Every Mariah Carey Album, Ranked From Worst to Best (Part 3)
Breaking down some of the most intriguing work of her career.
In this post, I conclude my Mariah Carey discography ranking. It’s time for the Top 5 and, if you’re interested in pop music history and how it informs itself within an artist’s career, you’re in for a treat.
Before I dive in, a reminder to peruse my other discography ranking posts for many other historical deep dives. For the Mariah albums you may have missed, click over to Part 1 or Part 2 of this series to get caught up.
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Let’s go:
5. Butterfly (1997)
More than all the other growth leaps she made earlier in the decade, Butterfly is Mariah Carey’s genuine coming-of-age moment musically.
Her divorce from Tommy Mottola was still fresh in the public zeitgeist, though reports of just how much of a turn the relationship took is unclear. Mariah has painted Mottola as a controlling Svengali figure over the years, something the record exec took issue with in his book, calling it “lots of crap.” For what it’s worth, Mottola has expressed remorse over his actions publicly, labeling their union “inappropriate,” however you want to read that. On Butterfly, that backstory helps elevate what is essentially a breakup record into a moment where she breaks free of the ghosts from her past.
It’s a transition record, to be sure, but it’s infinitely more compelling than the more manicured pop starlet fare she’d trafficked in until this point. “Honey” is a confident, charismatic single and album opener, framing winking innuendo with G-funk horns and bass. Other highlights include “The Roof,” which turns a Mobb Deep sample into a smoldering, sensuous jam, and “Breakdown,” a crisp, heartfelt head-nodder. The more she leaned into her clear crossover interest in hip-hop, the better this LP sounds because it showcases Mariah at her loosest energy-wise. She sounds like she’s having a ball.
But, like any transition record, it’s not all smooth and seamless. Compared to the songs I just mentioned, ballads like “My All” and “Close My Eyes” sound like they’re stuck in another time and place. They’re fine, but don’t do anything to push her sound in new directions like the deeper R&B grooves do, which results in them being caught in this weird aesthetic limbo. There’s also this strange, seven-minute cover of Prince’s “The Beautiful Ones” that doesn’t fit with anything else she’s doing on the album. That one should’ve hit the cutting room floor.
4. Daydream (1995)
Let Daydream be a lesson to anyone out there who struggles with risk aversion—sometimes you have to tune out all the advice givers and go your own way.
After Music Box became such a massive commercial success, Mottola and Columbia pressured Mariah to stay in her lane and keep churning out down-the-middle pop music. Big, sturdy ballads. Inoffensive bops. You know the kind. But she wasn’t happy with simply running back a successful formula. As she told Entertainment Weekly at the time, “Everybody was like 'What, are you crazy?' They're nervous about breaking the formula. It works to have me sing a ballad on stage in a long dress with my hair up.”
By breaking the mold that made her famous by planting one foot firmly in the hip-hop and neo-soul genres, Mariah ended up crafting some of the most memorable songs of her career. “Fantasy” is the best-known of the bunch for good reason, flipping Tom Tom Club’s “Genius of Love” into a timeless R&B banger. It still sounds fresh and vibrant, especially when you add the Ol’ Dirty Bastard feature on the remix, a pairing that redefined what those crossovers could sound like. “Always Be My Baby,” a Jermaine Dupri collab, infuses the bones of “Dreamlover” with a healthy dose of fizz and snap. What a vibe.
For those who pine for the Mariah ballads, there’s plenty to love here, too. “One Sweet Day” held the record for the longest stint atop the Hot 100 for a time, holding the No. 1 spot for 16 weeks, and you can hear why. Few 90s songs feature vocals that sound this good. She also makes a meal out of the Journey song “Open Arms,” a cover that she has the chutzpah to start as a throbbing a cappella. The most underrated cut on this album goes to “Underneath the Stars,” a soft, shimmering track that radiates love and longing.
Even as its energy flags toward the end of its running time, there’s no denying Daydream is excellent.
3. Merry Christmas (1994)
Throughout music history, holiday records have often been exercises in contractual obligation. It’s part of your deal with your label, so you churn out forgettable versions of well-worn songs that everybody has already covered. The entire process is thoroughly market-tested, carefully avoiding deviations from tradition or expectations, resulting in largely bland stocking stuffers. Elvis, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Michael Bublé, and on and on. I’m not anti-Christmas or even music geared toward a specific religious celebration, but holiday music is rarely interesting or compelling to me. Merry Christmas, however, is an exception.
Because it exists in the business template I just described, this album shouldn’t sound as good as it does. But thanks to Mariah’s incredible performance throughout, this collection of songs never feels tossed off. “All I Want for Christmas is You” is the enduring centerpiece because of how well it works as a pop tune. Folks can meme it all they want, but if it weren’t so incredibly catchy, it wouldn’t be as ubiquitous as it is. It’s so earnestly joyous and unencumbered with any cynicism (unlike me in that first paragraph, hehe) that, no matter how many times you hear it, there’s at least a small part of you that buys into it. She’s laughing all the way to the bank, by the way. That one song rakes in an estimated $2.5 million for Mariah every year.
Zoom out and you’ll find many other reverent, gospel-tinged festive delights. “Silent Night” is chill-inducing, “Jesus Born on This Day” is stunning, and her cover of Darlene Love’s classic “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” is a raucous ode to the Wall of Sound days that produced their fair share of holiday goodies. All three of those tracks are arguably stronger than “All I Want for Christmas is You,” in part because they provide a nice cross-section of what makes Mariah so appealing as a pop star.
Maybe this is on me and my uncalibrated expectations, but this LP blew me away.
