Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel is the twelfth studio album by American singer-songwriter Mariah Carey. It was initially released in the Philippines and Hong Kong on September 28, 2009, and it was released on September 29, 2009 in the United States and Canada, by Island Records, Def Jam Recordings and The Island Def Jam Music Group. After promotion for her previous album, E=MC² (2008) ended, Carey began to work on a new album, producing songs with Terius "The-Dream" Nash and Christopher "Tricky" Stewart.
Four singles were released to promote the album. The lead single, "Obsessed", became the album's most successful song, peaking at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100, and reaching the top twenty in Japan, Canada and Australia and the top ten in Italy and France. The second single, "I Want to Know What Love Is", reached number 60 on the Billboard Hot 100, and topped the Brasil Hot 100 Airplay chart for 27 non-consecutive weeks. "H.A.T.E.U." was released as the third single. "It's a Wrap" was released as a promotional single in 2023 after going viral on video sharing platform TikTok.
Upon its release, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel received positive reviews from music critics, who felt it was one of Carey's most consistent and interesting records. Commercially, the album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 with 168,000 copies sold in its first week, and peaked within the top-ten in other five countries. To promote the album, Carey made a pre-show in Madison Square Garden in 2009, embarked on the Angels Advocate Tour (2010), and performed on several television programs, including America's Got Talent, The Oprah Winfrey Show and Today.
Background and production In early 2009, singer and songwriter The-Dream stated that he and Carey had already begun working on her next studio album: "I think it's about just writing an album that includes the focus of all the hits that she's had. She can't take a loss; she has to do everything to the T. So it's basically like we're trying to make a greatest hits album without using the greatest hits". In February 2009, The-Dream told to MySpace Music that he and Carey had finished seven songs for the album.
In May, Carey revealed that she was calling the album Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel because it was going to be "very personal and dedicated to the fans". She says that she chose to use three images for the cover art because "there are a lot of different emotions and stories revealed on this album". Carey also stated that she loves "the whole album" and she's "completely immersed in it". On June 16, Carey said on Twitter that there will be "big ballads" on the album. Carey also said that she "tried to make something for all who love Butterfly, and even older albums". For the first time in her career, Carey worked with American Grammy Award-winning hip-hop and R&B record-producer Timbaland. They worked on a number of tracks, but none were included on the album. Another song, "Imperfect," which was written by Carey and deals with societal pressure on women to "be perfect and look a certain way," also failed to make the track listing. In an interview with BET, Carey said that she worked with Jermaine Dupri, but none of his songs are on the album. Despite the majority of the project being written and produced by Carey, Tricky Stewart and The-Dream, the main goal was to avoid having a "redundant or stale" album. In an interview with Elle Carey described the sound of her new album: "Each song is its own snapshot of a moment in a story. But overall, the vibe is R&B hip-hop with a lot of slow jams. [...] Each song has its own mood; some flow seamlessly into each other, and that was the purpose, and others are very different. The album has a sense of humor, [you can hear me laughing out loud at certain points], but it also has deep and introspective moments."Elle Magazine, Mariah, September 9, 2009
Concept and packaging During an interview with music retailer Amazon, Carey revealed her inspiration and motivation for the album. "Each song tells its own story. Each one is like an intimate conversation or entry in a private diary. A lot of the songs reflect specific, different times in my life, actual events that happened to me, some of which are from way back in the past. Others were inspired by movies or from a friend of mine that may have told me their story.Amazon.com: Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel . Amazon.com. Retrieved September 3, 2009. People can listen to it and pick out certain songs that mean something to them – women especially. It's about women's empowerment and overcoming certain things. It's fun too though. It's got a little bit of something for everybody".
Amazon revealed that the physical release of the album would come as a 3-panel softpack as opposed to the usual plastic CD casing. This was due to the inclusion of two discs, the first housed the album itself whilst the second housed an enhanced CD featuring the music video for lead single "Obsessed" as well as the video for "Obsessed" (official remix featuring Gucci Mane) and three other remixes. The packaging includes a 34-page Elle mini-magazine which takes an exclusive in-depth look at Carey's life and career. The mini-magazine is mixed in with lyrics and other traditional liner-note materials as well as upscale ads to cut the production costs of the booklet. The ad-supported booklets – available in a digital format for downloaders – appeared in the first one million US copies of the CD and the first 500,000 overseas.
It was also revealed that a limited edition collectors' version of the album would be released on October 20, 2009. It features the album and its bonus disc on both standard CDs and limited edition white vinyl LPs plus six rare lithographs, the limited edition Elle mini-magazine, a signature butterfly band and exclusively designed collector's box packaging.
