#1's Arkansas

#1's

Mariah Carey

Columbia Records, 1998

REVIEW BY: JB

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 11/19/1998

I'm not 100% sure how the Billboard charts work but I do knowit's insane in the phospholipid bilayer. More copies of "Candle inthe Wind 98" were sold in its first week alone than "One Sweet Day"did in its 4.5 month run on #1. Heck, more copies of "Always Be MyBaby" were sold than "One Sweet Day". Then there's that whole "MyHeart Will Go On" thing. Them charts are point-blank skewered sowhat's the hairy deal?

Which is why Mariah (dropped last name) points out in the linernotes that this is NOT a "greatest hits" album and justly so. TheBillboard is a poor judge of what the audience likes, and thisexplains the glaring absence of "Make It Happen", "All I Want ForChristmas Is You" and "Breakdown" as well as the glaring presenceof "Emotions" and "My All". To the Americans who wonder why"Without You" didn't make it, it's your own fault. It went #1practically everywhere else (it's on all non-American #1's).

Five new Mariah tracks (counting "Do You Know Where You're GoingTo", also not released in the US) is enough reason for any MC fanto grab this album. As for "Do You Know", the Americans aren'tmissing much... the song is so flat-out boring, she reverts back(or up) to dog-whistling like she's never done since 1992. Starkcontrast to "Sweetheart", which relies more on the tight groovesand her divine alto texturing. She's always sounded better inhip-hop so using the ODB remix for "Fantasy" over the originalversion for this album was a smart move.

When Mariah duets she tends to forget there's someone elsethere; all four members of Boyz II Men were stomped to theacoustics carpet as soon as the bridge ripped. Brian McKnight(whose technique is eerily similar to Mariah's) falls victimdespite the fact that Carey's vocals in "Whenever You Call" werepre-recorded. But it's much more listenable than the LP version,where it stands as the most boring track on Butterfly. Babyface's production of the Whitney Houston duet"When You Believe (from The Prince Of Egypt)" is disappointing in many respects asthe two divas seem to have almost no chemistry between them.