Photo: Archive Photos
Mariah Carey's 2020 memoir, The Meaning of Mariah, was packed full of revelations, but perhaps the most surprising was when she confessed to recording a secret grunge album in 1995 during her Daydream sessions. The album was called Someone's Ugly Daughter and the band's name was Chick. The sound was inspired by Sleater-Kinney, L7, and Green Day's Dookie, and the version made accessible to the public featured her friend Clarissa singing lead vocals while Carey was an uncredited backup singer; however, the pop icon revealed on Twitter that she was "on a quest to unearth the version of this album with my lead vocals and will not stop until we find it!"
In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Carey confirmed that she did find the "lost" album and plans to release it, but that's not all. She also hinted that she's planning something else with the Chick project and "another artist."
Here's what she wrote about Chick in her memoir:
I’d bring my little alt-rock song to the band and hum a silly guitar riff. They would pick it up and we would record it immediately. It was irreverent, raw, and urgent, and the band got into it. I actually started to love some of the songs. I would fully commit to my character.
I was playing with the style of the breezy-grunge, punk-light white female singers who were popular at the time. You know the ones who seemed to be so carefree with their feelings and their image. They could be angry, angsty, and messy, with old shoes, wrinkled slips, and unruly eyebrows, while every move I made was so calculated and manicured.
I wanted to break free, let loose, and express my misery—but I also wanted to laugh. I totally looked forward to doing my alter-ego band sessions after Daydream each night.
While we wait to hear Carey belt out her best grunge vocal, listen to a couple Chick songs sung by her friend Clarissa below.