Composition and music For Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, Mariah Carey has collaborated primarily with the team of The-Dream and Tricky Stewart for songwriting and producing throughout the entire album. Mariel Concepcion of Billboard dubbed the album as a record for "big ballads and R&B tunes about love and heartbreak, while herself labelled it as "an R&B hip-hop album with a lot of slow jams." Lyrically, Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine described the album as a "breakup record," with Mariah "kicking all kinds of men to the curb (basically the whole album)." Jody Rosen of Rolling Stone saw the album as "a mix of love ballads and sassy breakup anthems," while Dan Gennoe wrote that the album's focus is on "sentimental simpering, bittersweet slow jams, tears, heartbreak and five octaves of love."
The album starts with "Betcha Gon' Know (The Prologue)", involving Mariah finding her man cheating on her with an unclothed woman and threatening to expose him on national television ("Oprah Winfrey whole segment, for real", she sings). The second track and album's lead-single "Obsessed" details anger and anxiety at being stalked, with a guy who is deceptively claiming he's had sex with her. Several critics believed that the "guy" in question was Eminem, who allegedly spread rumors about their involvement. "H.A.T.E.U." stands for "Having a Typical Emotional Upset", and it's a painfully slow track about the emotional torment of lovers being torn apart, while in "Candy Bling" she wishes she could relive happier times before cherished relationships ended. On "Ribbon," she sings, "You give my body chills/ … And boy I got your lovin' on my mind," while on "Inseparable", Mariah sings about true love alongside a thumbing bass. "It's a Wrap" has Mariah making sure a cheatin' ex knows it's over for good, while "Up Out My Face" shares lyrical similarities, with Mariah issuing a sassy kiss-off: "I thought we had something special/ That we had something good/ But I should've had another mechanic under my hood," she sings.Reed, James (September 29, 2009). "On 'Angel,' Carey returns to glory of her R&B days" . Boston Globe. The song's "reprise" follows, with a marching-band coda.
The track "More Than Just Friends" talks about reveling in the glory of love, with Mariah singing, "We can make love in Italy in the grotto," and poking fun at her own vocal signature (Love me down till I hit the top of my soprano," she coos). "The Impossible", which Mariah says is about her marriage to Nick Cannon, starts sweetly: "I looked in your heart/And saw all my dreams come true." It takes its cue from early-'90s group Jodeci's "Forever My Lady." She harbors hope for a broken relationship on "Angels Cry", with her staple high-pitched voice over piano and finger snaps, singing: "I'm willing to live and die for our love/Baby we can get back that shine". The album reaches its most painful moments in "Languishing", about being in a relationship with someone you still don't feel you know after many years. "Would you reach for me if you saw that I was languishing?," she wonders. The album closes with a cover of Foreigner's love-affirming, 1984 hit "I Want to Know What Love Is." Mariah's version features a gospel choir and whistle notes.
Marketing and promotion
Carey first made a promotional appearance on August 2, 2009, on America's Got Talent, where she taped her performance of "Obsessed". The episode aired on August 5, 2009. The album was initially pushed back from August 25 to September 15 so that more recording in the studio could take place but it was then revealed that the album was to be pushed back once more to September 29, 2009, with all promotion being delayed so that Carey could put finishing touches to the album. As with most releases, the album was released several days earlier in international territories/markets. Since then the UK release was pushed back from August 24, to September 14, to October 5 and finally to November 16. British newspaper The Daily Mirror got a preview of six tracks on the album, these being "Obsessed", "Standing O", "Candy Bling", "H.A.T.E.U." (which stands for "Having A Typical Emotional Upset"), "Impossible" and a cover of Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is". Media playbacks of these six tracks were held in Tokyo, Hong Kong, London and Berlin in August 2009.
Then in September, Carey began performing at her Live at the Pearl concerts in Las Vegas on September 10 and 11, where she sang several of her famous hits, the first two singles from Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, "Obsessed" and "I Want to Know What Love Is" and premiering two other songs from the album, "Angels Cry" and "Up Out My Face". These were followed by appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show on September 18, where Carey gave an interview with husband Nick Cannon and sang "I Want to Know What Love Is". On October 5, Carey performed a concert for select contest winners at the P.C. Richard Theater in TriBeCa, New York, where she sang "Obsessed", "H.A.T.E.U.", and "I Want to Know What Love Is" from the album. Also, she sang "Always Be My Baby" and "We Belong Together". Carey resumed her Las Vegas shows at Live at the Pearl concerts on October 9 and 10, this time changing the setlist and performing songs which she has either not sung live this millennium or debuting live performances of songs from previous albums. Carey also sang "H.A.T.E.U.", in order to promote it as her third single, in addition to "Obsessed" and "I Want To Know What Love Is".