The face of ’90s music might be totally different (or, at least, wear a bigger sneer and even more smeared lipstick) had we all known at the time Mariah Carey was lending her talents to the alt-rock scene. On Sunday, the singer tweeted an excerpt from her upcoming memoir The Meaning of Mariah Carey, revealing she wrote an alternative album while working on her own record, 1995’s Daydream.
“Fun fact: I did an alternative album while I was making Daydream,†tweeted the singer. “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.â€
According to Pitchfork, the album is Chick’s 1995 EP Someone’s Ugly Daughter, and Mariah “wrote, produced, and sang background vocals on every song,†save one cover. Per Stereogum, the Clarissa Carey reference is to Clarissa Dane, a fellow performer and the singer’s onetime roommate while they were both getting their start in New York.
“I was playing with the style of the breezy-grunge, punk-light white female singers who were popular at the time,†writes Carey in the excerpt. “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 move I made was so calculated and manicured. I wanted to break free, let loose, and express my misery—but I also wanted to laugh. I totally looked forward to doing my alter-ego band sessions after Daydream each night.â€