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Firstly, sorry about the long overdue-d review. NS is killing me (Those who are in SG should know about it). Thanks all of you guys for the support and patience. I promise to churn out reviews asap. Love ya’ll!!!

“Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel” is the 12th studio album by Mariah Carey. Originally scheduled for release on August 25, 2009, the project was released on September 29th with Island Records in the US.

The album debuted at #3 in the US, behind Barbra Streisand’s Love Is the Answer and Paramore’s Brand New Eyes with first week sales of 168,000, a noticeable drop from her previous album’s opening week of 463,000. Very unexpected. Since I think this album is slightly better than E=MC2 (Energy Equals Mass Times the Velocity of Light Squared).

First Impressions
This album is rather highly anticipated by me, since it was being pushed back twice for certain reasons. I expected it to be good, but it disappoints. More misses than hits. Her last album was quite commercial for my taste.

“Touch My Body” is very bad, “Bye Bye” underperformed, “Lovin’ You Long Time” is a wrong single choice and “I Stay In Love” was released too late and sounding like “We Belong Together” Pt. 2, not fresh at all.

Well, this album doesn’t have many single choices, hence making it a little non-commercial in a sense. In short, the album is filled with fillers. After all, she only took less than a year to record it. Sounds a little too rushed. Nearly all of the album’s tracks was written and produced by Mariah, Tricky Stewart and The-Dream (Rihanna’s hit makers).

Standout Tracks

• Betcha Gon’ Know (The Prologue)
  Mariah is singing about a day of her life as Mimi. Hmm, good tune. That’s about it. Better than some fillers on her album. Promising song as the album opener.
• Obsessed
  First single. Initially I hated this track, but it grows on me due to the fact that this song fits right in the vibe of this album. Love the original album mix. HATES all the remixes. Sorry Seamus Haji, hearts all of your remixes but not this.
• H.A.T.E.U.
  The title stands for Having a Typical Emotional Upset. 3rd single of the album. A very endearing slow jam. Nothing breakthough though. Standard Mariah stuff since the Emancipation era.
• Candy Bling
  Samples “Back in the Day” by Ahmad. One of my 2 fave song from the album. She fully utilises her voice to the max in this track. And this song is very good for making out. =P Should be release as a single. Didn’t really like the remix treatment that features T-Pain.
• Ribbon
  Has the potential, BUT the vocoder-ed vocals throughout ANNOYS the hell out of me. SHEESH!!! Why spoil a song when it could be more than decent.
• Inseparable
  A rather radio-friendly commercial track. You’ll hear elements of “Time After Time” by Cyndi Lauper in this song (on the song structure). It’s not really direct sampling.
• Standing O
  The ‘another’ fave track on the album. This track is very Rihanna. Could be “Take a Bow” Part 2. Filled with angst. The ‘O’ hook is addictive too. Makes you wanna sing along.
• Angels Cry
  A decent ballad, but rather forgettable. The chorus is good.
• Languishing (The Interlude)
  Interlude to 2nd single, “I Want to Know What Love is“. Even though this is not a full track, this song left me wishing it could be a full track. It deserves the full treatment. Feels very vulnerable, Mariah at her best. Otherwise, a good intro before IWTKWLI.
• I Want to Know What Love Is
  2nd single. It’s a cover of a song that is originally by Foreigner. I’ve mixed feelings about this song. A very safe choice for a single. And she sounds flat when she drags ‘Is’ during mid song. Some says Mariah + Gospel Choir + “I Want to Know What Love Is” = Surefire hit. I’m neutral on this.

Final Verdict
Actually, this album sounds rather cohesive together, deemed as Mariah’s most sonically consistent album to date by Slant Magazine. That’s quite true, including the fillers too. On the other hand, the album feels that it lacks soul and passion. The fillers are thrown in for the sake of filling up the album.

Mariah definitely could not recreate the success she had on her comeback like Emancipation, neither during her early years too, the 90s. I like Music Box, Daydream and Butterfly. Sigh, those were the days. Nowadays, she producing lackluster stuff. Hoping the remix album would give her a wider range and those unreleased tracks from this sessions could see the ray of light (No pun intended). Till then….

This album scores a 3 out of 5.