The Emancipation of Mimi - Platinum Edition

Maria, Mariah Carey

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 15, 2005)
• Original Release Date: November 15, 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Island
• ASIN: B000BO0LKY
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (70 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,527 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Early buzz on The Emancipation of Mimi predicted that this would be the disc to mark "the return of the voice"--the voice being that glass-shattering instrument that propelled Carey to bestselling female artist of all time status--and mostly it is. But because of the small army of talent involved in its assembly, the album is way more than just a comeback vehicle. For proof, try the straight-ahead, look-out-Beyoncé-Mimi's-still-got-it "Mine Again"; the '70s-soul cuddle-up "Circles," a don't-attempt-on-American Idol love song; or the gospel dazzlers "Fly Like a Bird" and "Stay the Night." But for songs that steer this disc directly into 2005, no looking back, scan the jewel case for tracks followed by the word "featuring": "To the Floor," with Nelly, bumps along to maximum booty-shaking effect, while Twista spins his natural-disaster-force vocals into "One and Only." Snoop Dogg, Pharrell Williams, and Jermaine Dupri also pitch in; between them and the highwire vocals, Emancipation works the kind of pure-pop magic that sets us all free. --Tammy La Gorce

This platinum edition features four tracks not found on the original release: "Don't Forget About Us"; "What It Look Like"; "So Lonely (One & Only Part II)"; and a remix of "We Belong Together" featuring Jadakiss and Styles P.

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Product Description
Includes the bonus tracks Secret Luv and Suplang. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Emancipation of Mimi, January 2, 2006

By	Andrew G. Vatterott (St. Louis, MO) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Mariah Carey regained her crown with this album. She truly does deserve the 8 Grammy Nominations. People need to stop comparing people. I read a review for Mary J. Blige's "The Breakthrough", which is also an amazing album. The reviewer said "use The Emancipation Of Mimi as a coaster and get The Breakthrough". Is it not possible to have more than one amazing album released in one year. Both of these two women are amazing and both of them released amazing albums. Also, I read something about Mariah Carey fans trying to make Madonna's album flop, which is ridiculous. People always have to compare people. But anyways, back to this album. With this album, you can tell Mariah is in a new place and she's finally free. The title fits very well for the album, because it just sounds like she just let go of everything. The music doesn't like it's being controlled, there's just this strong feel of freedom.

The album jumps off with the first single, "It's Like That". This free-spirited party-starter is produced by Jermaine Dupri and Mariah Carey. I love the song, but the first verse is definately very shocking to all the long-term Mariah fans, as she makes drug and alcohol references ("I came to have a party, open up the Bacardi....Purple taking me higher, I'm lifted and I" like it). But regardless, the song is still amazing. The second track on the album is the second single, "We Belong Together", which is also produced by Jermaine Dupri and Mariah Carey. The song is her first number one hit in over five years, and it's an absolutely amazing song. Mariah Carey describes the song as "Anytime You Need A Friend" meets "Breakdown", and Jermaine Dupri describes it as the biggest song of his career. Although I may have heard this song over a million times, since April of 2005, surpringsly, I have never gotten sick of yet. The next track on the album is the third single "Shake It Off", also produced by Jermaine Dupri and Mariah Carey. Jermaine Dupri and Mariah Carey definately make the perfect team. Dupri has been each single released from this album so far. This is one of my favorites on the album, the lyrics are awesome. It's just about move on and putting someone behind you and just "shaking them off". Great lyrics! The fourth song on the album is a beautiful ballad called "Mine Again", produced by James Poyser and Mariah Carey. It's an absolutely amazing song that shows you MARIAH STILL HAS THAT AMAZING VOICE. ALthough this song has not been released as a single, I have heard on the radio in Chicago a few times. The next song on the album is a Neptunes-produced track featuring Snoop Dogg, called "Say Somethin'." Mariah Carey and Snoop Dogg colloborated back in 1999 on the song "Crybaby." This song definately isn't as great as "Crybaby" but it's still a pretty good song. The next song is a track produced by Kanye West and Mariah which is another one of my favorites. I have so many favorites on this album that it's ridiculous, I can't even pic a number one favorite. But this is definately one of my favorites. A great colloboration between Mariah and Kanye. Mariah's voice is amazing on this album and again, it's one of those song that just gives you that FREE feeling. Guess what's next, another favorite. "Get Your Number" is another colloboration with Jermaine Dupri, which was a top ten hit in the U.K. For some odd reason, people keep refering to this as one of the worst tracks on the album, but I think it's one of the best on the album. It has a very early '90's feel to it. It's kind of like, what Mariah Carey would do in the early 1990's if she teamed up with Jermaine Dupri earlier. The next track is a song called "One & Only" which features Twista. I think the song might be better without Twista singing along with the melody several times in the middle of his rap, and just had a short rap, instead of the long verse he has. The next song is a ballad called "Circles" in which she produces with James "Big Jim" Wright. It's just a great song with great lyrics. The next song is a more upbeat song called "Your Girl". I can't think of anything to say about it, but it's just a really good song. The next song is a slower track called "I Wish You Knew", the song has a fake live audience at the beginning of it. The song has an old school R&B ballad feel to it. It's a really nice song. Things change up a bit with the next track. Another track produced by The Neptunes called "To The Floor", featuring Nelly. The song is definately a club joint, but definately has an 80's feel to it. This is another one of my favorites. We already knew Nelly and The Neptunes made a good team due to the success of "Hot In Herre". But I also think Mariah and Nelly sound good together. The next song, "Joy Ride", I think might be my least favorite on the album. I just don't think there's anything all that special about it. The final track on the original pressing of the album is "Fly Like A Bird", which is a wonderful song. I love this song because it's like she's going back to the basics. Towards the end of the song a choir comes in singing the chorus. It reminds you of something she would have done in the early or mid 90's.

