Messageboard

About ADAM from USA: I love MC music

Backup singers - male vs female (60,504) by ADAM from USA Does anyone remember when Mariah first came on the scene she sang exclusively with 3 male singers? I wonder why she doesn't anymore. Personally when I watch old clips of her performing with the guys I like their harmonies better than when MC uses Trey and the other 2 ladies. Does anyone else have the same/different opinion? (Wednesday 16 March 2016; 23:29)

Re: Sweet Sweet Fantasy (60,494) (60,503) by ADAM from USA I agree. How amazing would it have been to hear Slipping Away or Do You Think of Me? She's been performing the same songs for too many years that she can perform regularly fan favorite songs not in a interlude or medley. I also wish she would sing entire songs live and not from audio recordings. I don't care if she sounds raspy, but I cringe every time there's a change in tone from her vocals because she relies on the studio tracks. What do you think? (Wednesday 16 March 2016; 23:22)

Re: Sweet Sweet Fantasy (60,490) (60,500) by ADAM from USA I wish she would perform obscure songs like Sent From Up Above, Alone In Love, Can't Let Go, Till The End of Time, and CryBaby to name a few. She always plays around with quoting these songs but never strays away from the same ol' setlist. I will say performing LoverBoy and When You Believe was amazing and surprising so I am very happy about that, but it's always good to expect more from her, otherwise why bother at all? Everyone has seen her perform her greatest hits to ad-nauseum. (Wednesday 16 March 2016; 21:09)

Re: Sweet Sweet Fantasy (60,481) (60,489) by ADAM from USA I really love Mariah's shorter haircut and brighter color. My first wish was for her original brown color and curls but this is a good alternative for now. I don't like her JLo-esque body suits. It's funny because lambs always claim JLo copies Mariah, but I think her wearing these bodysuits are the most overt way of coping a style that while isn't new is widely popularized by JLo. Mariah's weight loss looks great but let's be real and call it like it is - Mariah does not have a tight, toned dancer's body so should leave those costumes for JLo and Beyonce. (Wednesday 16 March 2016; 15:29)

Re: In Rainbow's defense (59,776) (59,820) by ADAM from USA I really agree with all your points about Rainbow. I love the original Heartbreaker version over the remix - the bouncy Tom Tom club sample and Jay'Z's verse with Mariah harmonizing in the background and of course her layered high notes at the close of the song always do it for me. Other gems include Crybaby (which perfectly infuses her playful wordplay and vivid story-telling and her ad-libs with her scratchy voice which gives this track a great texture as if she's up late and can't sleep) and Bliss (dreamy lush vocals and high notes really display what an amazing gift she has) and Against All Odds (great power ballad). However for these few gems, I hated the fact she tried to obviously clone previous hits from her own catalog and other radio hits - My All/After Tonight, Hero/CTTA and No Scrubs/X-Girlfriend. I also hated Did I Do That and TGIFY for their lazy compositions and lyrics. I get that this album was rushed and there was chaos internally at Sony however I can't help but feel that if she held onto the great tracks here and really sprinkled her Mariah magic onto this record again what would have transpired. Overall, this record was the beginning of Mariah creating sub-par work and where I started to feel disappointed in the material she started to create. This is one album I never play from start to finish. (Wednesday 17 February 2016; 15:30)

Re: Mariah's team (59,310) (59,321) by ADAM from USA I think Stella and her daughters are around Mariah 24/7 by Mariah's request. I think it's weird considering she's in a romantic relationship with James to always have her paid entourage around her everywhere. It's like she's co-dependent and I think that's even good for a long-term relationship to be so secluded in your celebrity to not have private time with your lover. It's very strange but no different than when Rachel and her daughter were always around Mariah for many years. Mariah seems to always have long-term mainstays with her until there not anymore. On a separate note, does anyone know if Mariah is still friends with Jasmine anymore? I don't remember seeing her in Aspen or with Mariah in a long-time? (Monday 25 January 2016; 16:09)

