Mariah Carey Announces Release for Secret 1995 Alt-Rock Album

Mariah Carey says he unearthed the original version of his mythic 1995 alt-rock album—a version, believed to be lost, with its own lead vocal. In a podcast interview with Rolling StoneBrian HiattCarey explained that she intended to release her version of the An Ugly Daughterand that he is also planning a related project, or maybe an album update, with another artist.

Asked how his search for the buried version of the An Ugly Daughter, Carey told Hiatt, “We’re definitely in it.” The unearthed version, he said, “may be something we need to hear, but also, I’m working on a version where I have another artist working with me…. Maybe something is built around the album. “

Back in 1995, An Ugly Daughter eventually released overlaid with backup vocals by Carey’s friend Clarissa Dane, under the band name Chick; Carey’s label, Columbia, buried the original and kept her involvement a secret. However, Carey produced and sang backing vocals on all of Chick’s versions, and aside from a cover of Cheap Trick’s “Surrender,” she also co-wrote the tracks.

“This is my outlet, and nobody knows about it,” Carey told Hiatt in the interview. “I really wanted to release the record then […] and make them understand that it was me, but that idea failed.” She added that it was “like a Green Day girl group moment. And of course there was the Courtney Love Hole era going on at the time. I even did the artwork—it was a dead roach and some lipstick [laughs].” Listen to the podcast chat below; Discussion of Chick’s record begins at about the 55-minute mark.

Read Pitchfork’s 2018 profile of Mariah, “Forever Mariah: An Interview with an Icon,” and, below, read all about An Ugly Daughter.