Well, I didn’t see this day coming. Mariah Carey, on my blog. Bit weird really. But it’s valid. I haven’t had my password stolen by a 35 year old housewife from Milwaukee (I’ve just decided that’s her target demographic. Very specific).
Anyway, the real reason that she’s here is that Miguel is here. Oh Miguel. His 2nd album from last year, Kaleidoscope Dreams, still gets an unyielding amount of plays from me. It’s been a little bit of a slow-burner in terms of success too, so it’s always nice to see an artist come through the other end and get the respect that they deserve.
Since then, Miguel has turned up to a do a few guest spots here and there. He’s on J. Cole’s track Power Trip which is pretty damn swell, and now this track with Mariah has emerged.
The first thing to dislike instantly is the hashtag before the track name. This is not a cool thing to do. As soon as Will.I.Am did this, it instantly became a terrible thing to do. I mean, it would be a horrible thing to do anyway, but he’s like the Catholic Church of the music business. He really can’t do anything right in most people’s eyes, and with good reason.
So I should probably talk about the track itself at some point. First up, we barely even hear Mariah until 1:30. Bonus. Incredible. Keeping her insane-o warbling vocals off that much of a track is surely something worth knighting Miguel for. I don’t care if he’s American, let’s make him an honourary Brit.
So I’m pretty happy that 0:00-1:30 is basically a new Miguel track – it’s a pretty straight-forward hook, with an ambling guitar fuzz winding its way low in the mix. And then Mariah comes in, and, for the most part, keeps that bombastic bonkers stuff on the sideline (apart from one minor slip), but, it’s actually quite a fun moment. Then Mariah and Miguel sing together, and the thing just works. It’s not going to change the world, it’s not going to save the planet from a meteor, but, it’s really, quite, ok. There you go Mariah, have that one for your scrapbook.
Horses Playing Harps 