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meant so much to me as do you and your talent!” One of the best-selling albums of all time, the diamond-certified Music Box comprises many ballads – primarily written by Mariah and Walter Afanasieff (the pair establishing their working relationship on her preceding album, 1991’s Emotions ) – plus a smattering

Music Box (30th Anniversary Edition) by Mariah Carey is out now via Sony.

of urban dance tracks. There’s a lot of space within these arrangements, every Tinkerbell esque chime, finger snap and woodblock knock popping vibrantly from the mix. On her writing process with Afanasieff, Mariah revealed during a 1993 interview: ”We have this connection where I’ll sing what I’m hearing and he’ll start playing, and usually it’s what I’m hearing in my head. Walter really tries to let me lead. He knows it’s important to me to let the melodies I have develop.” Other contributors to Music Box included Kenneth ”Babyface” Edmonds – who helped write and produce the track Never Forget You , which marked the beginning of their collaboration and lasting friendship – and C+C Music Factory (AKA Robert Clivillés and David Cole). Music Box ’s calling card is definitely the airy R&B/hip-hop swoon of Dreamlover , built from a sample of Blind Alley by The Emotions (1972) that had previously been used on Big Daddy Kane’s Ain’t No Half-Steppin’ (1988). This masterpiece started a trend for Mariah, with samples also forming musical beds for other hits including Fantasy (from 1995’s Daydream ), Honey (from 1997’s Butterfly ), Heartbreaker (from 1999’s Rainbow ), and Loverboy (from 2001’s Glitter ). During an interview, Mariah bemoaned, ”I hate it when people are like [adopting a dramatic voice]: ’She’s taking a new direction with hip-hop.’ I’m like, ’Will you please freakin’ research?’ I’ve been doing this for a long time, working with [writer-producer] Dave Hall on Dreamlover , using the Ain’t No Half-Steppin’ loop... It was just digging in the crates with Dave Hall and coming up with, ’Hey, let’s use this loop!’ And from then on, I did it anytime I could...”

MARIAH’S MILESTONE MASTERPIECE UNBOXED Killer tunes, velvety vocals, and that prima donna panache: Mariah Carey’s 1994 album Music Box is as flawless as the diva herself. In celebration of its 30th anniversary expanded editions out this month, we’re diving into the record’s story. Words Bryget Chrisfield

I n her 2020 memoir The Meaning of Mariah Carey , the ’Songbird Supreme’ acknowledges she was born with a ”propensity for extraness.” It’s summed up perfectly in an accompanying photo of Baby Mimi ”posing for the guncles”: one hand on hip, the other tilting her head sideways, Mariah works her angles and flashes a million-watt smile: born with it. ”I was always so scared as a little girl, and music was my escape,” she writes. ”My house was heavy, weighed down with yelling and chaos. When I sang, in a whispery tone, it calmed me down. I discovered a quiet, soft, light place inside my voice – a vibration in me that brought me sweet relief. My whisper singing was my secret lullaby to myself.” Upon reading the memoir, pop icon Cyndi

Mariah in the clip for Dreamlover (1994)

Lauper tweeted some love Mariah’s way, and Mimi replied: ”Cyndi, you have always had love from me!!! I will never forget on my 21st birthday (back when I still had birthdays), when you gave me a beautiful orange lyric book and I wrote the entire Music Box album in it. It

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You've gotta hand it to Future Islands for their full circle flair. The Baltimore synth pop group release their seventh album People Who Aren’t There Anymore this month – ten years to the very day since dropping their world

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dominating single Seasons (Waiting on You) ! One month after the track landed, the band’s performance of the song on The Late Show with David Letterman went viral thanks to frontman Samuel T. Herring’s earnestly weird dancing and emotional, throaty groans.

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People Who Aren’t There Anymore by Future Islands is out now via 4AD.

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Samuel T. Herring performing Seasons (Waiting on You) on The Late Show with David Letterman (2014)

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