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Rolling Stone
By Barry Walters, December 12, 2002
Rating: 2 stars/5 stars
Apparently, the best thing Mariah Carey can do to put her career back on track is to cover Def Leppard. The catchiest cut on Carey's eighth album, Charmbracelet, is a fascinatingly overblown orchestral remake of "Bringin' on the Heartbreak." The rest of the album is strangely muddy: On songs such as "Yours," Carey's lead vocals blend into choruses of overdubbed Mariahs cooing overlapping phrases. Circling these are choirs of more Mariahs singing harmonies and countermelodies. Topping it off are generous sprinklings of the singer's patented birdcalls (on "You Had Your Chance"), wails, sighs and whispers. The mostly skeletal musical instrumentation is insignificant: Charmbracelet is nearly wall-to-wall Mariah. Tempos plod, and hooks are few. Carey needs bold songs that help her use the power and range for which she is famous. Charmbracelet is like a stream of watercolors that bleed into a puddle of brown.
Slant Magazine
by Sal Cinquemani, 2002
Recovering diva Mariah Carey's highly-anticipated new album, Charmbracelet (yes she's perpetually trapped in the 8th grade), reprises the singer's now-signature mix of hip-hop and pop, but throws in a few happy surprises along the way. While the hip-hop-skewed tracks - "Boy (I Need You)," featuring Cam 'Ron and "You Got Me," featuring Freeway and Jay-Z - provide further evidence that Carey should keep her rappers on the remix, Charmbracelet also possess its fair share of pop appeal. With an alternate version featuring Justin Timberlake lying in wait the Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis-produced "Yours" could be the comeback single Carey has been looking for. Charmbracelet's strongest links, however, are its more soulful ones: the gospel-hued "My Saving Grace" (fans of Carey's Christmas album already know such Yuletide fodder suits her well) and a daring cover of Def Leppard's "Bringin' On The Heartbreak." These tracks are infused with a surprising amount of live instrumentation, which contributes to an overall sense of warmth that's been otherwise missing from Carey's recent work.
Like the album's restrained first single "Through The Rain," every song on Charmbracelet is autobiographical to some degree and draws on Carey's publicly turbulent year without ever sounding indignant or asking for pity. Carey makes direct reference to her long-estranged father on "Sunflowers for Alred Roy," and makes vague allusions to Tommy Mottola on "You Had Your Chance" and "I Only Wanted" ("Wish I'd stayed beneath my veil," she sings solemnly). Carey has smartly teamed with neo-soul producers Andre Harris and Vidal Davis (Jill Scott, Musiq) on two tracks: the sleek "Clown," in which Carey strikes out at rumored ex-loverboy Marshall Mathers ("Who's going to care when the novelty's over/When the star of the show isn't you anymore?") and "Lullaby," a sonic and thematic sequel to 1997's "The Roof" ("It actually almost feels like deja vu/Of that night on the roof/We kissed under the sky amid city lights"). But while "The Roof" was sexy in its insinuations, "Lullaby" goes one step further: "We can revisit us one more time/Yes, I'll come home with you tonight." Though there's nothing as immediate as "Fantasy" or "My All" here, Charmbracelet is significantly less contrived than 1999's Rainbow and almost as creatively liberating as Butterfly.
All Music Guide
By Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Rating: 2 stars/5 stars
If it didn't follow Glitter, the gold standard for diva implosions in the early 21st century, Mariah Carey's Charmbracelet would simply be her worst album, but since it was rushed out in late 2002 in an effort to mask that disaster, to treat it as if it never happened, it achieves a special kind of grandeur - it's a botched attempt to restore a career after a botched attempt at a crossover. Of course, the Carey party line, including her new label Island (who has sponsored her vanity imprint, MonarC), claims her lone Virgin album, Glitter, shouldn't be considered an official Mariah album since it was a soundtrack, but not only does that theory not hold water (perhaps Purple Rain shouldn't be considered a Prince album, then?), it signals that everybody realizes that Glitter wasn't just a disaster, but that her whole ghetto-fabulous trip of the late '90s eroded her core MOR audience. So, with Charmbracelet, the backpedalling is immediately evident, from the demure photos gracing the artwork (the tight shorts of Rainbow are long gone) and the first single/opening track "Through the Rain," a slow ballad designed as "Vision of Love" meets "Hero." Mariah is back in the adult contemporary camp, no longer trying to prove that she's real. She hasn't completely abandoned hip-hop, but whenever it rears its head on Charmbracelet, it's utterly jarring, whether it's Jay-Z's and Freeway's guest spots on "You Got Me," the club-ready groove of "You Had Your Chance" (built on the same bassline as "Nuthin' but a G Thang"), or the blatant rewrite of Cam'ron's "Oh Boy" on "Boy (I Need You)" (he may endorse it with a cameo, yet the sampled vocal hook remains singularly annoying no matter how its presented), or the crackling vinyl used as ambient noise on "Irresistible," or the distracting use of dripping water as percussion on "I Only Wanted." Weirdly enough, even these detours are nothing more than flourishes - window-dressing on songs that remain firmly in the middle of the road, since that's where the sales are, or at least where Mariah's aging fan base is. This, of course, is not a problem, since she's done hip-hop-influenced dance tunes and ballads very well before. What is a problem is that there are no good songs on this record outside of Def Leppard's power ballad classic "Bringin' on the Heartbreak," which isn't even covered all that well. What is a greater problem is that Mariah's voice is shot, sounding in tatters throughout the record. Whenever she sings, there's a raspy whistle behind her thin voice and she strains to make notes throughout the record. She cannot coo or softly croon, nor can she perform her trademark gravity-defying vocal runs. Her voice is damaged, and there's not a moment where it sounds strong or inviting. That alone would be disturbing, but since the songs are formless and the production bland - another reason why the hip-hop announces itself, even though it's nowhere near as pronounced as it has been since Butterfly - her tired voice becomes the only thing to concentrate on, and it's a sad, ugly thing, making an album that would merely have been her worst into something tragic.
Track Review: "Bringin' On The Heartbreak"
by Chuck Taylor, Billboard, 2003
With the imminent relaunch of Mariah Carey's Charmbracelet and a high-profile tour just around the corner, it's more important than ever for Island/Def Jam to deliver a radio hit for their pricey diva. Her cover of Def Leppard's "Bringin' On The Heartbreak" opens - like most of the album - with Carey's delicate upper register leading the way, but fortunately this reworked single version strips in a new midsection, where Ms. M flexes some real vocal muscle. Ballads are few and far between on mainstream radio, and without the requisite add-on from any number of hip-hop stars, it's tough to score a gimmick-free hit. Even so, this is the most satisfying release from Carey in years: It's melodic, it's all her, and at last, she's singing like she means it. This is one "Heartbreak" we'll all be feeling.
Track Review: "Through The Rain"
by Jon Caramanica, Entertainment Weekly, October 7, 2002
Grade: B
Wisely, Mariah Carey forgoes her hip-hop dalliances on her post-''Glitter'' comeback single, ''Through the Rain.'' A competent ballad in the ''Hero'' tradition, ''Rain'' feels tame, as if she's overcompensating for recent insanities, personal and musical. ''Demure'' isn't a word we use often to describe Carey, but for once, a little less dignity is called for.
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