Glitter (soundtrack)
Glitter is the soundtrack to the 2001 film of the same title and the eighth studio album by American singer-songwriter Mariah Carey. It was released in the United States on September 11, 2001 by Virgin Records. Mixing dance-pop, funk, hip hop and R&B, the album was a departure from Carey's previous releases, focusing heavily on an '80s post-disco sound to accompany the film, which was set in 1983. The singer collaborated with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and DJ Clue, who also co-produced the album. The album features several musical acts such as Eric Benét, Ludacris, Da Brat, Busta Rhymes, Fabolous, and Ja Rule.
Upon release, both the album and its accompanying film were panned by critics. Retrospective reviews, however, have been largely positive, with many saying the album was unfairly maligned. Despite this, Glitter was universally viewed as a commercial and critical failure, leading to Virgin Records dropping Carey from the label and buying her out of their $80 million contract. While the album debuted at number seven on the US Billboard 200, it marked Carey's lowest first-week sales at the time. Internationally, it topped the charts in Japan and Greece.
Several singles were released, including "Loverboy", which served as the lead single from the album, peaking at number two on the US Billboard Hot 100. Subsequent singles failed to make much of an impact on prominent global charts. Nearly two decades after its release, Glitter began to attract wide praise from mainstream critics and has developed a cult following. On May 22, 2020, Carey announced the album's release on streaming services.
Background and development
Following the release of Carey's album Butterfly in 1997, she began working on a film and soundtrack project titled at that time as All That Glitters. However, Columbia Records and Carey were also working on a greatest hits album to be released in time for Thanksgiving season in November 1998. Carey put All That Glitters on hold and her greatest hits album #1's was released in November 1998. Carey put the project on hold again to record her album Rainbow. After the album ran its course, Carey wanted to finish the film and soundtrack project. But by this time, Carey and her now ex-husband Tommy Mottola, head of her record company Columbia, did not have a good working or personal relationship. Mottola wanted Carey off the label and Carey wanted to leave; however, she still owed Columbia one more album to fulfill her contract. Virgin Records stepped in and offered to pay Columbia $20 million to let Carey out of her contract early so that they could sign her for a $100 million deal.Carey signed with Virgin and aimed to complete the film and soundtrack project. As part of her contract on her $100 million five-album record deal with Virgin Records, Carey was given full creative control. She opted to record an album partly mixed with 1980s influenced disco and other similar genres, in order to go with the film's setting. As the release date grew nearer, the film and album title were changed from All That Glitters to Glitter. In early 2001, Carey's relationship with Latin singer Luis Miguel ended, while she was busy filming Glitter and recording the soundtrack. Due to the pressure of losing her relationship, being on a new record label, filming a movie, and recording an album, Carey began to have a nervous breakdown. She began posting a series of disturbing messages on her official website, and displayed erratic behavior while on several promotional outings.
Composition
Genres and themes
Musically, Glitter was notably different from Carey's previous work as she drew influence from the 1980s. Due to the parent film taking place in 1983, the soundtrack harbored on recreating an older sound, while incorporating the usual pop-R&B ballads for which Carey was known. While some critics favored the album's retro style, and inclusion of several sampled melodies, many felt that Glitter lacked originality, and its excess of guest artists overpowered Carey's artistry. In an interview with MTV News, Carey described the album's content and influences noting,
There are songs that are definitely going to take people back and make them go, 'Oh, man, this song from the '80s — I loved it growing up'. Or people who never heard the songs before might be like, 'This is cool.' When you see the movie, you're gonna see the uptempo songs and the songs that are remakes in there as they would have sounded in the '80s, but the album is the way that I would make the record now, and the ballads can stand on their own as songs from a Mariah Carey album.
Music and lyrics
The album begins with a remix of "Loverboy" featuring a sample from Cameo's "Candy", which interpolates its instrumental and its melody into the song's chorus. Sarah Rodman from the Boston Herald compared it to Carey's previous lead singles, and described its production as "another in an increasingly long line of glitzy, candy-coated, creatively stunted Carey songs". The song's lyrics and vocals were described as "super-sexed" by Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine when put into comparison with Carey's previous work. The remix featured rap verses from Ludacris, Da Brat, Twenty II and Shawnna. This was followed with "Lead the Way", originally conceptualized for Carey's 1997 Butterfly album. The song was written and produced by Carey and Walter Afanasieff. The ballad marked the last song composed by the pair, as they halted work with one another shortly after its completion due to their growing creative differences. Recorded in 2000 when Carey began producing Glitter, the song begins with a classic and simple piano introduction with Carey starting the song off with soft and breathy vocals. This eventually leads into a vocal climax, in which she belts an 18-second note, the longest from any of her recordings. Carey has since called the song one of her "best vocal performances", as well as one of her "favorite songs.""If We" featured rapper Ja Rule and Nate Dogg and garnered comparisons to Ashanti and Christina Milian. "Didn't Mean to Turn You On" is a cover of the 1984 Cherelle song of the same title. Carey produced the song alongside Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and added keyboard notes and synthesizers to enhance the songs club appeal. In the song, Carey sings "I was only trying to be nice / Only trying to be nice / Sooooooo, I didn't mean to turn you on", indicating a woman who is weakly apologetic over fooling a man over intimacy. "Don't Stop " was composed by Carey and DJ Clue, and interpolates "Funkin' for Jamaica " by Tom Browne. Featuring guest verses from Mystikal, with the former declaring "Ain't nothin' you could do with the man / Except for shake your ass and clap your hands", while Carey responds "Don't stop baby, its ecstasy / Turn me up a little."
