Butterfly

I used to joke that Mariah has an impressive vocal range, but I wish she would spend more time singing those notes that only dogs can hear (Can I get a rimshot? Thank you, I'll be here all week!) I never really delved in Mariah's oeuvre, assuming it would be too highly polished, too smooth, too geared towards mainstream balladry for my tastes. I like soul and r'n'b, but I lean towards music with a bit more grit. I subscribe to Gabriel Roth's "shitty is pretty" aesthetic. Mariah's early (and inescapable) singles all suggested her albums were not for me. Like Disney end-credit ballads, as one commenter wrote. Now, to be fair, this is highly produced, with all the rough edges sanded down and sprayed with eight coats of high gloss duco. With the exception of some of the syrupy ballads -- 'Whenever You Call' is sugary enough to cause early onset diabetes -- this does have a greater urban influence which makes it a pleasant, smooth and largely downbeat hang. It generally avoids drama and theatrics in favour of vibe and groove, which I can dig. I could live without the cover of 'The Beautiful Ones' which feels like a passionless exercise in vocal gymnastics when compared to Prince's original. Nobody is going to confuse this for actual hip hop or funk or neosoul, but it's (mostly) surprisingly listenable.

This was pretty boring. And kind of lame.

Great voice, but she «overuses» it, making the music less interesting. No big fan of the genre, but the music is overall okay.

Mariah's voice is beautiful, but nothing about this album really sticks with me. And I really don't need any Diddy in my life, sorry.

I like some of her songs, she has a great voice, but the songs in this album just didn't do it for me. Maybe I just like her poppier stuff (heartbreak is one of the all-timers for me) 2* Highlights: butterfly

Beautiful voice. Like some of her songs but not really the ones on this album

1 minute in and I’m hating this. Boring and uninteresting. I stayed with it. It did not improve. This is the worst kinda of 90s pop adult contemporary crap. Nothing redeeming about it all. I hope to never have to hear anything like this again.

Yeah yo I don't know what I got wrong with me by the 90's r&b, slow jam ballad contrasted with that synthy funky fresh and groovy formula that every pop song had is right in my sweet spot. Mariah's sixth album here is no exception to the rule. Right from the start of Honey all the way through Babydoll and beyond had me groovin and swaying at work. The legacy she has on pop music only really references her sheer vocal talent. But her pop goddess swagger and melodic dictation too is commendable. I recall hearing discussions in the past of her being hard to work with, which honestly checks out and doesnt harm the legacy from my perspective. If I must be critical I'd say its not timeless and rather dated to this specific era. But that being said it doesn't fall from grace with me. Critical too though, the attempts at rap and fusion with urban flair should have been stronger, they feel feeble and forced. But all the way through on production, Sony did a great job on this release. 4 stars

This album is pretty boring to me. All of the songs sound similar, and none of them have interesting features that hook me in. I've never seen the appeal in this style of R&B. I know Mariah has incredible vocal abilities and that is somewhat evident in this album, so I'll give props for that. My All is a song that stands out on this album. I like that it's in a minor key, and it shows off her voice well. She's belting rather than singing in her falsetto like most of the other tracks. I also think the album cover is a vibe.

This one packs a lot of wild history in it. Her self proclaimed magnum opus. Working with P Diddy….. ,getting divorced mid way through recording, her SIXTH studio album, riding off the fame of her notorious Christmas song All I want for Christmas is you.

Why did it feel like every song started with the same vocal trill?

