Mariah Carey was already one of the biggest stars in music when her seventh studio album, Rainbow, hit stores on November 2nd, 1999. At the time, I was a senior in high school living in El Paso, Texas. Before that, I had spent the last six years outside Washington D.C. Naturally, living so close to Chocolate City with numerous urban radio stations, album cuts weren’t that hard to come by. Particularly during the quiet storm.
Unfortunately, El Paso only had one mainstream radio station, so it was sporadic that an album cut would get radio play. However, I’ve always considered myself a music head, so I would spread the word around my high school whenever I discovered a slow jam bop from an artist.
So naturally, back in 1999, when I heard “Bliss” this week’s pick for Slow Jam Saturday, I had to get my A&R on. As with her previous two albums, Daydream and Butterfly, Rainbow found Mariah Carey going in a more urban direction. One of the most surprising things about Rainbow was that Carey eighty-sixed longtime collaborator Walter Afanasieff in favor of Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis for the ballads.
“Bliss” is the third track on the album and one of the first slow jams that Carey worked on with Jam & Lewis. The song starts with an angelic sound before Mariah comes in at the nineteen-second mark, seductively crooning,
“Touch me baby
It feels so amazing (yeah)
And you stimulate me
And you make me want you more and more”.
When we hit the chorus, Mariah has the listener in a romantic frenzy as she effortlessly shows off her whistle register. Even in the simplicity of production, Mariah shows why she’s one of the best in the game. Furthermore, as far as I know, no singer has ever attempted to cover the song on a reality TV singing competition due to the vocal complexity.
“Thank God I Found You” and the far superior (Make It Last Remix feat. Joe & Nas) may have been the big ballad single from Rainbow. However, with “Bliss,” Jam & Lewis produced a sensual slow jam for Carey that was never crass but tasteful and personally stood the test of time.
Final Grade: A
“Bliss” from Rainbow is available on all streaming platforms.
For this week’s Second Listen Sunday, I want to revisit 2004 and highlight Romeo’s debut solo album, formerly of Immature. Titled “Food for Thought” and released on June 22nd, this project marked the singer’s change of name to Young Rome in an effort to distance himself from the youthful sound of his group, much like his bandmate Marques Houston had done a year earlier.
In the nineties, Hip-Hop reigned supreme, and every label CEO wanted a share of the lucrative R&B market. One strategy was to keep singers on their roster who could deliver catchy hooks, keeping everything in-house and saving money. Bad Boy had Carl Thomas, Death Row had Danny Boy, and Roc-A-Fella had Rell, our featured artist for this week’s Slow Jam Saturday
Growing up in the eighties, I was surrounded by incredibly talented male R&B singers who could deliver unforgettable love songs. Artists like Luther Vandross, Jeffrey Osborne, and Peabo Bryson dominated the airwaves, but Freddie Jackson was another voice that truly deserved recognition.