Re: Andrew possessed by the spirit of a positive lamb? (59,100) (59,108) by ADAM from USA I agree with your comments. While I will still watch and root for Mariah to succeed if she puts out quality music, I currently feel she still does not have that spark or drive she had from her periods in her life. I'm not expecting the same drive as when she came on the scene in 1990, but I feel like she is phoning it in with the least amount of effort. I am quite surprised that the Mariah today is the same woman who said repetedly that she wouldn't sell out and that her music was her saving grace. This image she's created and perpetuates of being out of touch and uberly wealthy and flaunting her billionaire boyfriend is really quite the detour. It just feels like she's really sold her integrity. In short, I think she's amazingly talented and I'm appreciative of her back catalog of music that's she's left us for a lifetime but at the same time I feel like she's just cashing out on her fans for more money when she no longer puts out a quality product. This includes her robotic lip sync Vegas shows and inability to change her setlist whenever she performs elsewhere. (Friday 15 January 2016; 14:30)

Wendy Williams (59,017) by ADAM from USA Wendy rehearses Hot Topics before they go live every morning which is why there are pictures to coincide with her commentary. I am a fan of both WW and MC. I saw her recent comments about MC and I didn't take it negatively. I interpreted her comments as MC would be able to get away with excuses because she has built her image around her being super glamorous and girly and one that would be prone to making excuses. WW has said many times throughout her radio and TV career how much of a legend MC is when the timing is appropriate. WW has always made it known that there are 2 voices in music: Whitney and Mariah. To me, WW is a fan and gets paid to gossip on TV, this is her brand. Mariah knows this and enjoys Wendy. Just YouTube her epic radio interview during the Mimi era and you can easily see Mariah had a ball. She was fun and diva and camp and both ladies revealed things they never had before. Mariah also name dropped Wendy in TMB. I thinks it's all love and respect between the two ladies. Mariah knows that any publicity is good publicity even when ones talk trash for a living. I just think that MC will go on Wendy once she ever decides to marry James because she knows Wendy likes to dip for dirt so once she's tied down she knows there's no Nick drama to find up. Does anyone els share my thoughts? (Sunday 10 January 2016; 15:33)

Re: Mariah's projects (58,117) (58,118) by ADAM from USA I just read that in the Hallmark movie Lacey and Mariah are supposedly old classmates who meet once again as depicted in the clip where Mariah shows off her wedding ring. When I read that this morning I instantly moaned and gained. I can't believe Mariah is delusional to really expect the general public to buy into the fact that some 40 year old woman like herself is convincing enough to really play alongside Lacey as old classmates. I really think this movie should have been casted as Mariah playing a mentor role and her playing "Regina George" from Mean Girls. This blunder will be added to Glitter for roles she should leave to professional actors. Mariah doesn't have the talent as an actress to convincingly play anyone but herself and she's too vain to even be filmed in the standard lighting and angles as everyone else. (Tuesday 1 December 2015; 0:44)

Re: Travis (58,077) (58,096) by ADAM from USA I would love it if Mariah did a MTV Unplugged show again to commemorate her first groundbreaking album. How great would that be for her to perform each song with a live band and listen to her commentary about the making of each song and how she adapts the runs throughout each song on her debut album with her current voice. The general public all knows Mariah has talent and could sing but I think to your point, the conversation among many people now is that she commonly lip synced and cheats parts of songs live. That's my wish. She's has an incredible catalog of songs I would love to hear live and stripped own. What's your take? (Sunday 29 November 2015; 23:00)

Re: Stiff (58,038) (58,075) by ADAM from USA I couldn't agree more with your statements. Mariah is very stiff and boring in all her interviews. There's no spontineity or reliability with her and I also question why with her career at a low these last few years are her projects all lackluster? I feel she's always passing the buck on someone or something else and doesn't own up to her shortcomings. I think Tommy and Walter were super instrumental to her earlier success and it's ashamed after many years she still won't work with either in any capacity. I think she's at a place professionally where no one checks her and the only people around her are on payroll so they are all yes people. Unfortunately, like Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston, when she passes away the world will be flooded with stories from background singers, assistants, makeup team, coming out the woodworks with all these stories about how Mariah was deluded and out of control yet when she's actually living now no one is coming to her rescue nor giving her a reality check. (Sunday 29 November 2015; 2:48)

