Mariah Carey’s residency at Caesar’s Palace Las Vegas has gotten off to a rough start, with the New York Times shredding the show in a vicious review.

Gawker music writer Rich Juzwiak summed up the Carey experience with generally positive comments to online clips of the show, remarking that whether or not Carey lands all her high notes, she can still deliver bang for the buck. “The element of surprise means that Mariah offers legitimate excitement in the live arena, which is more than you can say for most divas of her caliber.”

However, the Times pulled not a single punch in their reporting. Via Rickey.org, here is a rundown of some of the most stinging criticisms:

– “Ms. Carey is still durable, and sometimes excellent, but her once-transcendent voice is like decaying manufacturing machinery: It still churns, but the product might be polished or dinged. You don’t know until it happens.”

– “The show consists of her 18 No. 1 Billboard hits, and the last of those came in 2007. (There’s a new song, too, called “Infinity” — it won’t be No. 19.)”

– “Maybe the new performance spectacle could resurrect the old vocal spectacle.”

– “When it came to the notes, though, the struggle was real.”

– “As she’s aged, her voice has gotten huskier, but sometimes the rasp felt like a glitch, not a goal.”

– “‘Fantasy’ featured the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard rapping via video, and he felt more alive than Ms. Carey, who was right there onstage.”

– “But as the night wore on, it became increasingly clear that the sounds coming through the speakers were not necessarily coming from her mouth.”

– “Whether the decision to undertake this project was born of necessity, hubris or obliviousness, it has put Ms. Carey in a precarious position – she is in decline and trapped in a cage of her own making.”

The songbird has 18 shows left on her two-week residency.