Brilliant & Incredible!! The Best Edition of Charmbracelet!

To start off, the Charmbracelet album is in fact, stunning. I've actually purchased this album here in New York City back in July of '03. Full of incredible ballads and uptempo songs, Mariah has once again proved to everyone that her name is definitely engraved in stone and is here to stay. This edition is by far the best of all. The Japanese "Tour Edition" of Charmbracelet is absolutely superb. The First disc contains the full Charmbracelet album (This is the only "Charmbracelet Tour Edition" to have "Miss You" added as a Japan Only bonus track. The second disc is new material. Having already blown away the music scene of 2003 with her mega hit "I Know What You Want" with Busta Rhymes (Which is included on the bonus CD), this bonus disc features 2 all new songs and a new remix. "There Goes My Heart" is an amazing new "midtempo/ballad", the song is a mixture between R&B/Blues perfectly accenuated with the sounds of Asian instruments. "Got A Thing 4 You" is a new song which is mostly Da Brat's song (It's featured on her new album), Mariah sings in the background and the chorus. "The One (So So Def Remix)" is great, good remix, awesome new vocals were recorded for this, along with Bone Crusher's rap. The bonus disc also comes with two of Mariah's videos for "Through The Rain" and "Boy (I Need You)". The videos are not DVD quality at all. You can only play them in the computer. This edition is packaged in a standard jewel double cd case in a beautiful slip case of a different cover of Mariah from the "Charmbracelet" photo shoot. If you want to buy the Charmbracelet album, I strongly suggest buying the Japanese Tour edition to any others (The Asian tour editions do not feature the track, "Miss You" like the Japanese one does). This is by far the greatest Japanese album I have ever purchased (Along with the Japanese edition of Mariah's Greatest Hits). This is a definite MUST HAVE for any Mariah fan. This album is another one of Mariah's responses to haters to show them that these albums are the reasons why she is the incredible legend she is today. Being the Most Successful Female Recording Artist in recording history must mean something!!

Mariah makes it through the rain...

Once again, Mariah does what she knows best.. sing!, in this album she tells the her story of the last years of her life in a very poetric way.
It has a high hip hop influence, and some lift spirit tracks such as : "Through the rain", "My saving grace", some ballads "i only wanted" jazzy song: "there goes my heart" and "subtle invitation" and of course the smash hit single " i know what you want " with Busta Rhymes.
:)

WHAT WOULD HAVE MADE A GOOD ALBUM..

.would have been to give us some variety. Consider the Mariah of yore: Emotions, Vision of Love, You Need Me, I Dont Wanna Cry etc. Her albums used to sport the stunning Mariah vocals, excellent lyrics, and were an assortment of numbers that were deliciously different from each other.

Sadly, ever since "Butterfly" we have only seen monotonous sounds from Ms. Carey. Almost every song has the same slow Boyz-II-Men type beat, with her crooning away in a ludicrously similar tune and rhyme. Plus, perhaps a couple of wannabe trip-hop numbers that are casually tossed in as an afterthought, with some lacklustre rap (this time a couple of cameos by Jay-Z and Busta Rhymes, which may be the borderline bearable two songs out of a total of 19 on the album!)

Noteworthy: A Mariah Carey rendition of a song I have heard before -- "Bringing On The Heartbreak" (was it Def Leppard?)

What a tragic squandering of an incredible voice and talent. It's time for Mariah to stop focusing on the depth in her cleavage and start focusing on the depth in her musical variety. Not as charming as the album's name intended.