Your Girl

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"Your Girl"
"MC30" EP artwork
Song by Mariah Carey
from the album The Emancipation of Mimi
StudioHoneywest (New York City)
LabelIsland
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)

"Your Girl" is a song recorded by American singer Mariah Carey for her tenth studio album, The Emancipation of Mimi (2005).

Background and release[edit]

"Your Girl" appears as the tenth track on The Emancipation of Mimi, which Universal Music released on March 30, 2005.[1] It was not released as a single from the album.[2] In April 2020, Carey said this was planned from the beginning despite it being one of her favorite tracks.[3] She wrote that the song "should have been a single" in her memoir later that year.[4] Retrospectively, Entertainment Weekly writer Michael Slezak attributed its lack of radio airplay to the number of other worthy tracks on the album.[5] Chris Gardner of The Hollywood Reporter described the song as a deep cut.[6]

On January 29, 2021, an extended play was issued containing a remix featuring Diplomats members Cam'ron and Juelz Santana and a second remix featuring the rapper N.O.R.E.[7]

Composition[edit]

Two minutes and forty-six seconds in length, "Your Girl" is the shortest song on the album.[8] Critics labeled it a slow jam[9] and a power ballad.[10]

"Your Girl" contains a sample from the Adeaze song "A Life with You", written by Feagaigafou and Logovi'i Tupa'i.[11] Permission was obtained after Scram Jones performed at a 2003 party for the group's record label, Dawn Raid Entertainment. The sample, in which the group's voices are sped up, appears in the chorus of "Your Girl".[12]

The song's lyrics are about Carey confidently addressing a prospective lover.[13] She says "I'm gonna make you want to get with me tonight"[14] and assures him she will "put naughty thoughts into your mind".[15] For Pitchfork's Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, the song is less about "the potential for love and more on the rush of finally going after what she wants".[13] In The New York Times, Jon Pareles said Carey "promises earthy delights" using an impersonal delivery.[16] Carey's singing incorporates belting early on in the song.[14]

Critics interpreted the composition differently. According to Clayton Smales of the Townsville Bulletin, "Your Girl" is a pop song.[15] Guy Blackman of the Sunday Age felt it has a "down-tempo disco feel"[17] and Sal Cinequemani of Slant Magazine said it is a derivative of the Motown sound.[18] Slezak stated the chorus contains gospel influences;[5] The Jakarta Post's Tony Hotland thought jazz and soul elements were present.[10] Joey Guerra likened the song to a retro soul record in the Houston Chronicle[19] and Nick Marino called it "a simple old-school jam" in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.[20] Escobedo Shepherd said it was "based on the Kanye [West]-style, sped-up soul record trend that was aflame at the time" of recording.[13] Todd Burns of Stylus Magazine also thought the production was influenced by West,[21] while BBC Music writer Adam Webb viewed it as a revision of the "classic soul sound" common in Carey's previous work.[22]

Critical reception[edit]

Music critics called "Your Girl" the best[23] or one of the best songs on the album.[24] In 2005, Slezak listed it among Carey's 10 best songs.[5] Billboard ranked it at number 38 on their 2020 list of Carey's 100 greatest songs.[14]

The composition was a subject of positive commentary. Blackman and Slezak called the chorus catchy.[25]

Carey's vocals received mixed reviews. Andy Gill of The Independent said they are so histrionic she is "almost as bad as all the Pop Idol wannabes that reflect her disastrous influence".[26] In comparing her voice to its state in the 1990s, Burns thought Carey sounded weaker,[21] Milwaukee Journal Sentinel critic Dave Tianen said she used the same excessive style to bad effect,[27] and Orlando Sentinel writer Jim Abbott argued it was better because she exercised more restraint.[28] According to the Sunday Herald Sun, Carey "shows the world the astounding breadth of her vocal range" on the song.[29]

Live performances[edit]

Carey has performed "Your Girl" infrequently since its release.[30] She sang it during her 2006 concert tour, The Adventures of Mimi.[31] In 2020, she uploaded an a capella version to her social media accounts for the fifteenth anniversary of The Emancipation of Mimi.[32] This formed part of a series of at-home performances by Carey during the COVID-19 pandemic.[33] It received a positive review from Billboard's Glenn Rowley, who said she "delivers vocals fit for the gods".[32] In 2024, Carey gave her first live performance of the song since 2006 for her Las Vegas concert residency, The Celebration of Mimi.[34]

Credits and personnel[edit]

Recording

Personnel

  • Mariah Carey, Mary Ann Tatum – background vocals
  • Dana Jon Chappelle, Brian Garten – engineering
  • Rufus Morgen – assistant engineering
  • Pat "Pat 'Em Down" Viala – mixing
  • Herb Powers – mastering[11]

References[edit]

Citations[edit]

  1. ^ Universal Music Japan.
  2. ^ Guerra 2020.
  3. ^ Gabbara 2020.
  4. ^ Carey & Davis 2020, p. 189.
  5. ^ a b c Slezak 2005.
  6. ^ Gardner 2024.
  7. ^ Kaufman 2021.
  8. ^ Jaxsta.
  9. ^ Blackman 2005, p. 27.
  10. ^ a b Hotland 2005, p. 17.
  11. ^ a b c Carey 2005.
  12. ^ Barry Hill 2005.
  13. ^ a b c Escobedo Shepherd 2024.
  14. ^ a b c Feeney 2020.
  15. ^ a b Smales 2005.
  16. ^ Pareles 2005.
  17. ^ Blackman 2005.
  18. ^ Cinquemani 2005.
  19. ^ Guerra 2005, p. 8; Guerra 2020.
  20. ^ Marino 2005, p. E10.
  21. ^ a b Burns 2005.
  22. ^ Webb 2005.
  23. ^ Escobedo Shepherd 2024; Marino 2005, p. E10.
  24. ^ Cinquemani 2020; Smales 2005, p. 32.
  25. ^ Blackman 2005, p. 27; Slezak 2005.
  26. ^ Gill 2005, p. 22.
  27. ^ Tianen 2005, p. 8B.
  28. ^ Abbott 2005, p. 38.
  29. ^ Sunday Herald Sun 2005, p. F7.
  30. ^ Paul 2024.
  31. ^ Marino 2006.
  32. ^ a b Rowley 2020a.
  33. ^ Rowley 2020b.
  34. ^ Taylor 2024.

Sources[edit]

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