Mariah Carey : Releases >>

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These days she's fodder for tabloids and late-night comics, but way back in the 1990s Mariah Carey reigned as one of the world's bestselling female performers. This two-CD Greatest Hits collection offers up chart-topping evidence why, for better or worse, Mariah's five-octave, pop/R&B styling set the diva standard. Culled from her five albums on Sony, (before signing to Virgin), and you get all the facets of her platinum-plus sound. From the soulful smoulder of her 1990 debut "Vision of Love" (still one of her best tracks), to the coyer than thou duet with Jay Z ("Heartbreaker"), Carey thrills, trills and hits notes that only canines comprehend. Fans will gobble this collection up but inclusion of some of Carey's more adventurous remixes (eg: the Puffy produced "Fantasy", featuring ODB) might have made this package more noteworthy. --Amy Linden

Bye Bye [CD 2] >>

Bye Bye >>

The Emancipation of Mimi: Ultra Platinum Edition >>

Music Box >>

Linda Ronstadt was America's sweetheart of the 1970s, because she was able to combine a pretty face, a pretty voice and a safe personality. Her songs might be full of big notes and high emotions, but they satisfied every predictable expectation of a love ballad or good-time rocker. Mariah Carey is America's sweetheart of the 1990s for the exact same reasons. Music Box topped the charts, yielding number-one singles like "Dreamlover" and "Hero." The titles, one a hollow Minnie Riperton knock-off and the other a stiff Barbra Streisand imitation, are tip-offs to Carey's reliance on untethered fantasy (she's the fantasizer in the lyrics and the fantasy object in the videos). These songs, co-written and co-produced like most of the album by Walter Anasieff and Carey herself, are constructed to show off her dizzying soprano, not to provide an original approach to a well-worn subject. Even when she gets a strong ballad to sing, like her current singles--Babyface's "Never Forget You" or Badfinger/Nilsson's "Without You"--she overdoes the self-pity bit so much that the song loses its dramatic tension. --Geoffrey Himes

#1's >>

Mariah Carey's #1's is as much a time capsule of 1990s pop and R&B as a record of one woman's chart toppers: the disc chronicles a shift from the sweet, nearly '50s-style "Vision of Love" to more recent hip-hop-lite grooves featuring heavy input from Puffy Combs ("Honey"), Jermaine Dupri ("Sweetheart"), and O.D.B. ("Fantasy"). Some hit, some miss, but all feature the fluttery swoops that Carey substitutes for expression of feeling. Depth is beside the point, but few of these tracks are even fun. Still, after eight years, there seems to be no stopping her, and this album will hardly break her streak of successes. --Rickey Wright

Butterfly >>

Carey's first post-divorce effort makes passing allusions to her ex-hubby (and label honcho) Tommy Mottola, but it doesn't dwell on them the way many similar projects do. Instead, Carey is right back to her old tricks; cooing trademark melismatic spirals through sexy, beat-heavy hits. Fans will dig the bedroom slink of "Baby Doll", the dripping "Honey" and the infectious title track (reprised, along with a bit of Elton John's "Skyline Pigeon", in "Fly Away"). The highlight is a duet with Dru Hill on Prince's "The Beautiful Ones", which just might be her most pointed commentary on Mottola. --Michael Ruby

Mariah Carey : Releases >>

E=MC2 >>

Greatest Hits [2CD] >>