 Music critics compared E = MC ² heavily to Carey 's previous album , The Emancipation of Mimi , and felt it followed the same formula of ballads and dance @-@ able tracks . Freedom De Luc of The Washington Post felt that after experiencing strong success for the first time in the 2000s with Mimi , Carey tried to create E = MC ² with the same formula , although possibly a little improved : " Having found that winning formula of coquettish club bangers , emotional ballads and frisky , mid @-@ tempo coos , the diva with the golden tone has eschewed radical experimentalism here for stasis . ' E = MC ² ' is mostly more of the same , then , with the ' 2' representing something sequential rather than exponential . Meet the new Mariah , almost exactly the same as the old . . . ' Mimi ' ! " 
