Mariah Carey wants hits again, and to get them, she applies all her wiles, old and new, on Charmbracelet. It’s her first album since her disco-nostalgia record, Glitter, flopped (it went only platinum, low sales for Carey), Virgin Records paid her $28 million to go away and she checked into rehab after her live meltdown on TRL. After so much public embarrassment, Carey is out to prove she’s still a chart-buster.The sickly sweet early Carey, belting inspirational ballads to tinkling keyboards, is side-by-side here with the thug-friendly Carey who books Jay-Z and Ice Cube as guests; there’s also a gospel number, a taste of big-band ’70s soul and even a power ballad Pat Benatar could love. One minute Carey, who writes many of her lyrics, is believing in miracles and seeing rainbows of true love; the next, she’s dissing an ex, though her PG-rated sensibility keeps her from getting too nasty. To secure hits, Carey goes scene hopping and producer shopping: to Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis in Minneapolis for the Janet Jackson knockoff “Yours,” to Jermaine Dupri in Atlanta for the insinuating kiss-off “You Had Your Chance” and to Just Blaze in New York, who has produced Nelly, for “Boy (I Need You)” and “You Got Me.”Carey’s competing in an era where people are no longer much impressed by her vaunted five-octave range. Hip-hop has spun off an R&B full of small voices and narrow sing-song melodies. For most of Charmbracelet, she sticks to a gauzy, breathy, phone-sex coo, muzzling her inner diva until the final verse or a few ultrasonic high notes in the fade-out.Her restraint is sultry enough, but it renders her anonymous. Yet when she finally lets loose in “Through the Rain,” the alternative is multiple-personality hysteria, ricocheting from sob to whisper as she sings, “Every time I feel afraid I hold tighter to my fate/And I live one more day.” Someday, Carey may locate a path that runs between haphazard showboating and tight-assed timidity. But on Charmbracelet, her only ambition is to share a Top 10 playlist again.