Re: Current Mariah (57,999) (58,010) by ADAM from USA I feel the same way. I was hoping for this latest round of press to get to know her more but it's always the same script - how glamorous her life is and how much of a legend she is. Very boring and pretentious. I don't know why anyone thinks that makes someone more endearing or relatable. I just wish Mariah would drop the diva antics and allow herself to become reliable more. I don't blame her team because Mariah has the power to hire and fire anyone so IMO her image and questions she gets asked are a result of her asking. (Friday 27 November 2015; 0:06)

Re: I mean no offence, but... (57,981) (57,982) by ADAM from USA I agree with your observations about Mariah. This latest press tour from her print interviews to Live with Kelly and Steve Harvey have been a snooze fest. Same mechanical answers and lifeless body language. Not making fun of her but I really believe it's because she may be on antidepressants. A common side effect of these drugs are this kind of behavior she exhibits. It's unfortunate but it's true. I'm not judging, I'm stating the obvious for a long time. She's in her own world and doesn't give coherent logical answers or insight anymore to questions. If you compare her 1999 lost interview recording which was discovered earlier this year and her 1999 Charlie Rose interview to current day interviews and you'll see a stark regression in her personality and demeanor. I believe Morgan Carey's account about her mental state and while I'm not sure about his motives for revealing it, I believe Mariah is doing well and I still love her. Just because she may suffer from mental illness doesn't take away my respect for her nor do I think she should be ridiculed for it. At lest she's getting help and living her life. Thanks for sharing your observation on the board. (Wednesday 25 November 2015; 23:53)

Re: I'm going to reply (57,403) (57,407) by ADAM from USA Thank you so much for sharing your insight and not backing down from your opinion. I too feel the same way about Mariah's performing abilities. While I am a long time fan of hers, I believe she does a lot of smoke and mirrors when performing live that are no illusions to fans like us in the know. Please don't let some of the blinded fans of here dissuade you from sharing your views about MC. Just because fans express the truth or unflattering things about our favorite singer does not make us haters. (Tuesday 20 October 2015; 1:25)

Charmbracelet vs Memoirs (56,596) by ADAM from USA These two albums would be a better point of comparison. I rank CB as my least favorite album primarily because of the way she sings throughout the record. Not a fan of her whistle tone and felt it was a snooze-fest. The only highlights were "Subtle Invitation" (beautiful lyrics and belting) and "Bringing On the Heartbreak" (love she went rock and owned it, I wish she did more). I felt if sang this record in her full voice it would have been more successful because the recipe was a quintessential MC album. Both albums were sleeper records that didn't perform well and looking back had gems, introspective records, and records that should have been left off altogether ("Boy"). In closing, even though it had less variety of styles to choose from and few producers, "Memoirs" is a riskier album to put out and shows she really didn't care about the status quo and made the RnB album she's always wanted. It was very R. Kelly-esque to release a full on concept record from beginning to end while adding a confessional song ("Languishing") and cover song (IWKWLI) to make the album still commercial enough to appeal to existing MC fans. (Friday 11 September 2015; 14:30)

E=MC2 vs. Memoirs (56,594) by ADAM from USA This is a great topic for debate. Although I agree E=MC2 had more radio friendly songs that weren't given the light of day, I still felt it lacked the integrity a MC album usually has for me. I guess I became used to having her obscure introspective songs that balanced out the "single" worthy records. Even though "I Wish You Well" falls into that category I still don't like the structure and confessional-church like quality to it. On the other hand, Memoirs while it does feel like one long big song that is monotonous, I really like. I think that record was the biggest risk she took. She really set out to make a concept record with a limited number of producers and I applaud that. It's really one complete arch and I like that. I love the smart clever lyrics and wide use of her lower register. I still get goosebumps whenever I play "IWKWLI" - it makes me nostalgic for the original song and love her interpretation that reminds me of "Anytime You Need A Friend". In closing, E=MC2 feels too generic and uninspired with a cohesive theme vs Memoirs which felt like a concept record with her usual confessional lyrics about her inner life peppered throughout each song. Great topic. (Friday 11 September 2015; 14:13)

