Joy To The World Mixes

The kicking club mixes of Mariah Carey's Joy To The World have been released in Australia on CD. The mixes were originally released for Christmas 1994 as a limited edition red vinyl 12" single.

The three remixes on the CD are from the club remix guru himself, David Morales. Morales' previous efforts include the pick of the Fantasy club mixes (such as the Def Club and The Boss Mixes) and the popular Dreamlover club versions.

The Celebration Mix is the longest of the three, and probably the most approprite for the dance floor. A bass-heavy dance beat, funky organ and Mariah's gospel wailing combine to form a remix rivalling the best of the Fantasy mixes.

The Flava Mix has a similar beat to the Celebration Mix, but offers a host of other differences, mainly in the vocal arrangements and the techno instrumental sections. Not as long as the Celebration Mix, and probably not quite as full-on or in-your-face, the Flava Mix's strong area is its sonic variety.

The Club Mix is an extended LP Version with an effective combination of club beat and strong gospel orchestrations. Perhaps not as dancable as the Celebration and Flava Mixes, this mix still has wide-ranging appeal as a heavily rocked-up Christmas carol.

One Sweet Day Mixes

The One Sweet Day maxisingle features four extra versions of the track in addtion to the original Album Version. The Sweet A Capella and A Capella versions of the track are stripped down vocal versions of the strikingly beautiful duet with the Boyz. Sweet A Capella has some Walter A. keyboard orchestrations in the background, wheras A Capella is pure Boyz and Mariah with absolutely no distractions. Chucky's Remix is an interesting and tasteful twist on the original track, and makes a nice change from the other more conservative versions. The Live Version is the performance which was recorded at Madison Square Gardens for Mariah's Fantasy television special.

Def Drums?

The US version of the One Sweet Day maxisingle features yet another Fantasy remix! The Def Drums Mix is supposed to be 4 minutes of heavy bass percussion stripped from the Def Club Mix. Perhaps not an appropriate addition to a slow R&B ballad single, this track is surely more the most Mariah-less track to appear on a Mariah Carey CD, featuring absolutely no vocals!

Dreaming Of An Interactive Christmas

Mariah's Merry Christmas CD has recently been released in a new interactive CD ROM format for personal computers called CD Plus.

The CD Plus is divided into several sections. The main section, of course, is the ten tracks that are Merry Christmas (US Version), and this portion is playable on any standard CD player. When using the computer, you also have the option to display the karaoke-style lyrics as the songs are playing.

Another interactive portion allows the user to randomly access a discography of sound samples from every track of every Mariah album, plus some video clips from her full-length video releases.

A user-driven interview with Mariah shows a number of prerecorded video interview clips where she answers questions about her feelings on Christmas and the making of the album. The interview is set in a living room, and Mariah is wearing one of her Christmas costumes, playing with the newest of her dogs.

Two full-length video clips are also included, a mimed black and white performance of All I Want For Christmas Is You, and a live performance of Joy To The World. As well, an interactive photo album shows some holiday season snaps of Mariah with some cute animated touches.

The CD Plus is available in PC and Macintosh compatible versions, and comes with an extra disc of support software. The two discs retail in Australia for $39.95. Further titles are available from other popular Sony artists, and their release coincides with the new multimedia Sony PlayStation and the recent development of Microsoft Windows 95.

"The Archer Review" is a publication of Kasoft Typesetting

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Articles copyright 1995 Kade "Archer" Hansson; e-mail: archer@kaserver5.org

Last updated: Thursday 26th March 1998