Any time I review an artist who is a favorite of one of our
\nwriters, I run the risk of really upsetting them. If I don’t like
\nan album by that particular artist, I usually get nasty little
\nnotes from that writer. If, however, I like the release, I usually
\ndon’t hear from them.<\/p>\n
One of our writers, “Always JB,” is a drooling Mariah Carey fan.
\nI have never been a big fan of hers – like other “divas” (Whitney
\nHouston, etc.), I have always felt their songs have been more of
\nvehicles to show how high their vocal range is. If I want to see
\nsomeone showing off, I’ll watch the Detroit Red Wings pummel
\nPhiladelphia – oh, wait, I did that before I wrote this review.<\/p>\n
So it may seem strange that I am the one reviewing Carey –
\ntoday’s subject,
\nMTV Unplugged EP<\/i> – rather than JB. Call it an attempt to be
\nopen-minded or call it an impulse buy as a result of my last trip
\nto the used record store.<\/p>\n
I can’t help but notice one particular section of the liner
\nnotes: “We broke the arrangements down to their simplest forms by
\nusing only acoustic instruments on all of the songs.”
\n
\nDuh<\/i>
\n<\/b> – that’s why they called it “unplugged,” you fool! (This
\ndidn’t stop Tesla from breaking out an electric guitar on their
\n“acoustic” album, however.)<\/p>\n
Now that I have my cheap shot out of the way, I will admit that
\nCarey does have some impetus as a vocalist – though I think she is
\nbetter as a “torch” singer than when she is hitting some of those
\nhigh notes that would make the dog howl with pain. (I did once hit
\na note that high – when my then-girlfriend kicked me in the crotch
\nafter I rated The The as “okay” – but I digress.) When Carey is in
\ntorch mode, songs like “Vision Of Love” shine.<\/p>\n
Too bad moments like this are few and far between on
\nMTV Unplugged EP<\/i>. Carey puts a slight gospel twist on the
\nopening track “Emotions,” and continues to keep a gospel theme
\ngoing throughout various parts of the album. But on “Emotions” and
\n“Someday,” Carey shows off how high she can sing (though she does
\nstay true to form with the studio versions). Two words: who
\ncares?<\/p>\n
In fact, it is on a cover song that Carey seems to be in the
\nmost control – “I’ll Be There,” a song which grated on my eardrums
\nwhen it played on the in-store piped music while I worked in
\nretail. Trey Lorenz’s background solo work does add to the power of
\nthe track.To Carey’s credit, she does revive my interest in the
\nearly stage of her career with a decent job on “Can’t Let Go.”<\/p>\n
New fans may be turned off at the brevity of this album, while
\ndiehard fans like JB probably appreciate the new twist on some of
\ntheir favorites. But I don’t think
\nMTV Unplugged EP<\/i> will attract that many more fans – it’s
\nmore of an album for diehard fans only.<\/p>\n
Sorry, JB – though I will be looking forward to your next review
\nfor me, where you’ll probably bludgeon someone like Led Zeppelin to
\ndeath.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24439,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5635],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-35643","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-mariah-carey","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35643"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35643"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}