Fans flocking to see Mariah Carey on her “Angels Advocate Tour” -- which made two stops at Gibson Amphitheatre this week -- might be surprised at what they don’t hear.

Carey, touring to support last year's “Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel,” only performs four or five (depending on where you see her) tracks from the album despite releasing a slew of videos from the project.

The album -- despite getting strong reviews, including one from The Times -- stalled on the charts and in record sales. "Memoirs" peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and currently sits at the No. 124 slot.

So has Mimi given up on the album?

She announced to the crowd at Tuesday’s show that a remix version of the album would be released at some point, although she wasn’t sure when because she doesn’t "make those decisions.” 

But fans will be pleased to know the album is coming sooner rather than later.

“Angels Advocate,” the album, will feature remixes and duets of songs featured on “Memoirs” and possibly some new tracks, including "100%," which was originally slated to appear on the soundtrack single to "Precious" but is now in support of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Over the last few months, a handful of tracks have leaked and have featured T-Pain and Trey Songz. Mary J. Blige, Fabolous, R. Kelly, The-Dream, Ludacris and Snoop Dogg are also scheduled to contribute, and Carey has already released two videos for the project that feature Ne-Yo and Nicki Minaj.

The album, which will be released March 30, will be sold exclusively at Target and iTunes.

-- Gerrick D. Kennedy (Follow me on Twitter @GerrickKennedy)

Photo: Mariah Carey. Credit: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times

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Live review: Mariah Carey at Gibson Amphitheatre

Album review: Mariah Carey's 'Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel'

A nostalgic Carey shows today's divas how it's done in a soaring performance. Lady Gaga and Beyonce, take note.

 
Halfway through her highly entertaining show Tuesday night at Gibson Amphitheatre, Mariah Carey stood onstage in a sparkly gold cocktail dress and waxed nostalgic for a (more) gilded age.

"Remember the video with the jet skis?" she asked wistfully, referring to the James Bond-inspired clip for her 1997 hit "Honey," which the singer's seven-piece band had begun playing. "They don't make those anymore."

 Nor do they make pop divas like Carey anymore. In an era of high-tech performance-art opacity (think Beyoncé or Lady Gaga), her transparent blend of vocal talent and goofy charisma seems appealingly old-fashioned. Tuesday's concert, the first of two at the Gibson in support of last year's "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel," felt at times like an attempt to break down the kind of mystique that's grown up around Carey's successors. 

Which didn't mean it lacked for production pizazz: Elaborately costumed in a cloud of honey-colored taffeta, the singer made her entrance upon an enormous swing that lowered from above the stage; later, during "Angels Cry," a pair of dancers performed a Cirque du Soleil-style aerial number while suspended from a flimsy band of cloth.

Yet rather than presenting these elements as immovable facts of nature, Carey took every opportunity to expose the business behind the show. Before an effervescent version of "Always Be My Baby," she invited her hair-and-makeup team onstage for a mid-set touch-up, then decided she could do the job just as well herself. "I went to beauty school," she said, powdering her nose. "Five hundred hours in 11th grade."

For "My All," Carey sat in a chair, explaining that her shoes were too tight; within seconds, though, she'd discovered that the chair had been placed out of range of the several industrial fans on hair-blowing duty. So while she waited for a stagehand to fix the problem, the singer took a sip of what she promised was water from a nearby champagne glass. "If you see me drinking from the bottle," she confided, "you know we've got a problem."

What made all these disclosures so endearing, of course, was Carey's singing, which 20 years after her emergence with the melisma-soaked "Vision of Love" has lost little of its uncommon power.

Oprah Winfrey continues to wield her power to influence the music industry. Pop vocalist Michael Bublé appeared on  "The Oprah Winfrey Show" on Friday, and -- violà! -- his album lands atop the U.S. pop chart less than one week later.

