Like a Bird", Sinclair concluded, "It's so moving that we'll resist the temptation to be crass and interpret the song as a plea for heightened record sales. Help from above is always welcome, but Emancipation sounds like it just might do fine all on its own." Jennifer Vineyard of MTV News considered the album's title to be influenced by Janet Jackson's Damita Jo, which was also based on an alternate persona. According to Jenson Macey from BBC News, The Emancipation of Mimi was Carey's strongest effort from the 2000s; he said that the album "took her straight back to the top of the A-List." Caroline Sullivan from The Guardian gave the album four stars out of five, calling it "cool, focused and urban." The New York Timess Jon Pareles complimented how Carey wrote all of the album's material. He felt the record's sound was fresh and innovative: "on The Emancipation of Mimi, she disciplines herself into coherence, using fewer tricks and sounding more believable. She also finds what lesser singers can take for granted: a certain lightness that eases her constant sense of control." Cummings from PopMatters gave the album seven stars out of ten, claiming it to be Carey's redemption from the manacles of her previous two releases. He praised the album's singles, but called some of its music "corny" and "unnecessarily overproduced". Todd Burns from Stylus Magazine gave the album a B−, admiring its assortment of beats and tempos. Burns, however, called some of The Neptunes and Dupri's production "ill-advised". He called some of Carey's vocals "strained, thin and airy". While considering it as an improvement over her previous releases of the decade, he concluded that it "suffers from the fact that her vocals have deteriorated – a simple fact of the ravages that her voice has undergone in the past fifteen years." Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine gave The Emancipation of Mimi three and a half stars out of five, calling it "redemption". He complimented its array of beats and its production. Critic Andre Meyer of CBS News thought the material on the album was "stronger" than on Charmbracelet, and described it as a move in Carey's long-term plan for pop domination, while giving off the "jittery R&B vibe that made Destiny's Child so potent." He added that "Mariah has returned to singing – while still pushing the limits of good taste with her barely there outfits."