Mariah Carey: The "Glitter" Redux

2001 was to be a victorious time for Mariah Carey. A year that unveiled her seventh album, as well as position her crossover into the movie medium with equal ease.

Spending the whole of the past decade defying obstacles and winning hearts, no one, least of all Carey herself, could have foreseen that 2001 would be the first mishap in a career that had only seen a few chinks in any facet of her artistic armor.

In reality, Glitter as an album signalled a larger query of Carey's conflicts with quality over quantity. Unlike those previous bouts, Glitter was Carey's first recording to offer a spotlight to Carey's best and worst moments in one place.

The History
Capping off her golden period at Columbia Records, Carey freshly divorced from former label guru, mentor, and husband Tommy Mottola, made an energized maneuver to sign with Virgin Records in 2000. Settling in quickly, Carey began drawing on all her abilities to create her seventh record and its partner film. Under the working title of "All That Glitters," the film and movie would become Glitter. Barring the obvious allusions of Billie Frank, the film heroine, being biracial, a vocalist, and a native New Yorker, the comparisons between Mariah Carey and Billie Frank's origins stop there.

Otherwise, the Vondie Curtis-Hall directed work placed Carey as Frank in a post-disco, early 1980's neon haze of New York City. There, Frank/Carey struggled with romance, career aspirations, and other obvious plot devices that dramatic, amorous period pieces like this are made of. The movie featured additional acting appearances from Max Beesley, Eric Benét, Shawntae Harris a.k.a. Da Brat, Terrence Howard, and Tia Texada. Carey's first movie was an elaborate gesture made grander by its soundtrack, which was for all intents and purposes an album Carey seemed destined to record since 1995.

The Record
While not the early twenty-something adult Billie Frank was, Carey was a teenager in the boiling pot of New York music culture; an epoch that was rife with exciting, new changes. Black music was bravely soaring to new horizons in dance and a newer, harsher art form known as hip-hop.

In this hotbed, these styles were coalescing and forming, "the black new wave" the movie takes place in, roughly 1983, featured great artists on the grind. Specifically in the film we hear "Freaks Come Out at Night" by Whodini, "You're the One for Me" by D-Train, "Dance Floor" by Zapp, "You Are in My System" by The System, and "Tell Me if You Still Care" by The S.O.S. Band that lit up the cinematic companion piece to Glitter to electric effect.

Further, her own work leading up to Glitter winked and grinned to her teenage background. Read the liner notes to the Daydream (1995) album cut "Fantasy" to see Tom Tom Club's "Genius of Love" as a sample, or the-then recent "Heartbreaker" from her final Columbia offering Rainbow (1999). It styled Stacy Lattisaw's "Attack of the Name Game" to tarty perfection. Carey's musical legitimacy was potent to record the ultimate resurrection of '80's R&B on a single album.

It was something many of her fans and knowing critics had been pining after for sometime.

Carey immediately ushered in assistance from the men who musically shaped that span of time: Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, and the late Rick James. Additional duties were handled by Walter Afanasieff, a major player in Mariah's earlier albums. The contemporary edge was still something Carey wanted to possess, and a problematic error in Glitter (soon to be detailed), and those figures were: Damizza, D.J. Clue, Clark Kent, and James "Big Jim" Wright.

Twelve songs, including a tangled, guest star riddled remix of the lead single "Loverboy," filled Glitter. Of those cuts, the quality work rose to the surface quickly. The ballads, Mariah's notorious watermark, are some of her most silken. The lone Afanasieff number, "Lead the Way" was by-the-numbers, but majestic nonetheless. "Twister," a harmonious slice of gentle soul, was written as a tribute to a friend and stylist of Mariah Carey who passed away.

"Reflections (Care Enough)" lyrically eyed the film plot directly, and brought out a gospel stained emotion that echoes material from Mariah Carey (1990). Detailing Carey's gift at song penmanship, it lovingly would be brought to a larger stage on Carey's ballads collection The Ballads in 2009. "Never Too Far,"a massive and orchestral infused beauty is one of the criminally forgotten Carey songs of the last decade. Read with care and a sense of story telling blue mood, "Never Too Far" is a track worth being rediscovered.

