Mariah Carey and the Whistle Register

I think of Mariah Carey as the Eddie Van Halen of 90s pop vocalists, astounding technical ability but bent to the service of equally astounding songs. At their respective heights these two people were never just showing off. Over her first few blockbuster albums you can hear Mariah honing her craft in a way that feels effortless and natural and graspable. As she grew as a singer and a songwriter, she would grapple directly with this feeling of displacement of not truly belonging to anything or anyone - including a 1997 slow jam called Outside. For more on this topic I refer you to her autobiography The Meaning Of Mariah Carey co-written with Michaela Angela Davis and published in September