Mariah Carey has a time, place and type of person (One of which I find myself not being). There is no doubt in any of our minds whether or not she can sing (she got pipes!), but I think she lacks finesse here. Less is more Mariah, in all types of art, and Mariah is doing wayyyy more than she needs to all of the time. She needs to chill out a little bit! Feels like there are trills, whistle notes, and octave shifts every second bar. On top of that, the instrumentation and vocal quality sound over-produced. They sound great don't get me wrong, but they feel almost uncanny-like. Someone else commented on each of these songs feeling like a Disney movie ends credit sequence songs, which is so real. If you played any song as a single, I'm sure it would be fine, but after an hour of this I felt like I was getting a headache. 5/10

There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with this, but it’s a bit samey. The production is flawless, and she does what she does with a collection of guest rappers but it just kind of fades into the background

Pipes

Terrible waste of time. No one must hear this before they die. A lot of these albums make a liar out of the author

Very same-y, but damn, what a voice

R&B poppy hip-hop, especially at this tempo, is just not for me. Mariah has an incredible voice, but I'm just not a big fan of really any of the styles that are merging here. Ironically, I got to "The Beautiful Ones" and was like, hey wait I actually kinda like the bones of this track... sure enough, it's a Prince cover.

Honey - such a banger! What an amazing album opener

Bala

I loved Music Box and her MTV Unplugged when I was a kid. First time listening to Butterfly in full. Mariah sounds like she’s half asleep and I also felt doze-y after a few tracks. Bone Thugs and Harmony with a welcome cameo. Otherwise too slick and overdone for mine. And I was looking forward to giving this a listen when it popped up today. A shame. 2/5

This is my first time EVER listening to a non-Christmas Mariah Carey album in full. Until I moved away from the US, all I’d heard was her Christmas album, played at every family gathering until I was ready to tear my hair out and give up on music altogether (I jest. Or do I?). Wow! This has such a different mood overall. Butterfly is widely seen as the album where Carey broke away from the polished, adult-contemporary image her label had built for her, and it shows. “Honey” is funky and smooth, with a constant buildup and a really pleasing way of developing, and it’s built on samples of early-’80s hip-hop records. However, once we get to the title track, we’re immediately in schmaltzy ballad territory. It’s not “bad” (the backing vocals are soulful and tight), but it’s extremely forgettable in the grand scheme of things. “My All” is an even bigger offender: a dull, anemic, cold ballad that ticks every box of radio-friendly R&B. Is THIS the kind of music Carey was making at her peak? It’s probably what she WANTED to make, but it’s a shame, because she was capable of so much more (in my mind). I can’t fault her, though. She has always been hungry for fame and fortune, and as a result we have a very confident artist/diva here. What gets me are the tracks with more flow and more groove, maybe because they strike a good balance between melancholy and upbeat. “The Roof (Back in Time)” is solid, “Fourth of July” is melodic and richly textured, “Babydoll” is solid as well, and “Breakdown”, featuring members of Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, is a highlight. I also think it’s cool that she covered Prince’s “The Beautiful Ones” as a duet with Dru Hill near the end of the album (though it drags a bit). So I’m conflicted about how to rate this. On one hand, this is the music she wanted to make, the instrumentation and mix are both solid, and she lets her phenomenal voice shine, with no Auto-Tune (hadn't been popularized yet) or heavy processing to my ears. On the other hand, a lot of these songs are packed with the clichés and production choices of the day, which make it sound very much of its time (even if it IS an R&B classic). I’d love to give Carey the score she deserves as a performer and singer, but for the album itself, it’s a reluctant 3 stars.

Entertaining but nothing really stood out as special.

If you like Mariah Carey you will probably like this.

It kind feels like Christmas music. So the closer you are to Christmas the better the album

