MCID

Fuse

• Lykke Li, ‘I Never Learn’
• St. Vincent, ‘St. Vincent’
• 5 Seconds of Summer, ‘She Looks So Perfect’
• Cloud Nothings, ‘Here and Nowhere Else’
• Pharrell Williams, ‘G I R L’
• Kelis, ‘Food’
• Michael Jackson, ‘Xscape’
• Juanes, ‘Loco de Amor’
• SZA, ‘Z’
• Lily Allen, ‘Sheezus’
• Coldplay, ‘Ghost Stories’
• Black Keys, ‘Turn Blue’
• Beck, ‘Morning Phase’
• Ratking, ‘So It Goes’
• Manchester Orchestra, ‘Cope’
• Mariah Carey, ‘Me. I Am Mariah… The Elusive Chanteuse’

Stand Out Tracks: “Faded,” “Dedicated” ft. Nas, “#Beautiful” ft. Miguel, “Make It Look Good,” “Camouflage”

Why It’s Great: Mariah Carey may have rose to fame singing pop ballads and is still a “pop star” nearly three decades into her career, but let’s be clear: Mariah’s been making R&B albums since her ’97 classic Butterfly. Her sales may have declined in recent years yet she refuses to trendhop, for example Top 40’s recent preoccupation with dance music. For fans, Me. I Am Mariah is a near-perfect mix of classic Mariah ballads and modern R&B jams she nails, courtesy of producers like Mike WiLL Made It and Hit-Boy. Forget charts and numbers – if there’s one thing Mariah does extremely well, it’s give her Lambs exactly what they want.

Fun Fact: The final song on the standard edition of the album is gospel track “Heavenly (No Ways Tired/Can’t Give Up Now)” is a dedication to iconic gospel musician Reverend James Cleveland, who died in 1991. Mariah even samples one of his sermons on the track.

• Madlib & Freddie Gibbs, ‘Pinata’
• The Hotelier, ‘Home, Like Noplace Is There’
• Modern Baseball, ‘You’re Gonna Miss It All’
• 2NE1, ‘Crush’
• Duck Sauce, ‘Quack’
• Schoolboy Q, ‘Oxymoron’
• Damon Albarn, ‘Everyday Robots’
• Against Me!, ‘Transgender Dysphoria Blues’
• Chromeo, ‘White Women’

Posted on June 20, 2014 at 12:00 PM in 2014, Album, Chart, Cover   |  RSS feed |   Reply   |   Trackback URL