The Rick James produced and penned "All My Life" situated itself as the major player of Glitter. Surrounded by finger poppin' bass, lavish flute accents, and vivid keyboarding, Carey gave one of her sexiest performances committed to record. Though "All My Life" stands strong, it is backed by two other worthy numbers in "Want You" and "Loverboy."

"Want You," a duet with Eric Benét, (who plays Rafael in the flick) pulled from the well inspired by Nick Martinelli, the producer that helped create the sound for '80's U.K. R&B trio Loose Ends. The sharp, sensually tuned in P.M. radio song straightaway casts the listener into a midnight skyline visage of New York City.

The florid "Loverboy" samples Cameo's "Candy" (ironically released in 1986); both Larry Blackmon and Thomas Jenkins (of Cameo) playfully reprise their roles in the song (and video). Carey layered up her whoops, coo's, giggles and sighs to either charming or grating effect depending on the listener. Slightly busier than her previous sample led lead singles, "Loverboy" would be the last in that lane to date.

The cut and paste of Carey's voice over Cherrelle's "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On," from her '84 album Fragile was baffling. A stimulating rush of synthesizers, drum loops, and guitar, the heated and pressurized dance cut actually fit Carey well. It begged the question as to why Jam and Lewis, the producers of the original rendition and its resurrected form here, didn't construct an original song out of the production cloth of "Didn't Mean..." The film uses this as the song that breaks Billie Frank.

As high as the highlights are, the lows are frustrating to sit through. Covers of InDeep's "Last Night a D.J. Saved My Life" and Tom Browne's "Funkin' For Jamaica (N.Y.)," redone as "(Don't Stop) Funkin' for Jamaica" wastes the potential these songs had to move Carey closer to her concept of '80's R&B retro heaven.

"Last Night.." was mobbed by Fabulous, D.J. Clue, and Busta Rhymes who came off clumsy and unneeded, the same being said for Mystikal's verses on "(Don't Stop) Funkin for Jamaica" that reduce Mariah Carey to a veritable hook girl on her own album. "If We" furthered the hook girl dilemma by supplanting Carey to chorus status while Ja Rule, and the late, Nate Dogg delivered the verses to dire effect. These type of creative degenerations had plagued Mariah throughout her recording run up to this juncture.

As never before, Carey brought both her best and worst efforts to the fore in the same space, which made the assessment of Glitter a task that was not as simple as it may have been for any of her previous outings.


The Impact
The film and its album were proceeded by "Loverboy" on 7/17/01, where it topped the U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop chart, and landed at a comfortable #2 position on the Billboard Hot 100. As the single certified gold, more was made over the David LaChappelle directed video that portrayed Carey as a race track girl, much to the chagrin of critics. Internationally, the single was met with either lukewarm or fair receptions: Canada (#3), Australia (#7), U.K. (#12), and Japan (#52) to name some.

Later, Carey's behavior began to lean toward the erratic during the press blitz for the film and album, culminating in an unscheduled appearance on the now defunct, Carson Daly hosted, MTV Total Request Live Program. Mariah Carey took a brief respite from public appearances at which time the film and album were pushed back: the former would see an American release on 9/21/01, while more disastrously the companion record dropped on 9/11/01. Characterized as "mental exhaustion," Carey emerged from her slight medical break refreshed to finish plugging her double-headed film/album event.

The film itself was savaged by poor sales and reviews, whereas the album was at best received with mixed thoughts.

All Music Guide hard nose Stephen Thomas Erlewine stated:

...this album shows that Mariah needs some guiding force, something to keep her on track. Otherwise, she sinks into gormless ballads, covers of early-'80s funk tunes that sound exactly like the originals, hip-hop funk that plays plastic and stiff. This touches on everything Mariah tried before, but nothing works, not the oversinging, not the sentimental, not the desperate attempts for street cred.

