Product Description

Mariah Carey's ascension to the top of the charts is an affirmation of her deep affection for the roots of popular music, to wit, gospel and R&B. She's not the first pop vocalist to find commercial and artistic bliss in black music, but her efforts are among the most heartfelt and convincing. And with the surehanded support of contemporary music's most creative producers and songwriters, Carey has developed a smooth, brassy sound signature all her own.
What makes it all happen is that luminous, vaulting voice, one of the surest most impassioned instruments in all of pop, capable of leaps in register most vocalists can't even imagine, yet alone execute. Her dark ornaments and trilling upper register cries on"Dream Lover" make this plain. On power pop ballads like "Hero" and "Anytime You Need A Friend"--with their gospelish "To dream the impossible dream/The greatest love of all" cadences--Carey's over-the-top expressive range sparks these arrangements to one emotional catharsis after another.
It isCarey's new found restraint--reining in her voice to suit the emotional fabric of each tune--that marks her growing maturity. The lush understatement of her singing and Walter Afanasieff's charts on the title tune, allow the tender grace of the song's lyrics to shine through--without superfluos vocal acrobatics. Ultimately it's Carey's reserves of vocal power, barely constrained on "Never Forget You" (with Babyface), that brings her fans back time and again.

Track Listing

1. Dreamlover
2. Hero
3. Anytime You Need A Friend
4. Music Box
5. Now That I Know
6. Never Forget You
7. Without You
8. Just To Hold You Once Again
9. I've Been Thinking About You
10. All I've Ever Wanted
11. Everything Fades Away

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8474 in Music
• Released on: 2001-12-10
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Linda Ronstadt was America's sweetheart of the 1970s, because she was able to combine a pretty face, a pretty voice and a safe personality. Her songs might be full of big notes and high emotions, but they satisfied every predictable expectation of a love ballad or good-time rocker. Mariah Carey is America's sweetheart of the 1990s for the exact same reasons. Music Box topped the charts, yielding number-one singles like "Dreamlover" and "Hero." The titles, one a hollow Minnie Riperton knock-off and the other a stiff Barbra Streisand imitation, are tip-offs to Carey's reliance on untethered fantasy (she's the fantasizer in the lyrics and the fantasy object in the videos). These songs, co-written and co-produced like most of the album by Walter Anasieff and Carey herself, are constructed to show off her dizzying soprano, not to provide an original approach to a well-worn subject. Even when she gets a strong ballad to sing, like her current singles--Babyface's "Never Forget You" or Badfinger/Nilsson's "Without You"--she overdoes the self-pity bit so much that the song loses its dramatic tension. --Geoffrey Himes

Customer Reviews

Balladeering At It's Best!
1. Dreamlover. 10/10
2. Hero. 10/10
3. Anytime You Need a Friend. 10/10
4. Music Box. 9/10
5. Now That I Know. 10/10
6. Never Forget You. 9/10
7. Without You. 9/10
8. Just To Hold You Once Again. 8/10
9. I've Been Thinking About You. 10/10
10. All I've Ever Wanted. 9/10
11. Everything Fades Away. 10/10

OVERALL GRADEl 10/10
This is a album by Mariah, which shows her focusing more on ballads than uptempo pieces. From the beautifulness of "Dreamlover" and "Hero" to the sweetness of "Music Box", this is an unforgettable album!

A Flawless Album That Certainly Had Universal Appeal.
`Music Box' was Mariah Carey's 3rd album, it was the last album of Carey's that did not include a single collaboration or guest, as well as being one of the biggest selling albums in music history, the only reason for this could be the 3 chart toping singles it produced, including the killer record breaking ballad `Hero', what also sold this album was the fact it had universal appeal, meaning you wouldn't have to be a huge Mariah Carey fan to own it, as you could appreciate it for it's more mainstream `pop' sound.

The quality of the material on this album is excellent, but if I had to choose, my personal favourites would have to be the very gospel inspired `Anytime You Need A Friend', a theme or genre that Carey would later use again on songs such as `Fly Like A Bird' from 2005's `The Emancipation Of Mimi`, `Without You', the sultry and soothing `Music Box', `Just To Hold You Once Again' and `All I've Ever Wanted`.

Overall i really could not fault a single song on here, they all have nice melody's and fantastic hooks, the ballads are true ballads with amazing vocals, same goes for the more upbeat songs, in my opinion the whole album could have been made into singles, and you really can't make that statement about many albums, although i think this album has slightly too much of the commercial 'pop' mainstream factor rather than depth, it's still a real pleasure too listen to time and time again.

Vintage Mariah Carey
Vintage Mariah Carey. Beautiful ballards - the ones we know and love like Hero and can't live, but these were not actually my favourites, some of the less successful singles like anytime you need a friend, and then songs which were not even released as singles were even more beautiful like music box, just to hold you once again, all I've ever wanted and even the bonus track everything fades away. This is the biggest selling mariah carey album to date and was around the time when I really got into Mariah seriously, I had emotions and really liked that but this was the one that got me hooked but having said that it's not my favourite album give me butterfly any day. Still an amazing album though. I give it 4 stars only because Mariah has made better albums and therefore I must distinguish this by giving these 5 stars.