Emotions (Mariah Carey album)

Following the success of Mariah Carey's self - titled debut album, critics wondered if the singer would be touring the world's major music venues to advertise the new album. ^[1] However, Mariah Carey explained in several interviews that she was afraid to speak to the public because of the complexity of her songs. ^[1] In December 1990, the third single “ Someday ” was released from its debut album, and at the same time, Mariah began writing new material for Emotions . It was then considered the norm to release a new studio album every two years, allowing singles to advertise the upcoming album via radio or television appearances. ^[2] Additionally, after the concert tour, it was decided to release a new album to attract new fans who would start buying the previous longplay in the hope of learning more about the artist’s previous studio work. ^[2] However, Sony's label for Mariah Carey decided to use a different tactic taken from the 1960s music industry, when a singer or singer released a new album each year. ^[3] Representatives of the record company believed that the image of the "studio singer" and the author of their songs at such an early age would be so charming that fans would wait for a new album more often than usual. ^[3]

As soon as work began on a new studio project, Mariah broke up with Ben Margulis , with whom she wrote seven of the eleven songs for her debut album. ^[3] Their paths diverged due to the singer signing a contract with Sony label before she received a new contract from Columbia . ^[3] Mariah agreed to share not only the rights to shared songs, but also half of her sales revenue, because she never thought about it when she wrote songs with Ben in his father’s studio. ^[3] However, when the time came to work on Emotions , Sony officials explained that Ben would be paid commissions only for co-copyrights. ^[3] Ben Margulis sued Sony, accusing the label of violating the terms of the contract, according to which he had to continue to work in a team with Mariah, as well as make more profit. After a year of litigation, the judge ruled that Ben owed ten percent of the sales of co-written songs with Mariah, not including income from any other albums. ^[3] While financial matters were settled, the relationship between the singer and Ben was destroyed because Mariah considered the lawsuit against her and the label a betrayal. In an interview with Fred Bronson, Carey said of the contract: “I signed it blindly. Later I tried to amend so that we continued to work together ... but he did not agree with this. " ^[3] After the settlement, Margulis spoke about his feelings regarding this issue, claiming that he would hope to write songs with Mariah Carey someday, and that the record label was to blame for everything, and also added: “I hope once , art will prevail over business. ” ^[3]

Initially, the songs for Mariah Carey's debut album were recorded on old equipment in Ben Margulis’s studio. After signing a contract with Columbia, the songs were remastered and re-recorded in a professional studio. ^[4] However, due to Sony’s involvement in the project, the label did not allow the singer to produce most of the album, hoping that the help of several famous recording producers would make Mariah’s already “elegant” songs popular among listeners. Due to the subsequent success of the album, the label gave the singer more freedom in working on Emotions than on the previous one. ^[4] Since she no longer had a creative or personal relationship with Ben Margulies, she began to collaborate with various musicians who had not participated in the previous project, with the exception of Walter Athanaseff , the only one left in the creative group from the album Mariah Carey . ^[4] Despite the fact that he is a co-author of the song “ Love Takes Time ”, and was the producer of part of the album, Mariah felt a special creative connection with him, which later developed into a unique joint formula for writing songs. In addition to Athanasieff, the singer collaborated with Robert Cliveville and David Cole (both from the music production group C + C Music Factory ). ^[4] Collaboration with the duo was originally proposed by Tommy Mottola, but after meeting with them, Mariah agreed and wrote four songs with their help. ^[four]

In addition to the three male co-authors, Mariah collaborated with Carol King , a performer who was especially popular in the 1970s. ^[5] Unlike the C + C Music Factory, Carol King herself offered Mariah a collaboration after listening to her concert performance at The Arsenio Hall Show . During a conversation with Mariah, Carol invited her to sing a cover version of the song “ (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman ”, which she wrote with Jerry Goffin for Aretha Franklin . ^[5] After discussing several ideas, Mariah rejected Carol’s proposal, feeling embarrassed about recording a song that once inspired her and was sung brilliantly. ^[5] Still set to work with Mariah, Carol King flew to New York for one day to try and create a ballad of this type. ^[5] They sat at the piano during the day, and closer to dusk, wrote the arrangement and lyrics of the song, which they called " If It's Over ." ^[6] In an interview, Carol King said: “I love her voice. She is very expressive. She puts so many meanings into the songs she sings. ” ^[6]

