Mariah Carey has had a rough four years. After numerous embarrassing high-profile performances, a disparaging reality show and a cancelled engagement, listeners might think she would retire and disappear into obscurity. But if the general population learned one thing from Carey’s career, it is to never discount her. The five-time Grammy award winner returned to music with her first body of work in four years, her 15th studio album “Caution.” The album finds Carey shedding all preconceptions people hold about her and falters only in its lack of a theme and its cohesiveness bordering on monotony.
On "Caution," Carey no longer plays the role of passive damsel in distress waiting for her lover to come and rescue the relationship. On opening track "GTFO," Carey tells her lover, in a quite convincing Patois accent, “Get the f—k out / How ‘bout you / Take your tings and be on your merry way.” With the title track, she warns her lover “Proceed with caution, but don’t make me wait / Before too long it just might fade away.” “Caution” finds the songstress regaining control of both her career and her relationships.
This trend of defying expectations goes beyond the lyrics of the album and extends to its production and vocals. The album sees Carey with an entirely new set of producers like Skrillex, Poo Bear and Blood Orange, and the production sounds sleek and intricate as a result. With each spin, listeners find themselves discovering a new guitar lick, vocal ad lib or riff. Carey rejects the idea of her as a powerhouse vocalist and ventures into new territory vocally on “Caution.”
Make no mistake, Carey still retains her vocal prowess, but here it takes a backseat. Forgoing the belted climaxes of her 90s and early 2000s work, she utilizes her lower register and places extra emphasis on her background vocals and layering. Minutiae most choose to ignore, the smallest “ahh” or harmonization such as on “8th Grade” elevates tracks to a new level.
“A No No” is the highlight of the album. It may very well be the most bold Carey has sounded on a studio track. She delivers a scathing diss to her ex-manager in an almost raplike flow. With lyrics like “Ed Scissorhands aka I cut you off,” and “Even if I was the last woman alive / I would like Ginger, you ain’t Gilligan,” and an excellent sample of Lil’ Kim’s “Crush on You,” “A No No” remains the only club ready song on the album.
The weakness of the LP lies in its absence of a theme and repetitious sound. A Mariah Carey album typically indicates where she is at in her life. Take, for example, her magnum opus “Butterfly.” Having just divorced her then-husband, Tommy Mottola, Carey was clearly in a place of discovery and freedom. With topics ranging from the “melancholic feeling” Mariah held as a child to a sexy slow jam, “Caution” feels more like a collection of songs than an album telling a story. What it lacks in a discernible theme, it makes up for in sound. “Caution” contains slinky R&B beats, trap influences and heavy bass lines. While this cohesiveness makes the album flow well, it also makes the songs difficult to differentiate — the songs meld together and 10 tracks turn into one long song.
“Caution” stands out Carey’s discography. With an arsenal of new producers and four years of career and life experiences, Mariah has a lot to say, and she says so in a way only she can. The attention to detail Carey brings to her background vocals, layering and adlibs stand as a testament to her as an artist and is something greatly missing from the music industry today. This album shows audiences Carey in 2018 — comfortable in her voice and artistry. She solidified her status as a legend long ago, but with “Caution,” Carey proves she remains a force to be reckoned with — counting the diva out will always remain “A No No.”
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