MANILA, Philippines—“E=MC2,” Mariah Carey’s follow-up to 2005’s chart-topping “The Emancipation of Mimi” (and the biggest opening-week sales of her career), shows that the songstress has learned a lesson from her embarrassing misfires (“Glitter,” “Charmbracelet”) by following a formula that keeps her sound current and cool to pop music patrons’ fickle tastes.

Hooks and beats

The 14-track lineup’s hooks and beats aren’t that different from the catchy vibe of “We Belong Together,” “Shake It Off,” “U Make Me Wanna” or “I Know What You Want,” but underneath the songs’ sleek, hip-hop-flavored texture and radio-friendly purr, Mariah evinces a maturity and depth that her early record-busting singles sorely lacked.

For instance, the 38-year-old diva talks about the loss of a loved one in the bittersweet “Bye Bye,” or about an emotionally abusive former husband in “Side Effects.”

She still displays her celebrated five-octave range in songs like “Thanx 4 Nothin’” and “For the Record”—after all, there aren’t a lot of singers out there who can pull off that spine-tingling vocal feat as well as she does. And this time, those curlicues are utilized organically—they don’t just come from out of nowhere.

Mariah balances tuneful frivolity with thematic gravity in tunes like the piano-driven and Gospel-tinged last track, “I Wish You Well,” “I Stay in Love” and Jermaine Dupri’s “Last Kiss.”

In “Touch My Body,” “Migrate” and the reggae-flavored “Cruise Control,” she lends melodic heft and feminine rhythm to hip-hop’s hard, urban-sound edge—and blends well with the genre’s current spinmeisters like T-Pain, The-Dream and Young Jeezy.

Carrier single

“Touch My Body,” the album’s carrier single is a faultless dance/pop/hip-hop confection, but the collection’s best cuts—“I’m That Chick” and “I’ll Be Lovin’ U Long Time”—actually get much of their verve from the sound of the ’80s—by transposing samplings of Michael Jackson and Rod Temperton’s “Off the Wall” and Debarge’s “Stay With Me” into those toe-tapping, hip-swinging tracks!