Kevin Winter/Getty Images – Mariah Carey performs onstage during the 2018 iHeartRadio Music Festival at T-Mobile Arena on Sept. 21, 2018 in Las Vegas.
The last time we heard from Mariah Carey she very explicitly told us to “GTFO.” With the curb kicking out of the way, the singer was back on Thursday morning (Oct. 4) with a decidedly more sultry, inviting single entitled “With You.”
Over a finger-snap beat and warm piano Carey’s voice is front and center on the velvety ballad about falling in love, which, like its predecessor, features a four-letter chorus. And, as a bonus, the outro sneaks in one of Carey’s signature high-tone whistle notes to cement the sense that she’s all the way back on her grind.
“It was all so overwhelming/ She was like ‘I don’t know, don’t tell me’/ He had eyes that said ‘girl, I’ll save you’/ She had doubts, like they might not make it/ So both held tight to face it,” she sings in a near whisper in the story-song-like first verse about stepping gingerly into a new love — one that moves quickly but leaves many unanswered questions. “They wrote vows, she was bound to take him/ She was full of such trepidation/ There in front of the whole damn nation.”
The pre-chorus paints the affair as “the coming storm,” with the woman seeking safety and security and the man promising that he’s been “loving you so long/ Ever since that Bone Thugs song,” promising her that she’s strong enough to weather the rough seas. With a steady, unwavering beat and tone, the song bounces along into the straight-talk chorus. “Ooh, shots of Remy/ Playing Confessions, and our bodies blending/ Ooh, I’m in love, it’s true/ Yeah, damn I fucks with you,” she sings, laying out a true love scenario very different from the get your things and get out storyline of “GTFO.”
Carey is slated to perform “With You” at the 2018 American Music Awards on Oct. 9, returning to the AMA stage for the first time in a decade. The singer is putting the finishing touches on her follow-up album to 2014’s Me. I Am Mariah… The Elusive Chanteuse; no official title or release date have been announced yet.
Listen to “With You” below.