2. Caution (2018)
If there’s one thing I’ve learned about Mariah Carey through this discography ranking exercise, it’s that she’s resilient. Just when you start counting her out, she reliably swoops back in and reminds you she’s one of the best in the game. No one does sleek, sultry, and cool like Mariah, a truth she reinforced with 2018’s Caution. I remember when it was announced, it was met with more than a few eye rolls, if not indifferent shrugs. At the time, she’d returned to Sony Music as part of a deal shepherded by L.A. Reid, the man who supported her most famous bounce back album, though it came at a fraction of the money Def Jam had signed her for. Clearly, her recent commercial stumbles had not gone unnoticed.
None of that could’ve prepared listeners for how focused and sharp Caution is. It’s a lean album, clocking in at under 40 minutes, completely devoid of the filler and fluff that had weighed down other Mariah tracklists. For the first time in over a decade, the pop star glided through a hip-hop and R&B set with purpose. From the ice-cold kiss-off “GTFO” to the crisp bounce of “A No No,” these songs crackle with precision and pleasure. The all-star cast of production talent doesn’t hurt, either. Timbaland, No I.D., Nineteen85, DJ Mustard, and Jermaine Dupri are just some of the names that grace the credit list, proving that, even if she was in the middle of a career lull, Mariah and Reid could still assemble an impressive roster of collaborators.
Lyrically, Caution is all about relationships, mostly about the spark of new love and (there’s that word again) resilience in the face of haters. “With You,” an example of the latter, bridges the old and the new stylistically for Mariah, accentuating booming 808s with smooth gospel piano, while “Giving Me Life” luxuriates in the possibilities of a summer-set romance. I’ve seen some critics refer to this record as a concept album, but I don’t think that’s entirely accurate. There’s no gimmickry or insistence on making some grand statement. Instead, she and her collaborators deliver one banger after another. Make one smart choice after another.
If it’s her final studio album, it’s some kind of mic drop.
1. The Emancipation of Mimi (2005)
Predictable? Sure. The correct response? Also, yes.
The title is key for this one. Crucially, it doesn’t say The Emancipation of Mariah Carey or something similarly obnoxious. By referring to herself as Mimi, a nickname used only by those in her inner circle prior to the album’s release, it’s an immediate attempt to sidestep the diva reputation that had dogged her for the better part of a half-decade. In other words, she wanted to let everyone know there were multiple other sides to her. In keeping with that angle, this record wasn’t simply a commercial comeback for her—it was a complete renaissance.
I was a teenager when Emancipation was atop the charts, so relistening to these songs hit ultra-specific nostalgia pleasure centers for me. “It’s Like That” is high up on the list of the most confident album openers of the decade, while “Shake it Off” overflows with her distinctive brand of R&B swagger. Elsewhere, her collabs with Snoop Dogg (”Say Something”) and Jermaine Dupri (”Get Your Number,” which features a delightful interpolation of a retro Imagination disco track) remain slept on by casual fans but, if you’re into that mid-2000s R&B vibe, absolutely merit a playlist add.
Then there’s “We Belong Together,” a runaway smash that stayed at No. 1 on the Hot 100 for 14 nonconsecutive weeks. Stylistically, it crystallized a winning formula that she’d reuse to great effect from that point forward in her career: taking lyrics that would’ve previously been set against syrupy, schmaltzy ballad arrangements and, instead, bolstering them with a hard-hitting beat. You can find an acoustic version of “We Belong Together” on some streaming versions of this record, and it’s perfectly fine, but also completely unnecessary. Nothing beats the original as a masterclass in songwriting and production.
There’s also a celebratory quality that permeates every song on Emancipation. There are no guarantees in life, but it’s as if Mariah knew she was finally back with this record, free of the baggage that came with the false starts and setbacks earlier in the decade. It’s extraordinarily difficult to turn an entire career around with one release, but she managed to pull it off. It’s undoubtedly the crown jewel in Mariah Carey’s discography and one of the most satisfying “I’m still here” statements in music history.
Did the right Mariah album land at No. 1? Sound off in the comments.
Matt, this was incredible. As a die-hard fan, I am stunned by the level of precision in your research. So many non-fans get stuff wrong (either because they didn’t follow the whole story or because they lack context to fully understand what was going on). THIS is how people should write about Mariah. There, I said it.
I also realise (with a certain delight on my part, I ain’t gonna lie) that you probably had to tear down some of the preconceptions we all have as music lovers. I mean, would you have imagined ranking a Christmas album so high? That ability to listen with your brain and heart so in tune, that bravery to say, “you know what? I’m going to make an exception here because this is too good”— essentially having the balls to allow yourself to be blown away by what you didn’t expect speaks volumes of your commitment to music and music writing. I don’t think I could ever do something like this with an artist I’m not a die-hard fan of.
As for the rankings, I was convinced you would rank Butterfly a lot higher, as it’s typically considered her masterpiece, so this was a nice, unexpected surprise (which illustrates my earlier point about the honest approach you took).
I have a lot of love for ballads like My All and even the Prince cover but I do understand what you say about them feeling a bit out of place — this is very interesting as I’m admittedly too biased with certain things, so it was great to see the perspective of someone who can be more objective.
Loved how you wrapped it up, and if Mariah knocked it out of the park with her Emancipation album, you, my friend, have done exactly the same.
Thanks for the ride!
This was brilliant Matt! Although her talent is undeniable, I’m not a big fan MC. Her music generally just isn’t in my wheelhouse. But I learned so much from your well researched piece.
If you ever decide to do a ranking of The Cure’s discography I’d be all over that!!