Mariah Carey "Caution (Japan, Epic Records, SICP 5996)"

Caution is the fifteenth studio album by American R&B singer Mariah Carey. It was released on November 16, 2018, by Epic Records. Her first studio album in four years, Carey collaborated with Ty Dolla Sign, Slick Rick, Blood Orange, and Gunna on the album's songs and worked with a variety of producers. Musically, Caution is a R&B, pop and hip hop record. The album was supported by the singles "With You", "A No No" and "Portrait", as well as several promotional singles. "Portrait" was released as the album's third single in May 2024 with three remixes of the song.

The album debuted at number five on the US Billboard 200, with 51,000 album-equivalent units in its first week, but performed moderately elsewhere, reaching the top-forty in Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom. The album received critical acclaim, with many critics calling it Carey's most cohesive work in over a decade, and appeared on several year-end music lists of 2018. Carey embarked on the Caution World Tour in support of the album.

After the release of her fourteenth studio album, Me. I Am Mariah... The Elusive Chanteuse, Carey departed Def Jam Records and secured a multi-album record deal with Epic in January 2015, a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment. She subsequently came out with her sixth compilation album, #1 to Infinity, which includes the single "Infinity" and a residency deal to perform at The Colosseum at the Caesars Palace hotel in Las Vegas. In 2017, Carey released the single "I Don't", featuring American rapper YG, which peaked at number 89 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Carey also released the song "The Star", from the soundtrack for the movie of the same name, and was nominated in the Best Original Song category at the 75th Golden Globe Awards.

In January 2018, Carey confirmed that she had begun work on a new album. Carey finished the album in August 2018 when she recorded the title track "Caution". The track inspired Carey to change the record's original title Portrait to its official title Caution.

Consisting of 10 songs and two additional tracks featured exclusively on its Japanese issue, Caution is an R&B, hip hop and pop record that incorporates elements of EDM, psychedelia and Latin pop. Jumi Akinfenwa from Clash Magazine views the album as a "homage to the sounds prevalent at different stages of her [Mariah's] career". Mike Wass from Idolator hailed it as being "the new blueprint for legacy acts" such as Carey.

Writing for NOW Magazine, Kevin Hegge remarked that "despite the variety of styles, the most notable element of the album was its succinctness". Hegge further juxtaposed Carey's "collaborations with a handful of hot artists and producers" with the fact that she wasn't "pandering to trends" in her music. Similarly, Andrew Unterberger from Billboard summarized Caution as being "a resolutely mid tempo album", praising the production for being "uniform but not stagnant" in its "lush chillness and steady trending". Within his review, Unterberger took note of the "incredible roster of producers" credited on the album, describing them as "bending their trademark sonics" to fit into Carey's "pop-n-B comfort zone". Winston Cook-Wilson from Spin described the album's production as being the apotheosis of "trends in contemporary R&B music, absent its glitchier, experimental tendencies"; he did cite the track "Giving Me Life" as a notable exception to this rule.

Thematically, Caution has been described as "a concept album about relationships", featuring "songs about them falling apart, bops about new love and others that celebrate something more lasting". Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly similarly interpreted the album as being "a study in various degrees of incline". Nick Smith from MusicOMH felt that Carey was "at her most ethereal and reflective" on Caution, commenting that its overall narrative focused on the relationship the singer has with herself.

Sure there are love songs and moments of inward reflection, but the majority of the tracks are kiss-offs aimed at those who have doubted her or left her scorned... While big, emotional ballads were the groundwork of Carey’s early years, there is only one truly heavy moment on the album: final song "Portrait." Following the lyrical curves, R&B coos and stellar production, it’s a starkly heavy moment that feels like a throwback to a bygone era of power ballads for vocalists of her calibre.

 — Brittany Spanos, Rolling Stone

Carey performed "GTFO" for the first time when she headlined the 2018 iHeartRadio Music Festival on September 21, 2018. Later, she performed the album's lead single "With You" at the 2018 American Music Awards on October 9, 2018. On November 16, 2018, Carey and American singer Ty Dolla Sign performed "The Distance" on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. On November 19, 2018, Carey also performed "With You" on Good Morning America.[43] On May 1, 2019, Carey performed the album's second single "A No No" at the 2019 Billboard Music Awards along with a medley of "Always Be My Baby", "Emotions", "We Belong Together" and "Hero".

