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The Emancipation of Mimi is the tenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Mariah Carey. It was released on March 30, 2005, by Island Records. Its widespread success—following the critical and commercial disappointments of her film Glitter (2001) and its soundtrack, as well as her ninth studio album, Charmbracelet (2002)—led many to deem it Carey's "comeback" album. Carey composed The Emancipation of Mimi throughout 2004 with a wide range of songwriters and producers including Jermaine Dupri, Snoop Dogg, Kanye West, Twista, Nelly, Pharrell Williams, and James "Big Jim" Wright; some appear as featured artists on select tracks. Carey adopted her personal nickname "Mimi" in the title, revealing a more intimate side of the singer in line with the album's overarching theme of emancipation from personal and commercial setbacks. Its songs concern themes of liberation, love, and personal growth. The Emancipation of Mimi is primarily an R&B, pop, and dance-pop effort, with influences of hip-hop, gospel, and soul. Carey promoted the album with the Adventures of Mimi Tour in 2006. The album spawned six singles, led by "It's Like That", which was moderately successful worldwide. "We Belong Together" spent fourteen weeks at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100, blocking the album's third single, "Shake It Off", from the top spot. This marked the first time a female artist monopolized the chart's top two positions. The deluxe edition's single "Don't Forget About Us" also topped the Billboard Hot 100. The Emancipation of Mimi topped the US Billboard 200 for two weeks and was the country's best-selling album of 2005. It was the year's second best-selling album worldwide, and has since sold over 10 million copies. The Emancipation of Mimi received generally positive reviews, with critics viewing it as a return to form for Carey, and praising its production and her vocal performance. The album and its songs were nominated for ten awards across the 48th (2006) and 49th Annual Grammy Awards (2007), winning three, including Best Contemporary R&B Album. It is credited with reviving Carey's career and reshaping the idea of a comeback in popular music. In retrospect, critics have regarded it as one of her strongest works and have praised its embrace of her R&B sensibilities and diva persona; Rolling Stone included it on its "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list.
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Reviews
The Emancipation of Mimi is the "comeback" album of Mariah Carey. If I look it up, it has the highest rating of a Mariah Carey album along with Butterfly. Compared to butterfly this album sounds more fresh and up-to-date in production, but also like an attempt to create cool new style rnb like competition (especially Beyoncé). The vocals and production are top notch. The compositions are very very very uninteresting. Like the album cover it shines from the outside, but has no substance at all.
This having such a low average is another reason I know most people in here are white
Mariah Carey was never my diva... that has always been Tina Turner. Still, Mariah's talent is undeniable and as I have grown older I've grown to appreciate her more and more. This album really feels like a kind of emancipation. Great sounding! Very enjoyable!
We Belong Together is a certified bop. How she makes her whistle register musical is beyond me but its proof that mariah is a world class singer.
One can't deny the power and clarity of Carey's voice - but I can't help but wonder why she only chooses to sing "ooo-oooh-ooo-eeee-ooo-ooo-eee-oooo". Can't fault the production, or the performance. You certainly can fault the tepid, uninvolving song choices.
Definitely has to be in the top 3 best albums titled "The Emancipation of Mimi" released by artist "Mariah Carey" in the year 2005.
Did we need another Mariah Carey album? Idk ❤️🔥
eh kinda fun, kinda boring - 7/10
Smooth, polished, shiny – like a luxury good, high-end spa, etc. Sorta swings here and there, and no dobut stylish, but everything is egregiously overdone and most cynically packaged (Snoop being one tell among many). One likes her songbird-style cooing a bit, but not in such huge proportions – she's the vocal equivalent of Yngwie Malmsteen, impressive but exhausting. One wouldn't know if this is a successful comeback, having paid no attention to either a previous rise or earlier fall. One can't help but reach the conclusion that she's undeserving of all the accolades and money. No need to add to list proper.
La espectacular voz de la cantante hace temas muy pop y con buena sintonía. Igual algunas canciones más moviditas se agradecería más. Aparte de ser temas pensados para lucir su voz, algo más de melodía se agradecería.
She’s got such a great voice
Pretty much exactly what I expected. Glad this mid 2000s pop album wasn't 1 hour+ like they often seem to be.
It's fine. It's just so sterile. The music just sounds too perfect and too created in a lab to be all that interesting. It's intention is to make you feel emotions and whatnot, but it's so sterile that it feels emotionless. My personal rating: 3/5 My rating relative to the list: 3/5 Should this have been included on the original list? No.
