Me. I Am Mariah... The Elusive Chanteuse

Contrary to its title, the new album may be Carey's least elusive work. Rarely has she made her talent more clear.

The album sounds exactly, defiantly like Mariah, acknowledging her place in the pop ecosystem both implicitly and explicitly without chomping at the bit.

The usual, more or less. Musically, it’s her typical mix of pop-classicist balladry and hip-hop-tinged summer jamming, and if Carey doesn't exactly go strutting into new territory, it’s because she knows most people like her right where she is.

Working with longtime collaborator Jermaine Dupri, Carey front-loads the track list with midtempo R&B and soulful torch songs that spotlight her best asset: That Voice.

Carey unfortunately doesn't feel nostalgic for the succinctness of her early albums, but this shows that she's still capable of delivering 40 minutes of strong, supremely voiced R&B when she's up for it.

This record really is enjoyably elusive.

She’s just a comfortable [singer], and that’s a good thing for her. She doesn’t need to be, nor should she ever be elusive. This album proves that in spades.

On Mariah Carey's 14th studio album, stylistic cohesion is as elusive as the chanteuse herself.

What is unfortunately not elusive on the album are a clutch of interchangeable slow-to-midtempo tunes long on pulsating atmosphere--several with distractingly fidgety rhythmic tracks--but short on melody or verve.

Undisciplined R&B pastiches, however, the album has in spades, especially ones that hearken back to her own career.... With surprising internal logic, the album's two unabashedly uptempo ditties are also the forums for Mariah's most serious-minded performances.

Admittedly, there's a good deal of clutter: not just 90s R&B throwbacks such as You're Mine (Eternal) and a gospelised cover of George Michael's One More Try, but an appearance by her three-year-old twins. Yet she's also at her most soulful and melodic, and the best of the bunch, such as the dreamy 70s disco of Meteorite, make this album a welcome return.

Even for all its collaborations, bringing in Mary J Blige and R Kelly, the desperate skirting around for identity leaves this album feeling underwhelming.

Despite her Instagram and “turnt-up” references, the bounce brought to the album by of-the-moment hitmakers like MikeWiLLMadeIt and Hit-Boy and her undeniably personal subject matter, the record just doesn’t have the same candid, bold edge that characterised Beyonce’s huge statement.