This is his second chart-topper, Billboard reports, but "Crazy Love" accomplished such a feat with just three days of sales.The album was released off-cycle on Friday, as opposed to the standard music biz release day of Tuesday, and Nielsen SoundScan tracks sales data through Sunday evening. Bublé's "Crazy Love" sold 132,000 copies, according to SoundScan.

Meanwhile, Bublé's past efforts continue to put up solid numbers. Though not reflected on the current pop chart, Bublé has two albums in the top 30 on Billboard's Top Catalog Albums tally. His 2005 release "It's Time" sold just fewer than 5,000 copies this week, giving it a to-date total of 3.2 million. His 2007 effort "Call Me Irresponsible" added another 4,000 copies, bringing it to a total of 1.9 million.

The ballad-focused crooner tends to fly under the radar for someone who puts up such blockbuster numbers. His release wasn't the flashiest to land on this week's pop charts, and yet it still beat out such veteran brand-news as Kiss and Toby Keith. 

Other notables from this week's sales chart:

Return to form: With "Backspacer," Pearl Jam scores its first No. 1 album in 13 years, Billboard reports. The set sold 190,000 copies in its first week in stores, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It's Pearl Jam's first release outside the major label system, but the band wasn't exactly going the DIY-route. In a move that surprised fans, Pearl Jam lined up with big box retailer Target for the exclusive release.

Long associated with an anti-corporate stance, Pearl Jam avoided major fan criticism by still allowing the album to be sold at indie shops and Apple's iTunes store. While "Backspacer" failed to land on the chart with the same impact of 2006's self-titled effort, which opened with 279,000 copies, it is on par with Target's other recent exclusive. Earlier this year, Prince went with the retailer, and ended up with the album "LotusFlow3r" landing at No. 2 after selling 168,000 copies.

Diva tales: It's another solid week for Whitney Houston. Her "I Look to You" is at No. 4 this week, selling 66,000 copies. That's a dip from last week, when she sold 156,000 copies -- a post-"Oprah" sales bump -- but brings her total to 620,000 copies sold to date. That's good news for Houston as the industry heads into the holiday season. With depressed sales making it relatively easy for a brand-name artist to stay in the top 20, Houston should be on target to rack up a bevy of Grammy nominations if she can maintain a consistent sales base.

Expect her to be joined on the chart next week by another diva -- Mariah Carey. Digital downloads of Carey's "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel" are expected to be solid, as the album is currently retailing at Amazon.com for a budget price of $5.99. But album sales may not be a real indicator for the success of "Angel," as it's a truly ad-supported release, coming complete with sponsored liner notes.

She shows off her talent by coming off as just another girl at the nail salon.

On her recently leaked and soon-to-be-released 12th studio album, Mariah Carey and her latest producers, Terius "The-Dream" Nash and Tricky Stewart, attempt to get at something by distilling it. They're seeking the Essence of Mimi, the liquor in the oyster of Carey's famously luscious voice.But instead of showcasing this musical Olympian's dazzling way with a vocal run or her nearly unmatchable whistle register -- obvious choices when it comes to Carey's talent -- she and her team tune into a particular tone, the one that earned her another nickname, Honey.

There's a breathiness to this album that's not only sexy but emotionally intimate. Heavy on slow jams, quiet confessions and kiss-offs closer to the work of the rappers she admires than to Carey's soul sisters, "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel" capitalizes on an underrated aspect of the singer's talent: Her ability, even when she's scaling vocal heights, to still come off as just another girl at the nail salon.

Carey's lyrics -- she co-writes everything here, except for her fairly unremarkable cover of Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is" -- make this point most obviously. Even when fully dressed in the armor of her glamour, as when she advises an ex (Eminem? More likely it's Latin pop star Luis Miguel) to "pretend you on a sofa, and I'm on MTV" when he spies her walking by.

Carey still compulsively shares details about her runny mascara and her appetite for Duncan Hines yellow cake. "Bubble baths on the jet" might be a ridiculous fantasy, but it's not at all elitist. Any real housewife or career girl has been in that daydream.

