Mariah Carey's - #1's

11/17/1998 3:00 AM, LAUNCH
Amy Linden

This collection of Mariah's former No. 1s (along with the obligatory new tracks to sweeten the pot a bit) is a greatest hits album: this despite Carey's somewhat disingenuous protestations to the contrary. Yet, while these may be the tracks that sold the most and charted the highest, these aren't necessarily Mariah's best songs. Not when the sinuous "Breakdown" is left out of the mix in favor of the ersatz TV-theme music "Hero." Fans (or even detractors) of Carey will be more than familiar with the material and cheer as Carey's music goes from semi-soul melodrama(her debut "Vision Of Love," which still ranks as one of her best performances) to cutie-pie home girl (the catchy but unctuous "Honey.")

New cuts include a sassy duet with Jermaine Dupri on a cover of "Sweetheart" (Carey sounds great), the torturous lung-to-lung battle with Whitney quot;When You Believe" and a remake of her former boss Brenda K. Starr's "I Still Believe," in which Mariah proves that Brenda did it better.