‘Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel’: Your Thoughts?

Tomorrow marks the US release of Mariah Carey’s ‘Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel’ LP – although it’s pretty much common knowledge that it “surfaced” online two weeks ahead of release.

As regards my take on the album, it’s like I’m between a rock and a hard place, hence the lack of review at present. On the one hand the album delivers in that it isn’t as sickeningly commercial and fast-food music in the vein of ‘E=MC2’; yet, save for a few standout tracks (see: ‘More Than Friends, ‘Angels Cry’, ‘Up Out My Face’ and ‘I Want To Know What Love Is’), the rest of the album is a slow-snooze-fest. In as much as I seem to go in on Mariah, I actually kinda feel sorry for her. Critiqued for being too commercial, she re-engaged with a more mature sound, yet the output of that is largely monotonous and boring – some would argue it’s as if poor Mimi can’t win either way. How true that is, I don’t know. What I do know is that it’s becoming increasingly apparent that the Mariah of yesteryear, who was able to deliver both timeless contemporary ballads as well as quality club smashes, which managed to effortlessly sit beside each other on one album (see: ‘Butterfly’ and ‘Emancipation of Mimi’) seems to have much difficulty duplicating the same winning formula today. It’s as if today she can only do one well at any given time/album, with even that proving one hell of a rarity these days. Oh Mimi…

Anyway, more so than anything, we’re eager to hear what you think of ‘Memoirs’. Hit or Miss? Does it live up to your expectations? Favourite tracks? Least Favourite track? First week sales predictions?…