Album #225: Mariah Carey – Butterfly ⭐⭐⭐ I recommend listening to this one a few drinks deep, as I did. It makes the overlong runtime zip by a little quicker, and those smooth R&B beats go down very nicely. This is an album of two styles, really: one pretty good, one pretty terrible. But unlike Christina Aguilera’s Stripped, which is also on the list, it sticks to its strengths a lot more. It’s less messy and a little more uniform in its sound. On one hand, you’ve got the hip-hop style, with producers like P. Diddy and Missy Elliott involved. And that stuff works really, really well. It’s a style that suits her. It’s very ‘90s R&B and hip-hop, and while it’s of its time, I really like that sound. Despite that, on Honey, you’ve got P. Diddy ad-libbing and throwing his voice into things. It’s the same with Ready to Die by The Notorious B.I.G. I don’t know how artists tolerated that crap, having him come in and do his own vocal takes on their songs. And I thought that long before all the revelations about him being a nonce, so this opinion isn’t formed by his reputation. I just hate that about music produced by him, because the production itself is actually pretty great. Honey is a great opener. The Roof samples Mobb Deep, and I really like what it does with that sound. Mobb Deep’s music is quite heavy and dark, and this brings an air of lightness to it. And her voice suits just about anything she does. She’s a great singer. You can hear how influential she was on everything that came afterwards, from the aforementioned Christina Aguilera to the Pussycat Dolls and all those R&B singers in the noughties who sing every fucking note until they finally reach the one they’re supposed to sing. But she does it with a level of subtlety that works really well. She’s got an absolutely gorgeous voice, in a style that eventually got done to death and kind of ruined. Here, though, it works. Then you’ve got the Disney-style tunes, like the title track, and there’s a whole midsection of them. I have a problem with this style of music because there’s a level of cynicism to it that I don’t like. I genuinely believe this kind of music is marketed towards very young girls, little children, while selling them albums that also include songs like Honey, which is pretty heavily sexualised pop music. I think that’s cynical, to be honest, and I don’t think it’s appropriate. Maybe it’s something I wouldn’t have noticed when I was younger, but as a father of a young daughter now, that kind of thing freaks me out a little bit. The Disney-style tunes don’t do it for me anyway. They were never going to, even on their own merits. It’s not my style of music. It’s cheesy and not particularly emotionally engaging. But the more straightforward R&B stuff is pretty great. I can’t deny it. The album has a really bad midsection, reaching its nadir with Butterfly Reprise, this awfully clunky, vaguely ’90s dance-influenced tune. But it picks up again with the penultimate track, The Beautiful Ones. A lot of the music here feels quite inconsequential. Take Babydoll, for example. It doesn’t really go anywhere. It’s almost the same thing over and over again, like a “look how much Mariah Carey can sing, listen to her voice” kind of song. And that’s not enough for me. But The Beautiful Ones is different. It’s a Prince cover, and it moves through several different passages, pulling off that long-form Prince-style jam really, really well. I would have liked more of that. A little more ambition in the songwriting itself. But look, I can’t fault her voice. Her lyrics are standard enough, and the production is great throughout. I’d question its inclusion on the list, because some of it struck me as a little easy listening, but I can hear its influence, so I understand why it’s here too. I didn’t hate this one at all. Probably won’t return to much of it, but didn’t hate it.

It’s interesting that this is seen as Mariah getting to spread her artistic wings (like a butterfly, geddit?) because it doesn’t sound that different to what she was doing before to me. I’d even argue the ODB remix of Fantasy was a better example of Mariah adding a hip-hop edge to her sound. She’s obviously got an amazing voice, I just wish the songs were stronger.

Que hueva

First sign of Christmas is Mariah Carey starts appearing randomly

Obviously, I'd love to be able to sing like Mariah. But I wouldn't sing this sort of thing. Uninspiring.

Not too bad but just very unmemorable. She's got a great voice and the R&B vibe is nice and soothing but nothing too exciting about it

Mariah has an incredible voice and some insane pop hits. This album was not what I expected. Mega mundane for someone with so much talent.

Old school r&b and Mariah! Pretty good album

mittelmässiges album. Die Lieder sind okay auch sie hat eine mega schöne Stimme aber für mich stimmt nicht alles zusammen was ein Gutes bis Brillanter album haben sollte. Die stimme alleine reicht nicht...... Falls noch ein Album von ihr hier kommt bin ich gespannt wie das andere Album ist

Iconic, but her music doesn’t do anything for me.

Didn’t hate it as much as I thought I would. It kind of washed over me. She can sing, I’ll give her that.

