Heartbreaker (Mariah Carey Song) - Composition

Composition

"Heartbreaker" is a moderately slow, mid-tempo dance track, with hip-hop and R&B influences. According to the music sheet published at Musicnotes.com, the song is written in the key of D♭ major, while the beat is set in common time which moves at a moderate pace of 92 bpm. It has a sequence of D♭–B♭m–D♭ as its chord progression. Carey's vocals in the song span from the note of A♭₃ to the high note of G♭₅. The song has a "percolating beat" over which Carey sings with nasal, silken and declarative vocals. The verses are melismatic, meaning, there are multiple notes sung per word or syllable with rapid yet seamless transitions. For example, Carey starts the second verse already in mid-belt "Its a shame to be" while then going off into a whispering coo for "so euphoric and weak."

Aside from background vocal stylings from Lorenz and other females, Carey added her own lowered vocals into the song, giving the impression of a "doubled voice." "Heartbreaker" samples R&B and dance singer Stacy Lattisaw's "Attack of the Name Game". The song's hook and loop were taken and incorporated into the meoldy of "Heartbreaker", as well as being used as its main instrumental components. The lyrics are constructed in the verse-pre-chorus-chorus form. Carey starts with the hook "Gimme your love, gimme your love," repeated eight times. Carey repeats the chorus four times, ending the song with a final "Gimme your love, gimme your love." Chuck Taylor from Billboard described its instrumentation as a "persistent guitar lick" and wrote "There's an identifiable chorus here, and some semblance of verses, but more than anything, this song comes across as a blur of jumbled in the background, including Carey's own repetitive harmonies, which in this case sound more like a competition than a compliment."