I Don't Wanna Cry (55,209) by ADAM from USA It's really great to read each fans reactions to fan-favorites and obscures songs alike. I Don't Wanna Cry is one of my favorites songs of all-time. I love the lyrics and production as well as how she belts her vibrato and goes in and out of using her lower and upper register to convey the emotion of the song. Surprisingly, she outdid herself during the live performances in her shows in Osaka and Rotterdam during the Daydream tour 5 years later. This was IMO one of the rare few instances of a live performance eclipsing the recorded song that I prefer. Her voice during that era was really bright and smooth and felt she had even more range than 1990. And the icing on the cake was how she added a closing long vibrato note with the background singers singing I Don't Wanna Cry over and over. Very haunting and very beautiful. (Sunday 12 July 2015; 16:35)

Songs I would never like to hear again (55,208) by ADAM from USA Kate I really like this question you've posted to the forum. I really would love it if I never heard Hero performed again. It's funny because I enjoy the album version with her voice really bright and smooth and the piano backdrop however IMO it's a song that as time goes on and her voice gains more texture to it really grates on my nerves and doesn't sound heavenly like the album. It sounds labored and shrill-like. As far as the album cuts I do not like Just To Hold You Once Again, Silent Night, Never Too Far, Did I Do That?, Ex-Girlfriend, I Only Wanted, Migrate, Memoirs Cd (except HATEU, IWKWLI, Languishing, More Than Just Friends). And from the latest album, Faded, Make It Look, and Heavenly I always skip. (Sunday 12 July 2015; 16:22)

Wetsuits and marriage (54,845) by ADAM from USA My point was really that she's great without them. Someone pointed out here that several years ago she was a similar size and on vacation in a 2 piece bikini that was sequined in a green ombre shade. Those were my thought exactly. I love how confident she looked with her fuller figure, natural curls and champagne all at once dahlings. That's all. She really looks to be having an amazing time with James and extremely pretty in that picture with the long silver gown. She really is a stunner. I don't know about another marriage so soon for MC but if it's ok by her ultimately then it's ok by me. I love to see her happy and it seems so. Perhaps she's also writing music at this time too so we'll all be the beneficiary of that as well. (Wednesday 24 June 2015; 13:21)

Wetsuits (54,818) by ADAM from USA It's clear to me that she's insecure about her current size because she's in wetsuit whenever she's on a beach or boat but to the public its silly. It's silly because it makes her look bigger than what she is and weird when everyone else around her are in bathing suits. She's looks ridiculous and should just own her current size. She has big breasts and is very curvy - we know and so does she. Also having worn wetsuits, it's very hot and uncomfortable so I can't fathom why she doesn't just show off her body, she's clearly not shy about shoving her breasts in everyone's face. Fingers crossed she gets the message. (Tuesday 23 June 2015; 16:08)

Mariah and James Packer (54,790) by ADAM from USA It's nice to see Mariah on vacation and seemingly happy dating James Packer. Since none of us know the circumstances how long they knew each other and even if they recently met, is it really anyone's place to pass judgement on whether its appropriate that James be around her children? If Mariah is fine with it and Nick is okay with it, why does it matter to anyone else? I personally think it never makes sense when critics speculate because he's rich and she's rich then it equates happiness. Money doesn't make one happy in the end. She's made many decisions based on money and it's only brought her ridicule and unhappiness. Hopefully she's learned some new lessons but otherwise I think she looks great in her fuller figure and letting her hair out naturally. I love how she looks when she vacations in Europe and wears bright vibrant colors and truly what she wants to wear. I think everyone in the game is so stylized and has no individual style but MC is always true to herself - extremely girly and loves a mule stiletto. I personally like that in spite of everyone's ridicule over her fashion choices (including me at times) that she stays true to herself and never lets go of her inner 12 year old self. A lesson we could all learn when weathering any storm. (Monday 22 June 2015; 15:04)

