The album was recorded during sessions for her 1995 album 'Daydream'
Considering she's been around for the best part of three decades and is one of the biggest pop stars on the planet, you may have thought that you knew everything there was to know about Mariah Carey.
However, the pop diva has revealed a new facet to both her musical life and her personal story by telling fans that she once recorded a secret grunge album.
Fun fact: I did an alternative album while I was making Daydream 👀 Just for laughs, but it got me through some dark days. Here's a little of what I wrote about it in #TheMeaningOfMariahCarey 🤟 S/O to my friend Clarissa who performs the lead w/ me as a hidden layer #Chick #TMOMC pic.twitter.com/Re23t5whcd
— Mariah Carey (@MariahCarey) September 27, 2020
The album, she says, started as a joke during recording sessions for her 'Daydream' album in 1995, and she expands on it in an excerpt from her new memoir 'The Meaning of Mariah Carey'.
“I did an alternative album while I was making Daydream,” she wrote. “Just for laughs, but it got me through some dark days. I’d bring my little alt-rock song to the band and hum a silly guitar riff. They would pick it up and we would record it immediately. It was irreverent, raw, and urgent, and the band got into it. I actually started to love some of the songs. I would fully commit to my character.”
She added: "I was playing with the style of the breezy-grunge, punk-light white female singers who were popular at the time. You know the ones who seemed to be so carefree with their feelings and their image. They could be angry, angsty, and messy, with old shoes, wrinkled slips, and unruly eyebrows, while every movie I made was so calculated and manicured. I wanted to break free, let loose, and express my misery — but I also wanted to laugh. totally looked forward to doing my alter-ego band sessions after Daydream each night.”
She also revealed a snippet from one of the songs, which was recorded and released with main vocals provided by a friend of hers called Clarissa Dane, who fronted a band called Chick. Carey provided background vocals on the album, which was called 'Somebody's Ugly Daughter'. She is credited with writing and producing the album, too.
The song is called 'Demented' and Carey said on Twitter that she's now on "a quest to unearth the version of this album with my lead vocals and will not stop until we find it.”
Fun fact 2: now that you've listened to Clarissa's kick-ass lead vocals, I can tell you that I'm on a quest to unearth the version of this album with my lead vocals and will not stop until we find it! So happy that we get to experience this together lol! 🐏❤️🎸 https://t.co/EMukSDgWPu
— Mariah Carey (@MariahCarey) September 28, 2020
Dunno about you, but we're certainly interested in hearing it...
Until then, hear 'Demented', with vocals by Clarissa Dane, below: