catchy pop record that revamps her sound and image.

It's not as if Carey has totally dispensed with her old saccharine, Houston-style balladry. The tracks co-produced by the singer with her accomplice Walter Afanasieff mostly conform to the slushy formulas of past hits like "Hero." But the predominant mood of "Butterfly" is one of coolly erotic reverie. "We floated away," she sings on "Fourth of July," "delicately lay entwined/In an intimate daze." On "Babydoll," a track co-written with Missy Elliott, Carey finds herself "zoning out, thinking about/You and me between the sheets."

Essentially, Carey has found a comfortable perch between the music of Puff Daddy and Babyface. Guests on "Butterfly" include Dru Hill, who duets on a version of the Artist's "The Beautiful Ones," and Wish and Krayzie Bone, who lend their inimitable vocal interpolations to "Breakdown." All very 1997. Indeed, when the grand piano and drum kit make their entrance on the closing