Eamon Blog

Today's Shelf Pull: Mariah Carey, Back in Charge

Mariah Carey's The Emancipation of Mimi is on the shelf today: a 2005 2LP where the comeback story is true, but the songs are the better argument.

Comeback records can be awkward things.

They arrive carrying flowers, receipts, a press narrative, and usually one too many people saying the artist has returned to form, as if form were a cardigan left behind in a taxi.

The Emancipation of Mimi does not need that much fuss.

It has the story, of course. Mariah Carey in 2005, back in the middle of the room, everyone suddenly remembering what should not have needed remembering: that the voice, the writing instinct and the pop intelligence were still very much open for business.