To promote the album, Carey embarked on the 35-date Caution World Tour, visiting Europe, North America, Asia, and South America.

Caution opened at number five on the US Billboard 200 with 51,000 album-equivalent units, which included 43,000 pure album sales, becoming Carey's eighteenth top-ten album in the United States, but garnered her lowest first-week sales for a studio album to date. Additionally, Caution debuted at number one on the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, her eighth number-one album on the chart. It also debuted at number one on the US Top R&B Albums chart, becoming her second number-one album on the chart, with her first being Me. I Am Mariah... The Elusive Chanteuse (2014). Carey became the first artist in history to replace herself at number one on the Top R&B Albums chart, with Caution placing at number eight on the chart and her holiday album, Merry Christmas, reaching the top spot. 

Outside the US, the album debuted and peaked at number 40 on the UK Albums Chart. The album became Carey's tenth number-one album on the UK R&B Albums chart, debuting at the top spot of the chart, replacing Eminem's Kamikaze for one week, and being replaced by that album on its second week. On Australia's ARIA Albums Chart, it entered and peaked at number 15, and peaked inside the top-twenty in Canada, Croatia, and Spain; the top-thirty in Japan, Greece and Portugal; and the top-forty in Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Switzerland.

Tracklist:

1. GTFO 3:27
2. With You 3:47
3. Caution 3:15
4. A No No 3:07
5. The Distance   3:27
6. Giving Me Life   6:08
7. One Mo' Gen 3:25
8. 8th Grade 4:48
9. Stay Long Love You   3:01
10. Portrait 4:01
11. Runway 3:41

Time:   42:03

Includes sticker and an extra booklet with lyrics in Japanese. First pressing includes a mini clear folder.

Recording information:

Mariah Carey – executive production, songwriting (all tracks), production (all tracks)

Nineteen85 – production (track 1)

DJ Mustard – production (track 2)

Luca – production (track 3)

No I.D. – production (track 3)

SLMN – production (track 3)

Shea Taylor – production (track 4)

Lido – production (tracks 5, 11, and 12), programming (track 5)

Poo Bear – production (track 5), additional production (tracks 7 and 8)

Skrillex – production (tracks 5, 11, and 12), mixing (track 5)

Fred Ball – production (track 7)

WondaGurl – production (track 7)

The Stereotypes – production (track 9), programming (track 9)

Daniel Moore II – production (track 10)

Jermaine Dupri – additional production (tracks 4 and 7)

Jordan Manswell – co-production (track 1)

Brian Garten – mixing (tracks 1–3, and 10), recording (tracks 1–11 (bonus))

Phil Tan – mixing (tracks 1–4)

Chris Gehringer – mixing (track 2), mastering (tracks 2–7, 9, and 10)

Jaycen Joshua – mixing (tracks 5, 7, and 9)

Tom Norris – mixing (track 5)

Mikaelin Bluespruce – mixing (track 6)

Chris Galland – mixing (track 8)

Manny Marroquin – mixing (track 8)

James Royo – recording (track 5)

Bill Zimmerman – engineering assistance (tracks 1–4)

Jeremy Nichols – engineering assistance (tracks 1, 2, 4–11 (bonus))

Will Quinnell – engineering assistance (tracks 2–7, 9, and 10)

Brendan Morwaski – engineering assistance (track 3)

Richard Evatt – engineering assistance (track 3)

Jacob Richards – engineering assistance (tracks 5, 7, and 9)

Mike Seaberg – engineering assistance (tracks 5, 7, and 9)

Rashawn McLean – engineering assistance (tracks 5, 7, and 9)

Zach Brown – engineering assistance (track 6)

Jason Patterson – engineering assistance (track 8)

Matt Anthony – engineering assistance (track 8)

Robin Florent – engineering assistance (track 8)

Scott Desmarais – engineering assistance (track 8)

Jered Schuerman – engineering assistance (track 10)

Kevin "KD" Davis – mixing (track 11 (bonus))

Colin Leonard – mastering (track 1)

Anita Marisa Boriboon – art direction and design

An Le – photography