May 6th, 2013 
James Shotwell 
First and foremost, can we please put a stop to hashtag album titles? Do you really crave flash in the pan press so much that you’ll title a song that will long outlive the likes of Twitter something as momentarily popular as hashtagging? C’mon Mariah, you’re better than Will.i.am.
Pop diva Mariah Carey is gearing up for a promotional onslaught this morning with the release of her new single, “#Beautiful.” The song, which features Miguel, was released to Soundcloud this morning and is currently available for purchase on many digital retailers.
Serving as her first single of 2013, “#Beautiful” is intro’d by light guitar work and a strong set of bars from Miguel detailing the beauty of Mariah. The instrumentation brings to mind the efforts of Bruno Mars, with the influence of 70’s soul running rampant throughout, but there is no denying that this song is wholly Mariah’s when her signature voice comes in. She sounds as perfect as ever, though her use of vocal layers gets a bit out of hand sometimes (you don’t need to emphasize every third word with four+ layers). You can stream the song at the end of this post.
In terms of replay value, “#Beautiful” goes down like sweet tea on a hot Summer day. That said, it doesn’t necessarily grab you as something you might want to invest your money towards owning. For everything it does right, you forget the majority of “#Beautiful” by the time the song begins to fade, and that isn’t typical for Carey’s lead singles. She will surely top the charts at some point this year, but I’m not certain this will be the song that wins at radio.
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Oh, I’m certain it will be. Other than “We Belong Together,” I haven’t liked a thing she’s done since “Fantasy.” Daydream was the last Carey album I bought. This is her first single in decades that’s accessible to both sexes and people of all ages. I think they made it so short so you just press repeat. They did the same with “We Belong Together.” And trust me, after three listens, it’s stuck. But the best kind of stuck, because it’s not annoyingly catchy. It’s like listening to a golden oldie.
I agree. Too much “Miguel” on this song.
It would have been better had it been her on her own. Still, it’s better then her last 2 songs.