MUSIC: BUTTERFLIES ARE FREE

Honey, the grabby first video from Mariah Carey's new album, Butterfly, opens with an arresting image: the singer is held captive in a luxurious oceanfront palazzo by two lugs wearing gold watches and thousand-dollar suits. But in the next scene, Carey slips out of her bonds and leaps from a balcony, swan-diving into a pool below. Emerging from the water in a bikini, she commandeers a small boat, outraces her pursuers and escapes to safety on a palmy island.

Carey's lushly romantic songs, many of which she wrote, including Fantasy and Dreamlover, have always encouraged such extravagant imaginings. But in this...