The new re-released edition of the album features four new bonus tracks, "Don't Forget About Us", "Makin' It Last All Night (What It Do)", "So Lonely (One & Only Part II)" and "We Belong Together Remix". All four tracks are amazing, making the album ten times better. "Don't Forget About Us" is Mariah's latest single, produced by Jermaine Dupri and herself, like her other singles released the album. I love this song, it's reminiscent of "Always Be My Baby", which was also produced by Jermaine Dupri and Mariah, and was the first collobroation between the two. "Makin' It Last All Night (What It Do)" is another Jermaine Dupri/Mariah colloboration and is absolutely amazing. It's basically just a very sexy upbeat Hip-Hop flavored track. "So Lonely (One & Only Part II)" is 90 billion times better than the original version. I don't even like the original version all that much (compared to the other tracks on the album), but I think this song might have to be my favorite track on the album. The album closes with the "We Belong Together" remix featuring Jadakiss and Styles P. This remix has been getting airplay ever since the summer of 2005, so it's good to finally get it on an album. I don't think I love it as much as the original version but I still love it, and I'm so glad they put it on here. If you don't have this re-released version, stop complaining and GO GET IT! You can sell the original pressing to a used CD store! The four new tracks alone are definately worth the money.

"The Emancipation Of Mimi" is Mariah Carey's best album since... I don't know, since all of her album's are amazing. But this album is definately way better than "Charmbracelet". Mariah Carey definately deserves these 8 Grammy Nominations. She HAS regained her crown!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Non-Stop Listen, March 14, 2006

By	Mocha82 "Mocha82" - See all my reviews

This is an excellent album! I have never bought a Mariah album before, but this was well worth the money. This album is one of the rare ones that can be listened to straight thru from beginning to end. It presents a good variety of songs from "party-mood" (Like That), to "reflective" (We belong Together), to "spiritually-conscious" (Fly Like a Bird).

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Better than expected, November 23, 2005

By	HappyNeige (Ashland, OR) - See all my reviews

I used to like Mariah a lot when she was classy. The admiration pretty much died when Glitter and Rainbow came out. A lot of people thought Charmbracelet was going to be her comeback album but it wasn't. So when The Emancipation of Mimi was hyped up as another comeback album, I had my doubts. (C'mon, only Cher could have this many genuine comebacks.) After a certain amount of skepticism and extensive research, I decided to buy the album after it had been released for 7 months. (I didn't even know I bought a platinum edition until I got home.) I have to say it is better than I expected. (And I didn't expect much at all.) Most of the songs are melodic and catchy. She even went back to the '80 and '90 sounds in some of the songs and pull it off quite well. The lyrics are just poorly written and often don't rhyme well. But to her defense, you can't really find good lyrics in pop songs these days so Mariah is not that bad compared to the current sad standards.

The best feature of this album, in my opinion, is Mariah's voice. Granted, it's not as crisp and resonant as it was in the first few albums but it is far better than the mumbling and throaty whispering she did in Rainbow and Charmbracelet. Sometimes she goes for too much (as in 'We belong together' and 'Mine again') and it shows. Nonetheless, I'd rather hear the crackling high notes than murmuring without effort.

The four songs that are included in this special edition are nothing special. 'Don't forget about us' is mediocre and sounds awfully similar to 'We belong together'. Of the four, only the remix of 'We belong together' interests me. That's simply because it elaborates more on the Bobby Womack and Babyface references that I didn't quite get on the original album version.

Overall, it's a good to very good album. It shows effort on Mariah's part to do better. One observation, though. Lots of the songs are about unsuccessful consummation of love and mostly about being dumped by some guy. If she's really happily emancipated, why not sing songs about jubilation and not about bereavement. Perhaps the album should be instead named 'The defection of Mimi'