Pretty decent album. It’s not necessarily my favorite style of music, but I enjoyed many of the tracks. Definitely has that mid 90’s r&b and pop sound - big ambient reverbs on the music, lots of space, lot of chorus additions. I actually wish it more prominently featured Mariah’s voice. The mixing in this period had a tendency to wash out or distract from the main vocal at times.

3.5. Not stoked about the Diddy interactions

sexy photo

🦋👑🦋👑🦋👑🦋

Great voice but pretty basic and vanilla. Harmless album but all the music is pretty much interchangeable. Whenever You Call was my fav song and first listen of the album.

music is love

A couple of good songs on here and undoubtedly she's got an amazing voice (which she's at great pains to remind us) but it's not really my thing.

What a voice.

'Honey' is a 5 (as is the music video...ICONIC). The rest of the album - which I proudly owned in 1997 - was just okay...slower than I remember and not as tight. That said, it's Mariah. And her influence on the fine line between pop and R&B is undeniable. P.S. Highly recommend listening to the audio book version of her memoir where she breaks out into song randomly and goes after Tommy Mottola.

A truly ludicrous addition to this list. And believe me - I have no problem with Mariah Carey being on here. But this album? Unhinged.

She sings quite well

Meh.... Puede tener muy buena voz, pero no me gusta su música...

divan i vanredan glas iskorišten u ne baš dobru svrhu, tj. za bezvezne, mlake pop-arenbijevske pjesmuljke. šteta

Very pleasant listening experience. I'm generally a fan of R&B, but the album definitely sounds relatively homogeneous

My All is top five songs

I went in to this album thinking I would hate it, only to be pleasantly surprised by the opening track. It was nothing special, but it was fine and Mariah sang like she actually had some emotion (a rarety for her). Would my hopes be spared? Would I enjoy, or at least tolerate this album? After the first tracks I hoped so. Then the title track played. Then the next song. And they kept coming and I realized my fears were coming true. This album wasn't going to be good. There goes my hopes of being wrong. Calling this album bad wouldn't necessarily be correct. The production (unfortunately) is fine, with the hilarious exception of getting Mariah Carey to sing over Mobb Deep's Shook Ones Part 2. Mariah Carey sing, and very well as well. At least on a technical level. Her lack of emotions and tendency to default to whining and scales is boring to say the least. But overall this wouldn't be what I normally rate a 1. It's competant and not annoying to listen to. It's not even forgettable so to speak. The problem is that the album is an absolute bore. Every song sounds the same (except for the one with the Shook Ones sample, which is memorable in uts absurdity). The lyrics go in one ear and out the other, or are barely understandable because of Mariah's lack of annunciation and the sound mixing being bad. And overall nothing stands out. This is barely an album. It's more of a collection of muzak made to sound like pop R&B. I wanted to be wrong so bad, I wanted my pre conceived notions and biases to be proven wrong. I wanted to like Mariah Carey, I really did. But I'm not going to re-listen to an album whose entirety I could hear at an upscale dentist's office. Not necessary to listen to thus album again before I die. It wasn't necessary the first time.

I didn't notice this ever changing songs. 57 minutes of the want thing

431/1089 her voice is something else and the chill RnB opening was really nice. Butterfly is cute and all but it’s a bit too on the slow 90s ballad side of things for me The roof (back in time) ohmygod LOVE okayyy i really liked this album, it has some peaks and some “just good” songs but i was still so into it faves: The roof, Fly away, My all, Honey, The beautiful ones 81/100

Thought this would be a 2 star along the lines of Adele, good voice but not for me. Much much worse than that, bland soulless empty R +B. The sort of shit car salesman and 90s footballers listen to. No redeeming features.

Mariah Carey, inventor of over-singing and writer of annoyingly catchy Christmas songs, strayed from her usual brand of cheesy ballads for this album and put in a dose of beige hip-hop as well. The less said about most of it the better - by the time the uber-schmaltz of Whenever You Call came around my cholesterol levels were through the roof! The album is slightly improved towards the end by a dance tune, Fly Away, during which she doesn't sing much, and a pretty decent cover of The Beautiful Ones which stays quite faithful to the original. So I'll give it a low 2 stars and be thankful that I can move on.

