"Best thing to happen to your ass was me," sings Mariah Carey on the track Thirsty, inviting you to applaud her heroic self-belief. That quality permeates her 13th studio album, from the fabulously solipsistic title to her confidence as she outdazzles guests Nas, Miguel and even Stevie Wonder. Sure, Wonder can play a joyous harmonica – which he does on Make It Look Good – but can he trill and soar with Carey's offhand elegance? The indifferent commercial performance of her last album, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, has left her grandiosity undented – as ever, Carey is often wildly overblown (see, in particular, Cry), but there's a magnificence to the way her voice nearly bursts its banks, then reins itself back to quiet-storm mode. Admittedly, there's a good deal of clutter: not just 90s R&B throwbacks such as You're Mine (Eternal) and a gospelised cover of George Michael's One More Try, but an appearance by her three-year-old twins. Yet she's also at her most soulful and melodic, and the best of the bunch, such as the dreamy 70s disco of Meteorite, make this album a welcome return.