Charmbracelet is the ninth studio album by American singer-songwriter Mariah Carey, released in North America on December 3, 2002, through MonarC Entertainment and Island Def Jam. The album was Carey's first release since her breakdown following the release of her film Glitter (2001) and its accompanying soundtrack album. Critics described Charmbracelet as one of Carey's most personal records, following 1997's Butterfly. Throughout the project, she collaborated with several musicians, including Jermaine Dupri, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, 7 Aurelius and Dre & Vidal.
According to Carey, love is the album's main theme, and the songs combine introspective and personal themes with celebration and fun. The album contains a mixture of R&B beats, and the songs incorporate elements of other genres, such as gospel and soul. Compared to Glitter, which featured a variety of sampled melodies from the 1980s, Charmbracelet has a softer hip hop and R&B sound to it. Cam'ron, Jay-Z and Freeway also appear on the album.
Charmbracelet received mixed reviews, with some critics praising Carey's return to her core audience while others criticized the album's production. The album debuted at number three on the US Billboard 200 chart, and sold 241,000 copies in its first week. Internationally, the album reached the top-ten in Japan and Switzerland, peaked inside the top-forty in seven other countries, and has sold over three million copies worldwide. Three singles were released to promote the album. The lead single, "Through the Rain" reached number one in Spain and peaked inside the top-ten in Canada, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy and the United Kingdom. In the US, it topped the Hot Dance Club Play chart, but stalled at number 81 on the Billboard Hot 100. The two following singles failed to make an impact on the charts.
To promote the album, Carey embarked on the Charmbracelet World Tour (2003-2004) and performed on televised programs such as the 30th Annual American Music Awards, Today, The View, the Soul Train Music Awards and The Oprah Winfrey Show. Internationally, she traveled to several countries to promote the record, including a performance on the Brazilian program Fantástico, in addition to several acoustic performances and interviews on MTV Europe and MTV UK.
Background
Before the release of Charmbracelet, Carey experienced a year of critical, commercial and personal struggles, following the poor reception of her debut film Glitter (2001) and its accompanying soundtrack, as well as her subsequent hospitalization. After divorcing her husband, Tommy Mottola, Carey released Butterfly (1997). With her next release, Rainbow (1999), Carey incorporated elements of R&B and hip hop into her music, particularly on the lead single "Heartbreaker". She stopped working with longtime pop producers such as Babyface and Walter Afanasieff, in order to pursue a new sound and audience, and worked with writers Sean Combs and Jermaine Dupri. Controversially, Mottola and executive Benny Medina in 1999 used several songs Carey had written and co-written for Jennifer Lopez. Carey said she had an "emotional and physical breakdown." before she signed the record deal. traveled to Capri and moved into a recording studio where she could focus on writing and recording without distractions. Most of the album was recorded in Capri, although she traveled to Atlanta, New York and Philadelphia to record some tracks. That year, Carey claimed Charmbracelet to be the "most personal album" she had ever made. and other songwriters and producers 7 Aurelius, Just Blaze, Damizza and Dre & Vidal. The opening track and the first track to be written for the album, and was co-produced by Jam and Lewis. It was released as the lead single from the album. However, due to contractual complications, it was never released and a solo version was featured on the album. Jam and Lewis produced two more songs, "Wedding Song" and "Satisfy"the latter featuring background vocals from Michael Jacksonwhich were not released on the album.
Carey decided to work with Just Blaze after she heard the song "Oh Boy", which he produced for Cam'ron. Carey said "The One" was a personal song, which was about being hurt in past relationships and the uncertainty about forming new ones. In April 2002, she met 7 Aurelius and asked him to produce songs for the album. They flew to Nassau, Bahamas and recorded a mixture of mid-tempo and up-tempo tracks and ballads with a live band. 7 Aurelius said that Carey was "an amazing writer" and described the process of recording:
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We did three or four songs in three or four days. The way we was doing it, I had [a horn section] down there along with me. We had the whole room set up with candles, some nice wine[it was] a very good vibe. It was completely stripped down, like 'Mariah Carey Unplugged'. She stripped herself down to her talent. She was really trusting of me and my vision, and I was trusting of who she was.|align=left|width=300px
Randy Jackson contributed to four tracks on the album, and said it was "the most real and honest record she's made. She didn't care what anyone thought of the lyrics. They were only important to her." Carey included a cover of Def Leppard's song "Bringin' On the Heartbreak". During the photo shoot for Charmbracelet at Capri, Carey happened to listen to Def Leppard's greatest hits album Vault (1995), which contains the song, and decided to cover it. In an interview with Billboard, Carey said that the song is "an example of her musical diversity". became ill with cancer and she returned to New York to spend some time with him; he died soon after. In his memory, Carey wrote and produced the song "Sunflowers for Alfred Roy". The song proved to be "very emotional" for Carey, and she sang it only once in the studio.
Composition
Charmbracelet is primarily an R&B album, though its genre classification has been the subject of some debate. NME remarked that the album is "nominally R&B, much like Tony Blair is nominally a socialist", suggesting a loose adherence to the genre's conventions. Slant Magazine characterized the project as a continuation of Carey's pop-hip-hop fusion, remarking that the album "reprises the singer's now-signature mix of hip-hop and pop, but throws in a few happy surprises along the way".