Daydream
The songbird supreme returns with her 4th studio album, showing further sonic exploration.
Genre : R&B / Pop / Gospel
Label : Columbia Records
Release Date : October 3, 1995
FINAL RATING - 9.3
When thinking of Mariah Carey, you think of the diva singing over hip-hop-inspired production with her incredible signature whistle notes. While that’s been the case for much of Mariah’s career, it wasn’t always that way. During Mariah’s time married to label head Tommy Matolla, she was largely confined to just doing adult contemporary ballads, this can especially be seen on albums like “Emotions,” and “Music Box.” This was Mariah’s defiance against her power-hungry husband, who had an ever-present grip on Mariah’s image and music. This album set the stage for “Butterfly,” which most would consider Mariah’s magnum opus, largely due to the traces of hip-hop and rnb on the record. This album is also important in music history as it helped bring the rap feature in pop music to the forefront of late 2010s music, as artists like Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, and Ariana Grande have dabbled in it.
Mariah’s impact on the music industry is often understated, with many singers pointing to Mariah, specifically this album as a major influence on their art. Though the album represented some of the first few baby steps away from the adult contemporary ballads, they certainly didn’t completely disappear. Tracks like “When I Saw You” and “Looking In” sound like more experimental “Music Box” scraps, while these tracks bring down the overall excitement of the record, they certainly aren’t bad.
All of Mariah’s albums thus far have been concise, and this album is no different. The standard edition is short, with 12 songs, with a 46-minute runtime. Though this conciseness would soon fade as artists were no longer bound to making every song fit on a 12” vinyl, this can be seen in her next two albums which are 57 and 55 minutes respectively.
The largest cultural impact that this album brought was the introduction of the rap feature on a pop song, which can be seen in tracks like “California Gurl” with a feature from Snoop Dogg, and the “Bad Blood” remix with Kendrick Lamar. Mariah had long been inspired by hip-hop and still is, but this large part of her life was forced to be concealed by her then-management, fearing for her to look too “urban.” This major influence wasn’t able to shine until what many would consider Mariah’s magnum opus “Butterfly.” When Mariah first presented the idea of a fantasy remix, she was laughed at, and dismissed, yet she persisted. The track went number one, and it is one of her most iconic tracks to date, paving the way for modern pop.
This album symbolizes the end of the first part of Mariah’s Career, just before the hip-hop inspiration took part, but the seeds are certainly planted. One track that remains in the brains of listeners is the final #1 single from the album, “Always Be My Baby.” This track reigns in Mariah’s well-known powerful vocals and instead opts for a more ear-worm melodic chorus. The track has an almost doo-wop ‘50s style but still feels perfectly in place with the album. The plucky guitar at first glance seems like it wouldn’t work well with Mariah’s booming powerful voice, yet it works seamlessly.
The album cover, is one of her worst, yet accurately describes the album, toned, muted, yet with a glimmer of fun. Themes of love, freedom, death, and identity run throughout the album, varying in effectiveness. “One Sweet Day” is a track that deals with the tough nature of death, lamenting about how they’ll meet in the future. The song came about after a friend of Mariah passed away, she connected to Boyz II Men who were writing a similar song, and the rest is history. The song broke countless records, holding the number one position on the Billboard Hot 100 for 16 weeks, which held the record for decades until it was later dethroned by “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X.
The first run of tracks from “Fantasy” to “Always Be My Baby” is immaculate, with no real misses. While there are no real skips, there are some that certainly ruin the pace. One of these is “Looking In” a just ok ballad, with no real place on the tracklist. The cohesiveness is fantastic, with great pace in the beginning, though towards the end it slows down, but that's helped by the “Daydream” interlude. It paved the way for the better interlude “Fly Away (Butterfly Reprise),” with its house-inspired production, though I do with it would’ve been labeled as a full track, as it has the length to be. Another ballad that fades into the background is “Long Ago,” which is easily the slowest and least interesting track on “Daydream.” The track takes a much more rnb approach compared to the rest of the album but leaves the listener wanting more.
A track that has continued to captivate the hearts of many is the second track “Underneath the Stars.” The track is a reset button after the pop bliss that is the opening track and lead single, “Fantasy.”
What's most interesting about "Daydream" is how it interacts with the rest of her discography. It shows a very clear need to break out of the adult contemporary genre that Mariah had been running at this point for half a decade, yet doesn’t step over the line as much as it should for her desire. While there are some more pop elements than RNB and adult contemporary ballads, it is still mostly the latter, so why is it considered this massive genre shift? If anything, “Butterfly” is a much larger shift, not only sonically but tonally, with much more mature topics being discussed. This could even be seen in the album cover, with a dull grey color palate for the focus of the cover, and Mariah’s name in shining gold.
Overall, the album is a sonic journey. Whether it be of love, heartbreak, life, or death, the album touches you, largely why it deepened its ever-expanding cultural impact into the hearts of many lambs.