Mariah Carey

A thousand shiny comets have streaked across the Hot 100 before disappearing into the faraway ether of where-are-they-now; only a very few turn fame into a long game.

TO SAY “A STAR IS BORN” ISN’T A STORY, IT’S AN INTRO.

Mariah Carey is one of thos se rare supernovas, with the stats to prove it: 200 million-plus albums sold over nearly three decades; 18 No. 1 singles, more than any other solo artist in chart history (only the Beatles outrank her); five Grammys; and, of course, a fiveoctave vocal range, though it’s been years since she really used the full scope of it.

At 48 (or possibly 49; a true diva never tells), Carey is no longer at the white-hot center of the zeitgeist—that place where SoundCloud rappers battle face-masked DJs for supremacy, and feuding with Nicki Minaj has been passed on to the more-than-capable hands of Cardi B. But Mariah does not go to the mountain; the mountain goes to Mariah. And on her 15th studio album, the breezy, pleasingly defiant Caution, she finds a freshness that’s been missing from her recent material.