I love the woman...but

I love whitney houston's voice; it really is one hell of an awesome instrument. But the question is where's it gone?

I don't want to get into her personal life, thats her affair, but when she spends an entire album trying to justify her personal choices it becomes very bizzare and a little sad.



co-produced by her partner in crime bobby brown, with tracks written by babyface and missy elliot amongst others its a patchy affair. 'tell me no' is a fabulous rant with a slammin gitaur lick but thats about all I liked. her voice sounds ravaged at times, and has lost the gorgeous purity that set it apart. now she just sounds like every other belter and i can't tell you how sad it was to realise that.



i hope she packs up the ciggies (and whatever else!) soon and sorts her voice out, theres no reason she couldn't, but then again as she sais in 'tell me no' she'll always do it her way.

Loving Whitney

U have to love Whitney she has one of the greatest voices of all times. Though she was on the verge of Jeopardizing it..She shows its still there ..This is CD could not of been any better for the state that she was in..I expected this..Its not the best of her but just to hear her sing..Makes my heart move..Whitney has just one of those voices....

The Road From Whitney to Britney--Not a Pretty Path

It's been said that all the young pop tarts and divas in waiting take their vocal cues from Mariah and Whitney. I guess you can't realistically expect them to be digging up old Bessie Smith or Billie Holiday sides. Still, it's disheartening to think there's a whole generation out there whose sense of musical history dates back no earlier than 1985 or '86 and for whom Whitney-style showboating is the equivalent of great singing.



The standard critical line on Whitney Houston is that she was an enormous talent who made disastrous artistic decisions well before famously mucking up her personal life. I'm not always quick to agree with the critics, but in this case, they pretty much seem to be on target. Houston's first two albums had a certain charm, despite the over-the-top ballads and I remember them fondly (even if I never bothered to replace my vinyl copies with CD versions). But very little that I've heard of hers since made much impression at all.



JUST WHITNEY, it appears, was billed as being of a new beginning for Whitney. She does seem to be trying for a funkier, urban sound. And she's got LA Reid and Missy Elliott on board to achieve that end. So you get the snaky TLC type numbers like the opener "One of Those Days" and the less successful "Dear John Letter" (btw, there's a difference between a "kiss off" letter and a true "dear John letter"--the latter is understood to be to someone who's away, usually in the military--a distinction lost on Whitney and the songwriters here). There are big ballads too, of course, and while a soulful remake of "You Light Up My Life" may have seemed like a good idea on paper, she can't seem to pull it off on record. "On My Own" is a bit more successful, a big ballad in the classic Whitney mode. A bit bombastic, but at least it has a sense of direction.



Others have commented on the "defensive" tone of much of this record. I can't really comment because I'm probably one of the few Amazon reviewers here who hasn't really followed Ms. Houston's travails that closely. I can understand that the life-in-a-fishbowl syndrome can be a horror for those who have to live it out. But there is a certain irony that those who spent years saying in effect, "look at me, look at me!" are suddenly grousing "Whatchulookinat?"



You almost wonder if Whitney wouldn't have been better off artistically (and maybe personally too) with a smaller-scale career on the order of her mother's. Cissy Houston hasn't sold a fraction of the records her diva daughter has, but she remains well respected musically, and her life seems relatively sane and quiet. A few reviewers here try to make the point that we should be reviewing Whitney's music, not her lifestyle. Unfortunately, all the hubbub surrounding Whitney's personal life has in fact colored the quality of her music. It's what she lives and what she sings about. Celebrity culture is destructive, I fear, both to artists and to art.