If only she could sing … ;) 5 stars.

How many people does it take to make a Mariah Carey record? Heaps. I'm drawn like shit to a blanket in reading the production details of these 90's/2000's "rnb" records (more on that in a moment). The sheer number of people involved in the songwriting, playing, hanging out and production is extraordinary. Did they hire a marquee and a few portaloos to meet the demands of the caravanserai that was masquerading as a recordng studio. And to what end? Just what exactly is this "rnb" stuff anyway? How is it defined other than being pop music? Good marketing? Is Janelle Morae the same as Mariah? Dunno. So what's going on here? Well surprise surprise with 48 people cramming into the production booth we've got some rapping in the breaks, wow! We've got some tickling of the ivories where she goes a bit quiet...very pianissimo...which as soon as you hear you know she's going to build up to a big belt it out section where SHE GOES REALLY BIG. And I mean BIG...pretty pretty BIG. As this music gets used in so many other forms of entertainment its there as the wall paper of life, I know i've heard it, just didn't know who it was, cause I didn't need to know who it was. And so here it, I've heard some of these songs. Yo, now listen up, Mariahs in the howwwwwowwer house singing at ya fool. Awful.

Pretty meh and too slow and ballad-y for me to give it any higher, much rather listen to other R&B

pra mim faltou foi mta coisa achei chato….

r&bzim, né. achei que ia curtir mais, viu eh ok, sei lá. parece que falta algo, um salzinho...

She's iconic but it's not for me.

3.5

4.5

I can't say I'm the biggest fan of Mariah Carey, but when she really hits the slow jam ballads, I can't help at least feel it a little bit. Unfortunately for this album this is where she started heading more towards modern pop R&B tropes which is not really something I get into that much. The first half of the album I was really just thinking how late 90s it sounded. But towards the end of the album when she started leaning more into the slow jams I actually started liking a good bit. Other than her and Dru's cover of "Beautiful Ones", which didn't really do much to make it their own it and relied too much on Prince's arrangement, from "Close My Eyes" to "Outside" the album realy settles into my personal sweet spot of her material. This is definitely her bridge album between what she was and what she would start become from *Rainbow* forward, you can see the seeds of that flourishing in the first half of the album. But I guess I'm more of a sucker for her early 90s Whitney inspired jams, which come through in the later half. (6.33) ★★★

Mariah is a good singer, but sometimes do to much put of that, but this album is still quite good. 3.5 stars

The oversung R&B slow jam is one of my least favorite musical tropes, and outside of the first track, that's mostly what this album is. "Honey" is a pretty good song, but nothing else really comes that close. "The Roof" and the cover of Prince's "The Beautiful Ones" are okay. Ultimately this style of music is like nails on a chalkboard for me though. 2 stars.

Album came a day after Kid Rock so it is going to sound like a masterpiece in comparison. Album sleeve is a masterpiece. There are no exceptional masterpiece individual songs but it is consistently very pert in its sultriness n smoothness. Definitely one to add to any butterfly collection.

Mariah Carey is a virtuosic vocalist. She is tremendously naturally gifted, but she also has an absurd amount of control over her voice. She has range, power, dynamics, phrasing, breath control......she has it all, and it's terribly impressive. This is the part where I talk about how this music isn't my bag, etc. etc. Because it isn't. And yet - I found myself enjoying this quite a bit. While she can absolutely over-do it with her "runs," she very often has a great deal of restraint. She can rub her voice all over a song but many times chooses not to, thankfully. The material here is also pretty strong. It does lean towards adult-contemporary pop, but there is enough hip hop and R&B here to make it interesting. I especially enjoyed the dated-sounding but terribly fun gospel/dance mix-up of "Butterfly (Reprise)". This is also the part where I talk about how this album is way too long (and it is, of course) BUT when I think about when this album came out, and who was buying it, all that extra "fat" was a selling point. I don't think I'm speaking only for myself when I say that 1001 Album Project-ers are listening to these albums very differently than the intended audience. We are looking for albums to study, to learn from, to really dive in to, and albums like *Butterfly* weren't meant for that. Middle-aged moms in the 90s didn't put on *Butterfly* on their Discman, pop on their headphones, and lay there in the dark and try to analyze the shit out of it. They put it on in the car, or the stereo at home while they did stuff around the house or relaxed. All that being said, I can't really fault it for giving its audience what said audience was looking for. Anyways. I wasn't expecting to write so much about a Mariah Carey album. To sum up: Mariah Carey's voice is great, her songs here are pretty good, and the album cover is peak 90s color design. THREE STARS