Autumn is a glutton's feast for pop fans, full of blockbuster albums, buzzed-about debuts, spectacular arena tours and rare small-venue performances. This year offers the usual mix of veterans aiming for another moment of impact, and young pretenders working to make a mark in an ever-widening field.

That's good news for those with eclectic tastes: no one subculture dominates right now, so the listening is best for people who are a little bit country, a little bit rock and roll -- and a little bit dance and folk and Latin, too. What follows is a look at the best bets for recorded and live music in the coming months, album release dates subject to change, of course.

Perhaps realizing that the focus should be less on Mariah Carey's feud with Eminem and a bit more on the pop diva, more hints were dropped today about the singer's upcoming "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel." The ad-supported album, which was originally set for Aug. 25, is now due to be released Sept. 29.

The second single from Carey's "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel" will apparently be a cover of Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is" (perhaps tackling "Don't Stop Believing" would have been a too-obvious choice of pandering). The news was first reported by Roger Friedman, and his article has since been posted on Carey's official website. 

This isn't the first time Carey has covered an '80s ballad -- see her take on "I Still Believe" above. The latter gave Carey yet another top 10 hit, a status that has thus far eluded her "Obsessed." But it's far from a tanker, as the song is holding steady at No. 14.

Buying the new Mariah Carey album is going to be an experience akin to dining at the Cheesecake Factory. Copies of forthcoming "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel" will come bundled with a 34-page booklet --- a "co-production with Elle magazine," is how Billboard words it -- that will feature advertisements from major luxury brands alongside the typical CD liner notes.

It's a development, perhaps, a little less shrewd and a bit more transparent than Chris Brown disguising singles as an ad for chewing gum, but one that has the potential to become more prevalent. The Island Def Jam Music Group will be watching the success of the program and is "eying bigger brand deals for booklets of CDs by Rihanna, Bon Jovi, Kanye West" and more, writes Billboard.

It’s official: Eminem and Mariah Carey had a relationship. There’s simply no other explanation why two full-grown pop stars would so publicly go at each other the way they do (see Carey's most recent video, "Obsessed"). It’s like a real-life remake of “The War of the Roses” on steroids and excessive video budgets.

But with the release of the aptly titled “The Warning,” (the song is the very definition of NSFW), the Eminem that rose to the top of the rap game with steely-eyed psychosis and dazzling vocal dexterity over a top-shelf Dr. Dre loop has suddenly come back to light.

Eschewing the odd pseudo-Jamaican inflection so rampant on “Relapse,” Eminem spins an elaborate and graphic recount of his side of the relationship with a passion sorely lacking from most of his latest release. Gleefully hurling threats of releasing incriminating photographs and phone messages, he takes no prisoners during the caustic verbal assault. Expectedly, Carey’s husband Nick Cannon gets thrown under the bus during the melee as well.

But in classic Slim Shady style, he lyrically goes at himself as aggressively as anyone in his purview, admitting to a lack of sexual prowess and having no game at all in his dealings with Carey.

Dr. Dre steps up too, with a haunting piano-based beat reminiscent of his work on “2001,” the perfect setting for Eminem’s wrath. It would seem that both have been holding out on us, if this song is any indication. The use of Carey's vocal samples in the mix is an effective and ironic touch. The two could easily produce a hit single together, that’s for sure.

In Eminem’s case, inspiration is key. Stewing in the old K-Mart mansion outside Detroit and self-medicating in the aftermath of losing his best friend and mentor Proof didn’t leave him much to talk about on “Relapse.”

But having an international pop star sink piles of cash into calling him out on video definitely did the trick.

Mariah Carey, Eminem fans salute you.

-Scott T. Sterling

Photo credit: PRNewsFoto/Interscope Records

One has to give Mariah Carey credit here. She certainly knows how to stay in the headlines. Her first single from her upcoming album, "Obsessed," may or may not be a response to Eminem's recent "Bagpipes From Baghdad," and in the clip, she may or may not be dressing up as Eminem. 

What: Mariah Carey's "Obsessed," the first single off her upcoming album.