RECORD REVIEWS

Mariah Carey

Album: “Me. I Am Mariah ... The Elusive Chanteuse” (Def Jam)

Grade: C+

Mariah Carey’s latest album kicks off in wonderful and typical Mariah form: She sings a song that immediately pulls you in, which has ranged from a killer club jam to a searing slow song in the past. “Cry,” a torching, emotional tune, is the song that does its job on “Me. I Am Mariah ... The Elusive Chanteuse.” You feel like you are about to experience musical bliss, and most of the time, Carey has been able to hit it out of the park.

But like many veteran all-stars, there comes a time when singers make more errors and can’t score a hit like they used to. Sadly, that is what is happening with Carey.

The batch of tracks on her 14th record are enjoyable, but they don’t have the pizazz and spark of her past albums, including 2009’s “Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel,” her worst-selling album, though musicallySFlbit was one of the year’s best works.

“Elusive Chanteuse” borrows from Carey’s earlier work — and while the powerful singer still has the vocal chops, her songs find her looking too much to the past. The downtempo ballad “You’re Mine [Eternal]” is “We Belong Together” 2.0, while the bouncy “Thirsty” sounds like it was recorded a decade ago. And tracks such as the Q-Tip-produced dance number “Meteorite,” “You Don’t Know What to Do” and “Make It Look Good” are album-fillers that don’t help the project stay on track.

Carey has been recording the album since 2011, and she’s struggled with its singles, from “You’re Mine” to “The Art of Letting Go” to “[#]Beautiful,” a mellow outtake featuring Miguel that was released a year ago and peaked in the Top 20. Throughout the struggle, she called megaproducer Jermaine Dupri to come onboard as her manager and executive producer to shape the album. The magical duo, who have collaborated on hits such as “Always Be My Baby,” “We Belong Together” and “Don’t Forget About Us,” haven’t completely lost their charm, but the thrill is somewhat gone.

— Mesfin Fekadu, Associated Press

SHARON VAN ETTEN

Album: “Are We There” (Jagjaguwar)

Grade: A-

Sharon Van Etten sings simple love songs that are anything but simple. On her fourth and best album, the North Jersey native songwriter teams with veteran producer Stewart Lerman and collaborates with a cast of musical helpmates that includes Dave Hartley and Adam Granduciel of Philadelphia band the War On Drugs to craft a set of 11 wounded, openhearted songs that soar with heightened emotional intensity. Van Etten’s voice sweeps you up in its richly luxurious tone, and here she varies and refines her approach. The quietly hypnotic “Our Love” sneaks in lyrics such as “I’m reliving my own hell.” The majestically wounded “Your Love is Killing Me” is enacted on a mythic plane akin to epic heartbreak songs such as Lucinda Williams’ “I Changed the Locks.” And the supervulnerable “You Know Me Well” and “Break Me” make the search for “your own true self” seem an operatic matter of life and death.

— Dan DeLuca, Philadelphia Inquirer

SANTANA

Album: “Corazon” (RCA/Sony Latin Iberia)

Grade: A-

Carlos Santana has made raging, Latin-tinged psychedelia since his band’s 1969 eponymous debut and 1970s hits such as “Oye Como Va” and “Black Magic Woman.” But the Mexican native has seldom embraced such a fully Latino-based album as he does here, in the superb “Corazon.” Like 1999’s “Supernatural,” the new album matches Santana’s nimble fingerings, fiery rhythms and incendiary solos with the work of notable vocalists. Unlike that former effort, “Corazon” isn’t vanilla. Instead, it brings in some big names in Latin music — Miguel, Romeo Santos and others — to push Santana to flavorful new heights. Or old heights, because the guitarist hasn’t sounded this gutsy, frenetic or mean since 1987’s “Blues for Salvador.”

Forget “Oye 2014” with Pitbull, “Corazon’s” sole misstep. Backed by rugged Latin percussionists, Santana’s guests keep this party unpolite yet elegant, with their host leading the charge. While Los Fabulosos Cadillacs tackle the palpitating cumbia “Mal Bicho,” Juanes adds his liquid croon to the anthemic “La Flaca.” Barking Brazilian Samuel Rosa raises the dead on “Saideira,” Gloria Estefan passionately strolls through the rhumba of “Besos de Lejos.” Though “Una Noche en Napoles” is “Corazon’s” best vocal workout — a sensual meeting of Lila Downs, Niqa Pastori and Soledad — the jamming salsa of “Yo Soy la Luz,” co-starring drummer Cindy Blackman-Santana and legendary jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter, is its zestiest.

— A.D. Amorosi, Philadelphia Inquirer