No me han gustado muchas canciones, pero ha estado bien cambiar un poco de aire, y poder escuchar a otra artista femenina, que por ahora hay muy muy poca representación.

Sounds great, lots of impressive musicality, but no real choruses that get me excited to stick around. Everything just feels a bit too languid and the songs are too long for me.

A few good songs sung by a horrible, narcissistic, self-absorbed diva. Her voice is amazing, but has too many runs. Her personality sucks and that's about all I hear when I hear her songs. I just can't enjoy anything by her anymore. And WHY cover a perfect Prince song? 2/5

This is a treat. I was never a Mariah fan but listening to this brought back some great memories. While I gravitate more towards Jodeci, Boyz II Men, and D'Angelo this is great 90s R&B. RIP Joe Pim

Dette var ille

het enige wat ze zegt is woaahahAHAH en heeHEEEhEE. heel het album door.

3.5

It feels like without her, you don't get Christina Aguilera, but some songs feel like background to a 90s film or a bit generic now and fade quickly.

Not for me - pick a note

Sorry, can't take all that warbling

This album is not devoid of good songs, the opener is especially smart, but there are some real clangers on the track list too, title track Butterfly being chief among them. It's an album which actually punishes active listening. The more you let it fade into the background the more dreamy and pleasant it becomes in its faintness.

Mariah gets a v high 2, would have been a 3 but there were just too many ballads here breaking up my favoured smooth RnB

Look, her voice is amazing, but this record is just boring.

My favourite artists only album on the list comes up at last, and strangely it's not one of her top ones for me, although it generally tops polls of Lambs (Carey fans). What it does do is mark the the turning point where Carey starts to get some freedom from her controlling and abusive husband and Sony label head as their separation became inevitable. On the last album she had blended her love of hip-hop with the super hit Fantasy (voted top song of the 90s by Pitchfork), and here her pioneering blend of hip-hop and rnb spread it's wings further. The key stretch is from The Roof through to Babydoll, the former detailing her first forrays into freedom with another man. This is where her future soulfulness, spirit and groove starts to shine. But then you have classic hits, pop with Honey, tear jerkers with My All, then the theme song for her rejuvenation Butterfly (& the clubby reprise). What people always overlook is that she stood apart from most of her contemporaries by being a songwriter herself and instrumental in the production of her work. I added the later Emancipation of Mimi onto the User Albums list as there's not enough pop or women on here and if just a few more people have their minds opened then this has been worthwhile.

Iconic

The comment saying this is an hour of Disney credits is spot on. This is the music playing during the credits of a Lifetime movie your mom was watching while folding laundry. I don’t think it’s bad. It’s actually quite good background music for working. Not really sure you HAVE to hear this outside of understanding who Mariah Carey is as a pop culture personality.

Released in 1997 this is categorized as R&B, hip hop soul ballads. I know who she is and probably heard songs on the radio but have never specifically listened to her before.  So I listened to this album a few times to form a decent opinion. I don't understand her popularity or why this album is on the list.  The music is simple, the effects are cheesy and the lyrics are syrupy. She can obviously sing but she does too much urban yodeling.  I liked Close My Eyes. Fly Away is uptempo for a change.