His thoughts were furthered by David Browne of Entertainment Weekly:

...it's Mariah, business as usual: a few overemoted ballads, a few doses of lite-FM hip-hop, all of it as gauzy and shapeless as her previous work.

Though, there were those that championed the areas of Glitter that showed marked growth and artistic range. Sal Cinquemani, of Slant Magazine, reflected:

"All My Life," a collaboration with Rick James, would make a daring yet commercially viable single. Its Studio 54-era synth-flutes and sultry vocal could, at the very least, rub up against the boundaries of pop radio like no other Carey tune has since 1995's "Fantasy." "Want You," a duet with "Glitter" co-star Eric Benét is another retro gem, featuring grinding bass and Carey's distinctive vocal phrasing (she uncurls seemingly verbose adjectives like "painstakingly" with unrivaled ease.

The most fair and accurate review came from Rolling Stone author Rob Sheffield in the August 30, 2001 issue of the magazine, right as the record was pushed back to its eventual September drop date. Now, and not uncommon in print journalism, the article is difficult find on Rolling Stone's own website. It has been replaced with an obvious and negative throwaway opinion of Glitter. Knowing I read the original review, and with the strength of Google, I found the original article where Sheffield accurately captured the ethos of this album as thus:

The vintage-flavored music evokes classic R&B groups like Ready for the World, Atlantic Starr, Skyy and even my beloved Klymaxx.

Additionally Sheffield nailed what the best sides of Glitter were meant to accomplish:

With Glitter, Mariah takes a step toward staking her claim as a grown-up.

"Never Too Far" from Glitter
Directed By: Vondie Curtis-Hall


Commercially, the record continued the downward arc that started with Rainbow, moving just 100,000 its first week of release. The record in the States would lurch into #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 Album chart, while placing just one spot above at #6 on the U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Album chart. It did certify platinum status quick enough in its American arena. The worldwide audiences received it slightly better: Japan (#1), Spain (#3), France (#5) U.K. (#10), Australia (#13).

As such, a plethora of various promotional singles were culled from Glitter to keep the album afloat in the international territories. These singles included "(Don't Stop) Funkin' for Jamaica," "Reflections (Care Enough)," and "Last Night a D.J. Saved My Life." A video for "(Don't Stop)..." can be currently seen on Youtube, but received no push. The major follow-up to "Loverboy" in the United States was "Never Too Far," promoted with a performance segment of the song taken from the movie. The single missed the U.S. Pop and R&B charts altogether, but did well at #17 on the U.S. Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. Currently, Glitter has shifted 3 million units worldwide according to a Live Nation article from 8/24/10.

The chaotic fallout from all of this caused Virgin Records to buyout the $100 million dollar contract they had given Carey, effectively paying her to leave the label. Carey inked a deal with Island/Def Jam Records who would release Charmbracelet (2002), The Emancipation of Mimi (2005), E=MC² (2008), Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel (2009), and Merry Christmas II You (2010).

Of the batch, it would be Mimi that returned Carey to commercial and critical favor, if its creative slant wasn't nearly as interesting as Glitter's best sides. That honor would be reserved for 2009's Memoirs, which not only saw Carey in her best voice since then, but like that album it (again) staged the best and worst Carey had to offer.

This is, and may always be, Carey's eternal battle. Informing Carey's unwillingness to either balance, or truly explore a particular artistic path has left Carey's discography ravaged with holes. Glitter was a tool that could have easily broadened Carey's sound, and while it is true that every creative endeavor is not always met with friendliness, the effort is applauded. Without the risk, there is no reward, and for Carey it is not too late to grasp the risk and create the album to rival Butterfly (1997). In the meantime, one can look at the erroneous ends of Glitter and forgive them, for the songs that do it right, do it well and give insight into what may still be. Three stars out of five.

[Editor's Note-Glitter is still readily in print and can be located in most music retailers.-QH]