The Meaning of Mariah Carey, the R & B diva’s memoir, is coming out on Tuesday, and in a tweet promoting it on Sunday Carey divulged a little known chapter in her career.
She tweeted: “Fun fact. I did an alternative album while I was making Daydream. Just for laughs, but it got me through some dark days.” She included a photo of two of the book’s pages in which she talks about the album, which was credited to a group called Chick.
A rep for Carey tells Pitchfork that Mariah wrote, produced, or provided background vocals for the songs, directed one of their music videos and acted as art director for the package. While Daydream became the best-selling album of her long and hugely successful career, Chick’s Someone’s Ugly Daughter is the opposite. In fact, the album is now so rare that copies of it go for $900 on Amazon.
In the book excerpt, she describes how at night after recording Daydream she would bring her “little alt-rock” songs to the band and “hum a silly guitar riff” which the band would turn into songs that were “irreverent, raw and urgent.”
She goes on to explain that she fully committed to her character and was “playing with the style of the breezy-grunge, punk-light white singers who were popular at the time. You know, the ones who seemed to be so carefree with their feelings and their image.” She wanted, she says, “to break free, let loose and express my misery — but…also…to laugh.” She also gives a shout out to her friend Clarissa [Dane], who performs the lead vocals with her “as a hidden layer.”