This is more expansive than Butterfly for me. I think by this point she was really trying to delve more into r&b. The cover is evocative of Beyonce, and it makes me wonder if she felt that she was left behind because of her. The choices for guest dstars are ok, I guess. Jermaine Dupri seems to try to hard in "Get Your Number" to sound like Nelly. And then Nelly comes on and the whole song just sounds like a Nelly song guest-starring Mariah Carey as opposed to the other way around. ANd of course you have Snoop who is always good. The songs that had no guest stars started to sound a bit same-y to me. The title "Fly Like A Bird"... I think of Nelly Furtado's song "I'm Like A Bird," which is a better song IMO. If we put this album in the list it would be just to show the growth of Carey. But if that's the case does Butterfly need to be on the list, then? It definitely has less of that cotton candy feel to it. So I would say if this goes on the list, "Butterfly" should go. There's no reason to have both. I'm not saying it has to be deep, cotton candy is fine for a snack. But I can't imagine listening to this a lot. Top tracks: "Say Somethin'," "Circles"
I will give this a 3/5 on the basis that I think she does have an incredible voice and the collaborations on here are great. However this type of music isn’t really my favorite.
I'm not sure we needed this but congrats on finishing
Mimi is kind of undeniable but this just isn’t my genre
Yeah. Not exactly a huge fan. She's got a great voice, but this is not the sort of thing I listen to with any regularity, and she's not inventing anything new with this album.
She got a bit more urban, but still pretty middle.of the road
You know, it's Mariah Carey. Phenomenal voice, lyrics and production by teams of hitmaker veterans and hitting them absolutely straight down the middle. A couple of bizarre choices including Snoop Dogg's off-tone, half-sung feature. It's power pop soul, it's fine.
She is a good singer. Album was kinda standard
R&B, pop, dance-pop. Pop comercial. Ni fu ni fa.
Rating: 6/10 Best songs: It’s like that, We belong together
If you're gonna put a Mariah Carey album on the list, The Emancipation of Mimi probably shouldn't be one of them, not because it's bad, but because it's well after her best, though it's hard to put one album on a list for her as she's very much a singles artist anyway. This one has some decent moments, the first three songs are really good and while they're somewhat derivative do capture the 00s RnB vibe. Problem with the rest is that it's heavily reliant on collabs and is terribly overproduced; she has one of the best voices in music history but too many people hide it in a sea of average beats and layers when it should be front and centre. I don't think he's good enough to get a 3/5 though at times it's close, 2/5 then, but it's a smidge better than Butterfly that I gave 2/5 to.
Massive RnB pop with lots of dance tracks and hip hop production to go with a few big ballads. It's as commercial as it gets and expertly made. The rappers’ guest verses are pretty tame pro forma space fillers and some of the beats are very generic (almost covers?) for the glossy party rap era, a low ebb in hip hop. But her vocals are impressive and unrestrained but it's empty virtuosity, not my thing at all.
This is soooo hit and miss. Singles only album.
Not for me
Can’t disagree that she’s a great singer, but this just feels like that middle-of-the-road mid-00s R&B that was everywhere at the time. There are some good songs in there, but overall it just didn’t do much for me.
I want to give her a 1 for those damn squeals she does on a bunch of songs. Her voice is obviously incredible and the production is great, but these songs do nothing for me. 2.
Where to begin. I respect Mariah Carey, but I don’t like her music.
It’s turn-of-the-century bump-n-grind R&B. If you’re into it, then you’re good. If you’re not, then it’s not Saturday night for you. It’s a fine album showing off lots of Mariah’s talents as well as many of her contemporaries’ mixing skills. It feels like overproduced slush but sometimes slushies are nice.
It's fine pop of its era. She quite histrionic in her voice acrobatics which can be tiring
She may have the voice of an angel, and be really alluring to the eye, but man, her music just does not interest me at all.
Carey's vocals are impressive per usual, but the instrumentals let her down – save for the minor soul-sampling on 'Your Girl,' the backing tracks feel pretty uninspired and flat. Mariah is meant to be the star of the show, but without a strong melodic presence the LP does feel a little bland as she vamps constantly to fill the production space. This was an alright listen, but not one for the history books (especially given Carey already has a presence on the official 1001).
Blech
Nope not for me. I heard this on a previous long list I did. I was hoping that second exposure would help. It didn’t. I am sure for others this is great. Just not for me.
Why
Certifiably awful. This is just the most brain dead trash pop I've heard yet. She has always sucked. But now she's desperate for relevance. And for some reason I have to be punished.
Rubbish. She can clearly sing, but she overdoes it on pretty much every song - some of the notes she hits are more like a guitar solo than a vocal track. All thr rappers who were briefly cool (and Snoop) show up, along with every producer, and as a result it's a bit of a confused mess at points. Not offensively bad, but dull and forgettable.
She is talented, but her ego kills her likability. I have no time in my day or life to listen to such a diva. She used to be very likeable when she first came out, but fame has went to her head. If you enjoy listen to her endless runs and over-singing... then you'll be ones giving this five stars, but there are many of us that have had enough. 1/5
Mariah Carey can certainly hit that upper register. That's about the only positive thing I can say about this. I cannot even begin to try to understand what about this is appealing to people.