Mariah Carey's New Album 'Caution' Has No Hits On It

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Mariah Carey's New Album 'Caution' Has No Hits On It

November 16. 2018

Mariah Carey

I recently listened to all the clips from Mariah Carey's new album "Caution" and it is her worst album to date. It's not awful. The album is just average. There are no hits on it. Carey usually manages at least one hit song per album. This one was a total miss. Carey's new manager, Jay Z, who doesn't know what he is doing, pushed through this effort that is weak, especially in light of her past work. However, look for Jay Z to try to commit fraud again in falsifying sales sales through his failed music streaming company Tidal.

Carey's voice is struggling on many of the tracks on "Caution." This is ironic, as the songs do not have complicated vocal runs. Years ago she could sing what's on the new album without even losing her breath. However, on "Caution" she is constantly struggling to get the notes out and her voice has a whispering quality to it that was not present before, indicating more vocal damage.

The new producers Jay Z and Carey chose for the album plied Carey's voice with too much vocal processing, making her sound like a robot. It gets irritating on some tracks. While Carey's voice is damaged, it's not awful, cracking and off-key like Madonna. Therefore, there was no need for all that Autotune, compression and reverb. It was just too much of it. This is below Carey's standard.

What I want to know is why she didn't go back to the producers she worked with during the most successful part of her career over two decades ago. The new producers today do not know music like those guys do. Carey is trying to be a trendy, hip hop artist, cussing on the songs and acting rough, trying to be something she is not.

Carey is almost 50-years-old. While she doesn't look her age (the weight loss from gastric surgery and work she had done on her face looks good) she needs to remember that mumble rap crap is not for her (I like regular rap though). Carey is a pop singer who has also recorded R&B music.

Even the late, great Aretha Franklin worked with younger artists and producers, but it had its limits. A perfect example of that was her 1998 collaboration with Lauryn Hill called "A Rose Is Still A Rose." It was still Aretha, but slightly modernized using hip hop sounds and in a tasteful way. Pointing a gun at the camera and telling a man "get the f**k out" is not tasteful, Mariah, nor is it you. That's something thug Jay Z would do.

As stated previously on the site, Carey has sustained significant vocal damage over the past 15-years. It all came from singing in the whistle register too often. Singing songs like "Emotions" and "Can't Let Go" deteriorated her voice, as she sang as high as she possibly could and at full force in said range. Singers need to take note. The whistle register is a nice vocal feat, but done too often it can wreak havoc on the voice.