Mariah Carey's new single "Almost Home"

On the set of 'Almost Home' video

Mariah Carey's new single "Almost Home", from the soundtrack to the forthcoming film Oz The Great and Powerful, was supposed to arrive tomorrow for our listening pleasure. But seeing as nothing is secret for long in the digital realm, it arrived a day early.
 The Stargate-produced track not only helps Carey launch the movie, but also gets her on the trail to the release of her upcoming new album. Last year's single "Triumphant (Get 'Em)" was a bit of a letdown, so does "Almost Home" get us back into a Mariah kind of groove?
 As far as breakout potential, this could go either way: Carey purists are going to go ham for that key change and those runs at the end, but the beat feels a little vanilla and the chorus is not exactly a home run.
 Carey's body of work is pretty phenomenal - she could comfortably put together a satisfying two-disc greatest hits without having to let middling stuff sneak in - but it has been a while since she delivered a really transcendent single. It used to be her bread and butter; she still holds the record for most chart-topping songs by a solo artist in history.
 But this millennium has been spottier, and though songs like "Obsessed" and "Touch My Body" scored big on the charts, they both feel like weaker versions of other Carey smashes (and have not aged particularly well, either). "Almost Home" kind of feels the same way. It's an uplift anthem that could have been sung by most anybody, at least for the first three minutes.
(Music Mix)