Glitter - Mariah Carey / Virgin Audio CD 2001 / 7243 8 10797 2 0

UPC 72438-10797-20

Glitter is the soundtrack to the 2001 film of the same title and the eighth studio album by American singer-songwriter and producer Mariah Carey, released on August 18, 2001, in Japan by Sony Music and worldwide on September 11, 2001, by Virgin Records. It was a complete musical departure from any of Carey's previous releases, focusing heavily on recreating a 1980s post-disco era to accompany the film, set in 1983. By covering or heavily sampling several older tunes and songs, Carey created Glitter as an album that would help viewers connect with the film, as well as incorporating newly written ballads. The singer collaborated with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and DJ Clue, who co-produced the album.

Musically, Glitter was structured to be a retro-influenced album and have more of a dance-oriented element. On several songs, critics noted Carey to be more sexually suggestive lyrically than before. Glitter featured several musical acts such as Eric Benét, Ludacris, Da Brat, Busta Rhymes, Fabolous, and Ja Rule.

Upon release, both the album and its accompanying film were met with generally negative reviews from critics, who felt it failed in trying to capture a genuine 1980s theme, and there were too many guest appearances. Retrospective reviews, however, have been largely positive, with many saying the album was unfairly maligned. Universally, Glitter was viewed as a commercial and critical failure, leading to Virgin Records cancelling Carey's $100 million five-album contract and dropping her from the label. While it debuted at number seven on the U.S. Billboard 200, it was Carey's lowest first-week sales of any album she had ever released. Internationally, it peaked outside the top-ten in many countries, but topped the charts in Japan and Greece. Glitter became Carey's least successful album at the time, selling two million copies worldwide.

Several singles were released but attained weak charting positions. "Loverboy" served as the lead single from the album and quickly became Carey's lowest-charting lead single globally. As the song stalled on the American charts, Virgin dropped its price to spur sales, which helped the single peak at number two on the US Billboard Hot 100; internationally, the song failed to garner much traction. Subsequent singles failed to make much of an impact on prominent global charts, with some not charting at all. Nearly two decades after its release, Glitter began to attract wide praise from mainstream critics and has developed a cult following.

On May 22, 2020, after many years of Glitter's absence from streaming services, on social media, Carey announced its availability "everywhere" while also revealing updated artwork for the album's singles "Loverboy", "Lead the Way" and "Last Night a DJ Saved My Life".

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