Rating: 7 / 10

After a mental breakdown, “Glitter” and the surprising rebirth of her career, Mariah Carey at age 38 has still got it.

“Touch My Body,” her lead single off her 11th album “E=MC²” just became Carey’s 18th No. 1 single on the Billboard Top 100, sitting only behind The Beatles as an artist with the most No. 1 singles.

On “E=MC²,” Carey repeats the success she achieved with 2005’s best-selling album, “The Emancipation of Mimi.” Traded in for her sweeping love ballads of the 90s are the R&B and hip-hop influenced production from Swizz Beats, Scott Storch and Carey herself. And yes, Jermaine Dupri pops up on numerous tracks with his usual “So So Def” banter.

The album is what you would expect going into a Mariah Carey album. Shockingly, there are songs about love like “Love Story,” and “I Stay In Love.” There’s a bitter song about her man, “Thanx 4 Nothin,” and a song about death, “Bye, Bye.”

When Carey enlists the help of featured artists, the album is at its best. On “Migrate,” she’s accompanied by T-Pain, which is not surprising since he’s on every song nowadays. T-Pain infectiously sings about migrating “from the bar to the flo’ / from the flo’ to the car ...”

Also on “Side Effects” she is joined by Young Jeezy, who can improve any song with just a few bars. Damien Marley is featured on “Cruise Control,” which is an interesting and successful collaboration, except when Carey drifts in and out of sounding like a Rastafarian.

The album never really allows Mariah to drift out of the up-tempo and easy-sung lyrics as its apparent in several songs, including “Touch My Body.” She’s far more restrained than she was in years past, but she can still do it better than most of the female artists in the industry.

This is a loaded album for females to blast all day, everyday this summer, much like three years ago with “We Belong Together.” On the other hand, this is an album that guys will be able to tolerate and secretly jam out to in their car as well.

“E=MC²” will undoubtedly be one of the biggest albums of the year and Carey deserves all the accolades she receives. Although the meaning of her songs may be clichéd and unoriginal, Mariah Carey has found a successful formula in which she makes music that people will listen to, and will continue to listen to for years to come.

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