Walter on the Music Box record (54,696) by ADAM from USA Thanks for sharing that article. I've never read it but found it so fascinating. I really love those 2 working together and felt they created beautiful harmonies and records that will always be untouched. I wished Mariah would grow up and move on from her grips about him. He's has been complementary to her in many interviews and appears to want to work with her again. I think its impossible for her to listen to her catalogue of records and not wonder that Walter is responsible for a huge part of her success. Someone close to her needs to break through to her to work together with Walter for a new album. Pretty please. (Wednesday 17 June 2015; 18:02)

Response to Andrew (54,581) by ADAM from USA Andrew your comments are on the money today. My sentiments exactly. Mariah needs to rehaul her career. She's been on repeat mode since 1999 in my opinion with Rainbow being a clone copy of all her previous hits - Dreamlover, Underneath The Stars, My All to name a few. Unfortunately she is so bullish about reinventing her material. I want her to stop going back to the same writing partners and using JD and Jimmy Jam. That well is tapped dry and no one wants a rehash of familiar sounding jams. She's got so much talent but refuses to see the light. I personally don't care about her weight but will admit that dressing the way she does doesn't flatter her figure when she's clearly not a size 0 anymore. This is no shade just the truth. If it were up to me she would have signed Clive Davis and worked with partners in different genres like Daft Punk and Bruno Mars to create a concept album. She's lost a lot of credibility in the publics eyes and needs to regain her artistry in the form of a great album that no ones expecting. I know it won't happen but one can wish right? After all she said at one point that she'd never perform I Don't Wanna Cry and Someday and now look at her. (Friday 12 June 2015; 17:08)

Morgan Carey's story (54,255) by ADAM from USA I believe Morgan's story. If anything, he's been the oldest and most confident source in Mariah's family who would know those kind of details about her life. I still don't understand how some people on this board try and destroy this man's credibility when he clearly actually knows Mariah personally vs all of us watching from afar. It's clear from his account, that he's voicing his concern for her safety. That's what a brother is supposed to do if he can no longer reach out to her directly. We all know Mariah has a huge ego and cuts anyone off from her circle who even whispers an ounce of truth, so why is it hard to accept Morgan? In the last 2 weeks Jermaine Dupri and Morgan both have revealed Mariah needs help. I believe the only way Mariah will get the help she needs is if she seeks it out. These people really love her and have told her the truth in person and have clearly been shut out so they outed her publicly as a last resort. (Saturday 6 June 2015; 1:33)

Least favorite songs (54,239) by ADAM from USA These are my selections of cuts I always skip over/detest: Others - 100% (boring, old formula), Triumphant (how can she be a feature artist on her own song, barely audible) MIAM - Faded (forgettable, ugh vocals), Heavenly (too much going on, Fly Like A Bird was better) MOIA - Ribbon, Inseparable (forgettable), Angels Cry (generic) E=MC2 - Migrate (nice song but wrong artist), Cruise Control (laughable and corny) TEOM - To The Floor, Get Your Number, Joy Ride (epic belt but feels empty) Glitter - skip everything but Lead The Way Charmbracelet - skip everything but Irresistible, Subtle Invitation Rainbow - Did I Do That? (jarring and whack), X-Girlfriend (wannabe Scrubs ala TLC), After Tonight (My All part 2) Butterfly - Beautiful Ones (sleep inducing, uninspired) Daydream - Long Ago, Melt Away (love the bridge though) Music Box - Just to Hold You Once Again (yawn) Emotions - If It's Over (the SNL gig was so much better with the growls and live horns), To Be Around You Mariah Carey - All in Your Mind (nice belts but corny) (Friday 5 June 2015; 21:42)

MORE MESSAGES