Mariah the Scientist puts every lover girl and lover boy’s diary to song. A heartbreak is more than just a measly breakup and falling in love is more than a few stomach butterflies: The Atlanta singer’s accounts of love feel world-shifting, and in her world, they sometimes are. It’s been a little under a year since her boyfriend, rapper Young Thug, was released from jail following a 2022 arrest on gang-related charges and the longest criminal trial in Georgia history. Through it all, Mariah appeared faithfully by his side, even when others’ faith might have wavered, like when Thug’s jail call with another woman leaked last Christmas. Matters like these test the heart, and it’s this experience and others that helped to fuel Mariah’s fourth album, HEARTS SOLD SEPARATELY.
On her prior full-length, 2023’s anticlimactic To Be Eaten Alive, dull production and ambitious vocal arrangements didn’t always support the best Mariah has to offer. HEARTS SOLD SEPARATELY marks a turnaround. The album is scaled to allow Mariah to push herself as a vocalist, but not so much that it takes her off-course. Its chilly production envisions a frozen landscape with Mariah’s voice radiating warmth from its center, trying to burn her way through to clarity. On “Sacrifice,” when she sings, “I’m all out of pages to turn/So I’ll read this out loud,” her following vocal run shimmers like eyes watering with tears of frustration. The song’s production evokes 1980s synth-pop, with twinkling keys, a steady heartbeat pulse, and airy backing vocals that seem to lift Mariah up while she’s down. Now, there’s less room for error.
The new album marks the return of collaborator Nineteen85, one-half of R&B duo dvsn and a frequent beatmaker for Drake. His and Mariah’s work together began with three songs on To Be Eaten Alive; here, he’s credited as executive producer, a first in her catalog. Their collaboration “helped me realize what it could be like to think outside of a box and explore more texture,” Mariah told Rolling Stone. Texture is exactly what’s improved: The raw emotion of “No More Entertainers” is elevated with waning synths that support her cries, rather than leaving her hanging. The muffled synth and gritty atmosphere of the Kali Uchis duet “Is It a Crime” underline the song’s vision of love as illicit and combative. For the first time in her career, Mariah doesn’t sound like she’s DIYing from her bedroom; HEARTS SOLD SEPARATELY caters to her sensitivity and skillful pen while deftly accommodating a vocal range that can sound too nasal when pushed to its edge.
The improved production is accompanied by some of Mariah’s best writing to date. She’s at her strongest when she’s singing her way out of the emotional whirlpool of either great heartbreak or deep love, and both can be found on HEARTS SOLD SEPARATELY. She’s said the album is dedicated to “the war on love,” but it might be more accurate to say the fight to keep love alive. Mariah dives into this bout on the dreamy “1000 Ways to Die,” which yearns for a fairytale that seems within arm’s reach. Next comes “Eternal Flame,” which surrenders to love with reverence for its power. “You saw it in my eyes/So I turned away/Too late, now it’s on my face,” she sings, ashamed of her prior denial of love. Lead single “Burning Blue” envisions a blue flame—the hottest form of fire, the pilot light signaling that fuel is burning safely—as a layered analogy for a true and passionate connection. Here and in “Is It a Crime,” Mariah writes of falling in love with matter-of-fact vulnerability and intuitive imagery: Even if you missed her flame analogy, “Burning Blue”’s sultry tempo and throaty delivery telegraph an intense, secure passion.
HEARTS SOLD SEPARATELY comes alive in its tales of loss as much as its tales of love. Mariah navigates heartbreak with the poise of a veteran, stringing together simple lines that punch above their weight. “Fool me once, I guess that’s allowed/But fool me twice, well, I’m not as proud,” she reflects ruefully on “Rainy Days.” Mariah the Scientist doesn’t need to be R&B’s strongest vocalist because she knows exactly how its fans want to feel: like love affects music’s biggest stars as much as it does the listeners at home; like all the limelight could never cheapen the romance. In this war, Mariah’s pen is her best weapon, and on her fourth album, it continues to get sharper.