Meh

The thought that keeps coming back to me as I listen to this is that *this is a woman who knows her worth*. Having spent most of the previous decade proving she could sing her face off, Carey proves that she doesn't always have to, deploying her vocal instrument strategically rather than with the sort of Whitney-chasing desperation that marked a good deal of her previous work. In its place are impossibly smooth pop confections like "Honey," which lives up to its name as a sweet groove you could live in forever. Those heighten the effect of more classic bedroom R&B vocal jams like "Babydoll," where Carey lets loose to show her lover exactly what she's been holding back until now. Which brings me to the central text and subtext of the album: Carey's breakup with husband/impresario Tommy Mottola and the accompanying assertion of creative and sexual independence it heralds. It would be easy to write much of this album off as typical come-hither R&B, but a closer listen reveals how many of these songs contain an element of Carey maintaining her independence - or, perhaps, learning how to exercise it. She is sexy and sexual (which aren't the same thing) but not at the cost of abandoning herself; even on the nominal torch song "Whenever You Call" she is careful to point out that it's her lover's authenticity she prizes. "You have opened my heart and lifted me inside by showing me yourself undisguised." On the title track *she* does the breaking up, first phrasing it as being for the benefit of the other party before finally admitting that she's doing it for herself: "you have given me the courage to be all that I can," and as much as it may hurt, she's not going to betray that desire. She wants to be loved but is finding that she doesn't need to be, or at the very least doesn't need what has passed for love up to this point. In that light, the more nominally desperate songs feel like exorcisms; "My All" feels like it isn't quite all *there*, a last gasp of a former codependent self being sent on its way. And the Bone Thugs counterpoints on "Breakdown" put the lie to the idea that it's only Carey who can't move on; she's hurt by the end of the relationship, but the man who wronged her is too. That's why the Prince cover works: slowed down, exulting in itself rather than shying away from sentiment, it shows Carey is resolute and unafraid. I find this album's sense of purpose contagious, even inspiring. That said, if you hate this genre then you probably won't like this example of it, and there are still probably a few too many cliches to make this truly transcendent. But as a way into understanding why Carey means so much to so many people this is invaluable - and it's a joy to boot.

This started off alright but as with a lot of (contemporary) R&B this feels so same-y and gets so boring. Her voice is great though.

The strengths of this album lie in the, apparently, innovative idea to mix with her ballad style with hip-hop and R&B artists and producers. I'm sure there must have been other artists forging this path, but when a hit maker sheds her old style and takes it on it lends a certain credibility to the style. Her voice is velvety smooth, as always. However the entire album is almost painted with one color. I was hoping for some more dynamic rhythms in the album construction. As stand alone tracks, many are wonderful, but as a whole it drags. I like the vibes of the album, but it didn't blow me away. The artistry is present. It just didn't grab me. Honey Butterfly

Not my thing, but did not completely hate it.

I liked it, sounds very 90s! Pretty chill! Stand-outs - The Roof (Back In Time) - The Beautiful Ones

I honestly couldn't distinguish one song from the next.

Really glad to see this album. Mariah was a pioneer of modern RnB as we know it today. Also cool to see her street cred with features from Bone Thugs and samples from hardcore hip hop tracks

Well... there are a couple of hits on here featuring Mariah's incredible voice, but overall, the album sounds rather bland and similar to all the other pop albums of that time.

Albums like this are often hard for me to listen to in one sitting because there’s little to know variety in the music.

Beautiful voice and some well written won't offend anyone pop songs but I'm not the target audience.

Like honey that is undoubtedly super sugary, but tastes like it was made in a factory by underpaid third world workers, filled with chemicals to maximise its profits and is very bad for you

Didn't have many expectations going in, I know her voice is famous for it's range and power, which she displays somewhat here. Its much more of an R&B vibe at its core I think. Very smooth and emotional and her vocals become the main attraction but it's for a good reason. The variation in the instrumentation on some of the tracks felt refreshing enough that it never became stale. First full album of hers I've listened to and I think she made something very worthwhile.

As good today as the year it came out. Totally timeless pop music.

Veel te dramatisch