Imagine a World with a '90s Alternative Mariah Carey Album
Mariah Carey has been hiding secret grunge music from us all this time.
While sharing a snippet from her upcoming memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, the music icon revealed that she had recorded an alternative album at the time she was making her 1995 album, Daydream.
While the now-classic LP featured blissful hits like "Fantasy" and "Always Be My Baby," Carey's songs on the side were moody, edgy perfection. In a tweet yesterday, she shared a clip of a song she worked on with the artist Chick for the album Someone's Ugly Daughter. The track is titled "Hermit," according to Pitchfork, and Carey's vocals are layered in the background.
Fun fact: I did an alternative album while I was making Daydream 👀 Just for laughs, but it got me through some dark days. Here's a little of what I wrote about it in #TheMeaningOfMariahCarey 🤟 S/O to my friend Clarissa who performs the lead w/ me as a hidden layer #Chick #TMOMC pic.twitter.com/Re23t5whcd
— Mariah Carey (@MariahCarey) September 27, 2020
"Fun fact: I did an alternative album while I was making Daydream," the singer tweeted. "Just for laughs, but it got me through some dark days."
She goes into more detail of writing the alt music in her memoir.
“I’d bring my little alt-rock song to the band and hum a silly guitar riff. They would pick it up and we would record it immediately. It was irreverent, raw, and urgent, and the band got into it. I actually started to love some of the songs. I would fully commit to my character. I was playing with the style of the breezy-grunge, punk-light white female singers who were popular at the time. You know the ones who seemed to be so carefree with their feelings and their image. They could be angry, angsty, and messy, with old shoes, wrinkled slips, and unruly eyebrows, while every move I made was so calculated and manicured. I wanted to break free, let loose, and express my misery—but I also wanted to laugh. I totally looked forward to doing my alter-ego band sessions after Daydream each night.”
Carey wrote, produced, and sang backup on every track on Chick's album, her rep told Pitchfork (except for the Cheap Trick cover, "Surrender"). She also provided art direction for the album packaging and directed the visuals for "Malibu."
The news unsurprisingly got fans hyped, and Carey was pleased with the reception. "I'm so happy yet thoroughly amused that my little 'alternative'/'grunge' album is finally out there for the fans," she tweeted. "Rock on!!!"
I'm so happy yet thoroughly amused that my little "alternative"/"grunge" album is finally out there for the fans 😂 Rock on!!! 🎸🎸🎸🎸
— Mariah Carey (@MariahCarey) September 28, 2020
The pop diva also vowed to find the version of the album featuring her own lead vocals. "I can tell you that I'm on a quest to unearth the version of this album with my lead vocals and will not stop until we find it! So happy that we get to experience this together lol!" she added.
Fun fact 2: now that you've listened to Clarissa's kick-ass lead vocals, I can tell you that I'm on a quest to unearth the version of this album with my lead vocals and will not stop until we find it! So happy that we get to experience this together lol! 🐏❤️🎸 https://t.co/EMukSDgWPu
— Mariah Carey (@MariahCarey) September 28, 2020
Carey's memoir, written with Michaela Angela Davis, releases tomorrow, September 29.
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