Glitter

Glitter is the soundtrack album to the film of the same name, and the eighth studio album by American singer-songwriter Mariah Carey, released on September 11, 2001 by Virgin Records. The album was a complete musical departure from any of Carey's previous releases, focusing heavily on recreating a 1980s disco era to accompany the film, set in 1982. Through covering or heavily sampling several older tunes and songs, Carey crafted Glitter as an album that would help viewers connect with the film, as well as incorporating newly written ballads that would "stand on their own as songs from a Mariah Carey album." Throughout the project, Carey reprised collaborations with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and DJ Clue, with whom she produced most of the album.
Musically, the album became one of Carey's most diverse bodies of work, structured to be a retro-influenced album, and more dance-oriented than any of her previous releases. On several songs, critics noted Carey to be more sexually suggestive lyrically than before, in part due to the inclusion of several guest hip hop musicians. Aside from the album's predominant feature of dance tracks, Glitter incorporated several lyrically meaningful and vocal ballads. On "Reflections (Care Enough)", Carey describes an abandoned girl, who in desperation, lashes out to her mother in song, while on "Twister", paying homage to a friend who had committed suicide. On Glitter, several musical talents were featured, such as Eric Benét, Ludacris, Busta Rhymes, Fabolous and Ja Rule.
Glitter and its accompanying film were met with generally mixed reviews from music critics, who while complimenting the album's ballads, felt Carey was overwhelmed by the amount of guest appearances, as well as the failed 1980s theme. Universally, Glitter was viewed as a critical and commercial failure, leading to the annulment of Carey's unprecedented $100 million five-album contract with Virgin. The album debuted at number seven on the US Billboard 200, with the lowest-first week sales of Carey's career. Although it peaked outside the top-ten in many countries, Glitter debuted atop the album's chart in Japan, and achieved sales of over one million units. To date, Glitter remains one of Carey's lowest selling albums, and has sold over three million copies worldwide.
Several singles were officially released, although following their weak charting, Virgin halted promotion of Glitter. "Loverboy" served as the first single from the project, and quickly became Carey's lowest charting lead single throughout many countries globally. Although reaching number two on the US Billboard Hot 100 following the single's price reduction, "Loverboy" was unable to garner sufficient airplay to stay within the top-ten. Internationally, the song peaked outside the top-twenty in most music markets, while failing to achieve a long chart run. "Never Too Far", the album's second release, reached #81 in the United States, and performed weakly throughout Europe. However, the song did have some success in Asia, most notably in the Philippines where it became one of her most played singles. Subsequent singles failed to make much of an impact on prominent global charts.