NEW MUSIC: MARIAH CAREY COVERS FOREIGNER

A few weeks back, I blogged about Mariah Carey remaking Foreigners "I Want To Know What Love Is" as her official first single for her new album "Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel." Well, here it is. Point blank, Her performance is decent. She originally described the song as a gospel-tinged rendition, but I always had the impression that the song already had the vibe with the strong chorus. Although, I see what Mariah means because she switches up the instrumentation a bit by adding the organ.

As far as the vocal goes, Mariah sings the song mostly in full voice. The falsetto is thrown out of the window until the end when she glides through it to hit her signature whistle notes. She really tries to give a performance of albums "Butterfly" and older, but the fluidity and expertise in her voice is missing a bit. The Voice was back on "Emancipation of Mimi," but now it sounds like she is struggling a bit.

In my opinion, I think the song will do well. I don't think it will go to number one on the charts because its a cover and sounds more appropriate for gospel radio than pop radio. It doesn't have any polish to it, and I feel like Mariah only released this song because of the material Whitney put out for her new album "I Look To You." Mariah should not scared of her vision at this point in her career. I feel like this record was a last minute recording, and I would have much rather seen "H.A.T.E.U" released as the new single. It makes perfect sense considering that was the song that got people excited about her new album in the first place. I just wish Mariah knew there are things vocally and artistically that Whitney can't touch, and vice versa. The woman needs to just embrace it, and capitalize off of it.

NEW MUSIC: MARIAH CAREY

Mariah Carey's new single "Obsessed" just premiered a few hours ago, exclusively at Chicago's B96 radio station (why not a new york station?). So here is a radio rip of the new song that takes complete aim at Eminem. Apparently, on one of his new song's from his new lp, "the Relapse," he calls Mariah a cunt. So, it looks like this blatant assult was the final straw for Mariah to come back on wax.

The song was co-produce and co-written with the-Dream and Tricky Stewart, and does not disappoint (like "Touch My Body"). This record is hard-hitting, synthed mid-tempo R&B, and will definitely shoot to number one. The clarity of the record is not so good, but I can tell Mariah ditched her falsetto for the song's primary vocal part by utilizing her chest voice this time around. The song also has interesting melodic elements vocally in the background of the song in addition to taking on many of the Dream's vocal ab-libs.

It looks like "The Voice" is coming back hard with this new album, and has set a release date of August 25, 2009 for her 12th studio album, "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel." After the release of E=MC2, Mariah was technically no longer obligated to record for Island Def Jam. However, she opted to record a fourth album with label. This is interesting considering her friend Jay-Z paid Def Jam five million to buy out his recording contract. Could Carey have already renegotiated a contract with the label for tons of money already, or will she be leaving the label after the release of "Memoirs" to prove herself as a money maker to sign with a label like Live Nation.