‘Precious’ to ‘Memoirs’: How Mariah Carey Survived ‘Glitter’

So last we heard, Mariah Carey's's Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel was the aural equivalent of Charlie Darwin's On the Origin of Species. A genius breakthrough so staggering that all other developments in the free world needed to be put on hold in order to truly appreciate the soulful niceties of the record. But the chanteuse is fully aware of her own octave-defying brilliance. In fact, she confides in Parade, "This album I'm loving because I took chances."

Oh and it shows, MC! “I did a lot of different interludes. I did a lot of things that are different for me. And in terms of just living with an album, when I listen to it now, this is one of those ones where everyday I notice something different. I really love this album.” She’s also taken chances theatrically with her role in Precious. This should go a long, long way to warding off the lingering specter of that dreadful Glitter fiasco.

But back to the music; she says, “I am really a perfectionist when it comes to music. I’ve always been the type of person that would hear a thousand good things and one negative thing and focus on that negative thing.” As much as we all may hate her secretly-amazing single “Obsessed”, even that particular negative thing has taken on a life of its own, eccentric examples of which follow.