YOUR FAVORITE LOGO TV SHOWS ARE ON PARAMOUNT+

Mariah Carey Gets Skewered By The NY Times: "Her Once-Transcendent Voice Is Like Decaying Manufacturing Machinery"

By Evan Ross Katz
May 7, 2015 / 2:21 PM

Look, we love Mariah Carey, so before we get into it below, let it be known that similarly to how Tyra Banks was rooting for Tiffany, we were all rooting for Mariah's Las Vegas residency at The Colosseum at the Caesars Palace hotel.

Related: Mariah Carey “Ain’t No Make Amends” With Nick Cannon On New Single, “Infinity”

With that said, the reviews are in and, if the New York Times review is an indicator, the elusive chanteuse might be slipping back into a Glitter-era hot mess.

"Ms. Carey is still durable, and sometimes excellent," the Times reports, "but her once-transcendent voice is like decaying manufacturing machinery: It still churns, but the product might be polished or dinged. You don’t know until it happens."

They went on to call her two-hour set "difficult," shadily noting, "The show consists of her 18 No. 1 Billboard hits, and the last of those came in 2007. (There’s a new song, too, called “Infinity” — it won’t be No. 19.)"

With 49 shows left on her 2-year residency, let's hope Mimi can pull it together.

Here are 6 other of the New York Times' most biting quotes.

  • "Maybe the new performance spectacle could resurrect the old vocal spectacle."

  • "When it came to the notes, though, the struggle was real."

  • "As she’s aged, her voice has gotten huskier, but sometimes the rasp felt like a glitch, not a goal."

  • "'Fantasy' featured the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard rapping via video, and he felt more alive than Ms. Carey, who was right there onstage."

  • "But as the night wore on, it became increasingly clear that the sounds coming through the speakers were not necessarily coming from her mouth"

  • "Whether the decision to undertake this project was born of necessity, hubris or obliviousness, it has put Ms. Carey in a precarious position – she is in decline and trapped in a cage of her own making."

    • All hope is, of course, not lost. But, I think we all need moment.

    Latest News