Billboard
August 4, 1997
Carey has been gravitating closer to the jeep/hip-hop realm with each release over the last several years. With this preview of her forthcoming album, "Honey," she immerses herself in the sound with sterling results. Although the presence of the scorching-hot Sean "Puffy" Combs is firmly felt, La C is no puppet. Her flair for giddy romance remains prominent in her lyrics, as does her penchant for complex, ear-pleasing vocal arrangements. The chorus is thickly layered with smooth, seductive harmonies that effectively drive home the quietly insinuating hook. And there's nary a sign of her glass-breaking high notes. Instead, she serves rich and soulful midrange belting that indicates her notable growth as a stylist. Carey deserves mega props for breaking beyond her safety zone and accomplishing the tricky feat of delivery that will appeal to both the pop masses and hardcore street purists.
Billboard
1997
Honey Dance Remixes
Billboard magazine's dance music editor, Larry Flick, reports that Mariah has done dance remixes of Honey with David Morales with new vocals and everything. Here are some excerpts from the column:
"One creative change Carey did not make in approaching "Honey" was linking w/ David Morales to reconstruct the song into a hands-in-da-air house anthem...there's no denying that Carey and Morales have a chemistry and kinship that results in records that could not be topped by others."
"Morales has built a festive, handbag-happy, beat that gives the chorus a fluttering urgency that begs for radio attention. Meanwhile, Carey has re-cut her vocal, underlining the song w/ a sassy, seductive, tone that would make a club legend like Donna Summer mighty proud. Although she's turned up the voltage of her performance to match the groove, she continues to dodge the temptation to simply howl."
"She soars to impressive heights, but also plays w/ her words w/ the free-wheeling flow of a jazz musician. In fact, there's one point when she takes the phrase "I need it" and hammers it into a vocal breakdown that rivals Morales' typically aggressive percussion interludes."
"Midway through our first foray into the track's eight-plus minutes, we got lost in fantasies of what will happen when Carey and Morales finally get around to writing together. Stoked and hungry for more? We certainly are. "Honey" previews the new album "Butterfly", which comes out on Sept. 16."
