels like Whitney Houston’s late 90s / early 2000s stuff; “Breakdown”, “Baby Doll” & “Close My Eyes” in particular struck me as very Whitney-esque, which makes it even more criminal she doesn’t have a damn album on this list. Truly insane to me. Realistically, I’ve almost talked myself back up into a 5, but trust me; I can understand why people might give this a 3, a 2, or even a 1. It’s a bit self-indulgent at times, Mariah’s not as captivating as she could be, and its production, for as good as I think it is, feels remarkably dated 28 years later, which sticks out compared to her bigger hits. Honestly, though, there’s not a single bad individual track here as far as I’m concerned, just an album experience that collapses a bit under its own weight and ambition. It is a style & and a time period that I’m just an absolute sucker for – this is directly right at that 4.5 line for me, but this does have enough little flaws that build up over time to the point where I have to bump it down to a 4 on a first listen, but if it ever clicks better on another day, I’m shooting straight up to a 5. I totally recommend it regardless -- it is unabashedly my style, and I won't apologize for that. It still probably should’ve been Daydream, though. (P.S., shoutout to the Mobb Deep sample on "The Roof". Sick, sick sample flip.)

I love Mariah Carey. I am biased. This is not a perfect album though a few songs are a miss but overall still great

4!

Very 90s and the production is sick. In did vibe to it even though it wasn't my think. This album is a 3 for me but a light 4 for it's mixing and sounding quality.

Quite lovely

I am not going to turn this review into a TED talk about the music industry. However, it is remarkable to me that Mariah Carey is obscured by so many other "pop" singers now-a-days who frankly can't reach her range. I don't know sometimes what happens to musicians and bands that are truly outstanding and fade into the distance. The collaborations on this album and the diversity of genre is refreshing. Well, at least it fits as a great example of an album that SHOULD be on a list of must hear albums.

I'm loving the nostalgia this album has. I never really listened to MC other than what they played on the radio, but she's got such a beautiful voice omg!! I really loved My All holy shit! That went right into my Liked songs. gonna re listen to it right now actually. Man so beautiful!

Diddy jumpscare track one 7/10 love rnb

I am not a pop fan. But this album with Mariah incredible voice is one of a kind.

Great album showcasing some of the best 90's R&B had to offer. I feel like you don't hear the singles off this album as much as the singles off her previous album, which makes it feel less timeless than Daydream but it's still a great album.

it was fine, just sounded like mariah carey, not really my style

She is a lot closer to hiphop than I ever realized