We Belong Together

I remember exactly where I was the first time I’d ever heard the unimaginably golden voice of Mariah Carey: I was on the BQE heading home to Long Island with someone I used to know (long story) and Vision of Love came on the radio. I remember thinking that Whitney Houston was about to be dethroned as queen R&B Chanteuse. Anyone alive knows at least one of Mariah’s many top 10 hit songs, and everyone alive has heard her massive Christmas song that has been played to death since its release, so it should be no surprise that I have at least one song by Mariah on my countdown. Her catalog covers my entire adulthood for the most part, and that includes all the loves of my life at least (minus the current one!) I have loved so many and have cried during so many, but only one song is really my very favorite Mariah song and it’s one that was somewhat considered a comeback in 2005, a bittersweet time for me personally. We Belong Together still sort of conjures a lump in my throat. There’s something music-boxy about this song; it’s a lullaby about love gone by and the inevitable sadness and regret we all feel. When she reaches that whistle octave toward the end of the song, you’re swooning and there’s no looking back…