Following the release, Emotions gathered mixed reviews from contemporary music critics, many of whom praised and criticized the contents of the album along with Carey's vocal acrobatics. About.com’s Bill Lam put him three and a half stars out of five and generally praised the record, on which, in his opinion, the flaws of the debut work had been corrected. He described the lead single as "chilling", but criticized some of Cary's high notes for "excesses in the vocal range" ^[7] . Allmusic portal editor Stephen Thomas Erlevine gave the album four out of five stars, calling it a "musical journey." In addition, Erlevine singled out, in his opinion, the outstanding tracks “Emotions” and “Make It Happen” and wrote: “The only emotion that prevails over the others at the end of the album is satisfaction” ^[8] . Parry Guttleman, a journalist from Orlando Sentinel , was critical of Carey's vocal acrobatics, explaining: “Carey became so addicted to the high frequencies of her range that I begin to suspect that she is an intergalactic spy who is trying to reconnect with the distant Planet of Dogs " ^[12] . Jonathan Karent of Sun-Sentinel gave the Emotions an ambiguous response, writing: “Oddly enough, the album takes on a lot of originality closer to completion, which not everyone wants to get to.” Further in his review, he singled out the tracks “The Wind” and “Till the End of Time” as those that are worthy of attention, but, in general, considered the album unoriginal and not exceeding the heights taken on the first disc ^[16] .

Steve Morse of The Boston Globe praised the album, calling it a "sure leap into maturity." Morse decided that the Emotions exceeded the level that was taken by Carey's debut. He called the songs wonderful, the ballads incredibly beautiful, and Cary's vocal and composing abilities unlimited ^[9] . Rolling Stone's Rob Tanenbaum was critical of the album, which makes it really hard to really feel and understand the lyrics when Carey makes extensive use of her voice range. Tannenbaum concluded his review of Emotions with the words: “Carey has excellent vocal abilities, but today, unfortunately, her singing has been rather impressive than expressive” ^[14] . Entertainment Weekly's Arion Berger rated the album "C", calling it "cooler and more calculated" compared to Carey's debut work. In addition, Berger expressed the same feelings as Tannenbaum, writing: “ Emotions is a hybrid offspring of venerable traditions - traditions of rhythm and blues divas - and gross commercial instincts. This is gospel without a soul, love songs without passion, pop without buoyancy ” ^[11] . Deborah Wilker, a Sun-Sentinel journalist, praised Carey's vocals and her abilities, but criticized the entire album. Wilker wrote: “With her show business connections and top-notch vocals, Carey could have done better. Of course, this album is beautiful and makes it possible for fans of pop music to put the new idol on the throne, but Carey and her team did not use her musical potential to the full extent ” ^[15] . Denise Hunt of the Los Angeles Times assigned two of four possible stars, calling Carey's voice “exciting and impressive,” but he criticized the album’s songs and the album itself as a product ^[13] . Chicago Tribune editor Jan de Knock gave the album three stars, which means "good." Some of the ballads, in her opinion, are boring, but she called Carey's voice “exciting” ^[10] .

Emotions debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 chart with sales of 129,000 copies in its first week, which surprised music critics after the success of Mariah Carey's 1990 debut longplay. In total, Emotions spent 27 weeks on the list of the top twenty albums and 55 weeks on the chart itself, becoming Mariah's worst debut before the 2001 Glitter album. Emotions received four times platinum certification from the American Recording Association (RIAA) for total sales exceeding four million copies of the album in the United States of America. ^[17] According to Nielsen SoundScan , the album sold over 3,584,000 units, not including sales under the Bertelsmann Music Group label. ^[18] On October 5, 1991, Emotions appeared on the Canadian RPM Albums Chart in fourteenth place. ^[19] Four weeks later, on November 2, the album peaked in fifth position. ^[20] At the end of the year, Emotions entered the final list of 1991 best albums at 35th place. ^[21] To date, the album has four platinum certifications from the Canadian Recording Association (CRIA) for total sales in excess of 400,000 copies. ^[22] In Japan, Emotions debuted on the Oricon chart in third place; according to Sony Music , album sales are over 1,000,000 copies in the country. ^{[23] [24]} On October 10, 1991, the album appeared on the Australian chart in 12th place and rose to eighth line next week. ^[25] After 18 weeks on the chart, Emotions disappeared from the list of the top forty albums and received platinum certification from the Australian Recording Association (ARIA). ^{[25] [26]}

