Album Review • After 26 years, Mariah Carey’s Daydream album is still one of the best selling albums of all time with sales of over 20 million copies worldwide. This album gave Mariah that subtle transition into the R&B market. With help from Jermaine Dupri, Babyface, & Boyz II Men this album had Diamond status written all over it.
After the success of her previous albums, Mariah brought us a fun debut single “Fantasy” with the sample of Tom Tom Club’s “Genius of Love”. This single became the second song in Billboard history & the first by a female to debut atop the Billboard Top 100. With the help of Ol’ Dirty Bastard on the remix, “Fantasy” helped her crossover into the Hip Hop market. Every time I see a wooden rollercoaster I instantly think of that music video.
The 2nd single with Boyz II Men “One Sweet Day” is one of the most beautiful songs ever written and it makes me emotional each time I hear it. Spending 16 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 & becoming the longest number one song in the chart’s history at the time, this was a collaboration we never knew we needed. Their voices sound like a Heaven full of angels slow dancing, if that make sense.
“Always Be My Baby” always puts me in a happy mood. It’s such a feel good song and the video makes you fall more in love with it. The first time I got in a tire swing I swore I was Mariah, but my black ahh wasn’t near water. This is one of my favorite vocal performances of MC. She always gave us vocals on ballads but it was refreshing to hear her give us those same vocals in a mid-tempo cut. Listening to the track, it’s definitely a JD produced song. He had a certain type of sound in the 90s & you could hear it used in “Always Be My Baby”.
I would put this in my top 3 albums by Mariah, & I think it’s number 2 next to Emancipation of Mimi because it had a serious chokehold on my 15 year old neck. The album had some of her greatest hits along with songs that weren’t released as singles like “Open Arms” & “Underneath the Stars”. This was Mariah at her prime & sis was unstoppable.