"All My Life" was penned by Rick James and was called the "album standout". This is followed by "Reflections " which was written by Carey and Philippe Pierre. Lyrically, the song's protagonist "laments the end of a relationship", while also confronting her mother regarding her early abandonment. Additionally, during the song's bridge, Carey "eerily" refers to the option of abortion over abandoning a child. Cinquemani felt the song was reminiscent of Carey's earlier ballads during her career, and described the song as a "simple beauty". In a review for the album in The Free Lance–Star, a writer called the song an "emotional and heart-wrenching ballad".
Carey's cover of the 1982 Indeep song "Last Night a D.J. Saved My Life" was club-themed. The song featured rappers Fabolous and Busta Rhymes, and was composed and produced by Carey and DJ Clue. The song received generally mixed reviews with Michael Paoletta from Billboard called it a "painful low" on Glitter, and commented how Carey seemed detached and over-powered on the song, due to the inclusion of several male guests. "Want You" featured American singer Eric Benét while lyrically implying and suggesting the "exploration of bedroom fantasies." "Never Too Far" was written and produced by Carey and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and was described as an "adult-contemporary, slow-jam love song". It features "a bed of synthesized strings, gentle drums and Spanish-style guitar" as its primary instrumentation, and incorporates violin and keyboard notes prior to the first verse.
This was followed by "Twister", another ballad which was called "quietly heartbreaking", in reference to its lyrics which talk about the suicide of Carey's friend and hairstylist, Tonjua Twist. According to Carey, Twist took her own life in the spring of 2000, and was known for her joy of life and her ability to put people at ease. She was "child like and effervescent", but behind her mask of happiness was "a well" of lifelong and deep-rooted pain. In "Twister", Carey described the hidden inner-struggle of her friend, and tried to find "closure"; her "way of saying goodbye". Chris Chuck from Daily News described its lyrics as "an airy requiem for a friend lost to suicide" and felt it was "the only memorable song on the album." With lyrics reading "Feelin' kinda fragile and I've got a lot to handle / But I guess this is my way of saying goodbye", David Browne from Entertainment Weekly felt that Carey was possibly referring to her own suicide rather than her friends, especially in light of the events that were taking place during the album's release. The album ends with the original version of "Loverboy" featuring Cameo.
Singles
"Loverboy" was released as the lead single from Glitter on June 18, 2001. The song received mixed reviews from music critics, with many both criticizing and praising the inclusion of the "Candy" sample. It became Carey's weakest charting lead single at the time, reaching number two on the Billboard Hot 100. Following Carey's publicized hospitalization and breakdown, as well as Virgin's price reduction on the single, "Loverboy" managed to attain a new peak of number two on the chart. Although being propelled by high sales, radio airplay was still weak, due to many radio DJs feeling tepid towards its 1980s retro sound. Accompanied by little promotion from Carey, due to her hospitalization, "Loverboy" quickly descended the Hot 100. Outside the United States, the song attained weak charting, peaking inside the top ten in Australia and Canada, and within the top twenty in Italy and the United Kingdom. The music video for "Loverboy" features Carey dressed in a variation of revealing outfits, while patrolling a large race track as her 'loverboy' wins the race. The video was notable for portraying Carey in a more sexually oriented manner than before."Never Too Far", the album's second single, was released on August 14, 2001. It failed to impact the main Billboard chart, and achieved weak international charting. Carey was unable to film a music video for the single, as she was still recovering from her collapse. Instead, a video was created using a scene taken directly from the film Glitter, where Billie Frank sings the song at Madison Square Garden during her first sold-out concert. Frank's performance of the song in the film omits its entire second verse, and the song's development runs in parallel with the film's love story.
The album's third single, "Don't Stop ", released on September 11, 2001 mirrored the same weak charting as "Never Too Far", although receiving more rotation on MTV due to its video. Directed by Sanaa Hamri, it features the theme of southern bayous and lifestyles, and presents Carey and Mystikal in "southern style" clothing and hairstyles. Some shots feature three versions of Carey singing into a microphone on the screen at one time.
The fourth and final single released from Glitter was "Reflections ", which received a limited release in Japan on September 27, 2001. Following its limited promotional push from Virgin, and the absence of a music video, the song failed to make much of an impact.