In France, the album entered the charts on line 9, ultimately receiving gold certification from the National Recording Syndicate (SNEP) for sales in excess of 100,000 copies. ^[27] In the Netherlands, the album debuted at 79th place on the Dutch Top 40 chart , ^[28] rising to 59th place next week, which was the album’s highest position on this chart. ^[28] Emotions spent six weeks in the official Dutch hit parade and received platinum certification from the Netherlands Recording Association (NVPI) for selling more than 100,000 copies of the album. ^[29] On October 17, 1991, Emotions entered the New Zealand Albums Chart in sixth place, the highest result in 16 weeks spent on the chart. ^[30] The album received platinum certification from the New Zealand Record Association (RIANZ) for selling more than 15,000 copies. ^[31] Emotions debuted at number 27 on the Swedish Albums Chart and peaked at number 13. ^[32] After five weeks on the chart, the album received platinum status from the International Federation of Phonogram Manufacturers (IFPI) for selling more than 100,000 copies in Sweden. ^[33] October 13, 1991 Emotions appeared in sixteenth place on the Swiss chart and a week later reached its maximum at line 15. ^[34] After nine weeks on the chart, the album received gold certification from IFPI for selling 50,000 copies. ^[35] On October 26, the album debuted in tenth position on the UK Albums Chart . ^[36] After 17 weeks, Emotions climbed to fourth place, which was a better result than the debut album, which peaked in sixth place. ^[37] After 40 weeks on the chart, the British Association of Phonogram Manufacturers (BPI) awarded the album a platinum certificate for selling more than 300,000 copies. ^[38] Worldwide sales of Emotions exceeded 8 million copies, while the debut album sold 15 million times. ^{[24] [39]}

Three singles were released from Emotions album. The first of them (the track of the same name ) became the fifth single, which took the first line of the Billboard Hot 100 chart , making Mariah the only singer among the solo artists in history who managed to lead this chart with the first five singles. ^{[40] [41]} Additionally, the song " Emotions " was the leader in Canada, included in the top five singles in New Zealand, and twenty singles in Australia, the Netherlands and the UK. ^{[42] [43] [44] [45] [46]} The song received positive reviews from music critics, in particular Bill Lemb from the educational and information site About.com said: "This is her best song." ^[7] Steve Morse of The Boston Globe called Mariah's whistle register in the song “pure sense of joy,” while Chicago Tribune's Jan Decknock said Cary’s voice was “breathtaking.” ^{[47] [48]} A music video shows Mariah singing with pleasure in a car against the backdrop of the countryside, as well as a modest celebration with several dancers.

The second single from the album - “ Can't Let Go ” reached the second line of the Billboard Hot 100 main chart, failing to reach its top due to the Columbia label's attempt to increase album sales by removing the single from music stores. ^[41] The song finished third in the Canadian chart and enjoyed little success in Europe, appearing in the top twenty singles only in the UK. ^{[49] [50] The} accompanying song music video was shot in black and white, while Mariah appeared with changes in her image, namely with straight hair. The music video is dominated by scenes with a close-up of the singer against the background of a small fountain with blooming white roses. " Make It Happen ", the third and final single from the Emotions album, was released on April 4, 1992. The song finished fifth on the United States chart and enjoyed little success in Europe, as did Can't Let Go. ^[41] In Canada, “Make It Happen” peaked in seventh place, ^[51] in Britain in seventeenth, ^[52] in Australia, thirty-fifth, ^[53] and in the Netherlands at 47th. ^[54] The song received warm reviews from music critics; Steve Morse called the song “a clear inspirational fragment of her autobiography,” and called the last refrain “magnificent.” ^[9] In the same way, Deknok described the song “rhythmic and inspiring.” ^{[10] The} music video shows the singer performing alongside dancers and backing vocalists in front of an audience in a large church.

Singles