There's a part of me that's always seen this as round two of a pissing contest between Carey and Whitney Houston. Houston had already fired the first shot by taking a blowtorch to 'I Will Always Love You' and now Mariah steps up to the plate to do much the same to 'Without You'. Carey has never been shy about putting her vocal wares on display and to be fair she has picked a song that welcomes a little melodrama - from the day it was written 'Without You' served to roll out a barrel of angst over seeing the back of your lover walking away for the last time. By far the most famous reference point is provided by Nilsson's 1972 version, but where Harry adopted a slow burn to unleash his anguish, the echo drenched sparsity of Carey's take drips with the tension of a woman on the edge from the first notes.
And that's kind of the problem with this; it's not a song built to withstand that level of pressure. By the time the "I can't live"s roll 'round then rather than releasing the steam, the pressure cooker simply cracks in two. 'Without You' by Mariah Carey might have worked as a histrionic white knuckle ride, but by adding go faster stripes to what was a quality vehicle in its own right, Carey serves up her theatrics with a heavy side dish of "Ooooohoooo"s and vocal tic groans that make it the work of a bad actress trying to project to the back of the room, blissfully unaware that the ham of her overplayed hand hasn't even engaged the front row. Overwrought, overlong with precious little true fire, this is a dud.
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