After a notable delay, Mariah Carey now has a second single from her Butterfly album for sale in the US.

HOBART (14 May 1998)- The My All single was released to the US a couple of weeks ago and to Australia last week.

The puzzling thing is that Australia had two singles between the releases of Honey and My All- Butterfly and Breakdown. Other markets have also seen The Roof released.

Butterfly's single release pattern has represented a significant departure from the fairly uniform international release strategies of previous albums.

Many are speculating on the significance of the delay, which has all but assured that neglected US fans will send the single to the very top of Billboard's Hot 100.

Already at number two, last week MTV in the US reported My All as reaching number one, but this turned out to be false when the chart was released a day later.

It seems hardly fair that other artists must now compete with a single brimming with unreleased material- especially given that the second single release date has been postponed for more than a half-year. It also seems hardly fair that the fans have been exploited in such a manner.

Much furore surrounded Michael Jackson's number one Billboard debut You Are Not Alone (as reported in Archer Review Issue 3), when the single was delayed for only six weeks- although in that instance the pricing policy was also an issue.

Ms Carey's thirteenth number one Billboard single may well be a hollow victory. It is even possible that politics may keep Billboard from allowing yet another single from the Sony stables cheat the charts.

"The Archer Review" is a publication of Kasoft Typesetting

Kasoft is a registered trademark of Kasoft Software, owned by Kade Hansson.

Articles copyright 1998 Kade "Archer" Hansson; e-mail: archer@kaserver5.org

Last updated: Thursday 21st May 1998