Whitney Houston returns to her roots

The world hit I Will Always Love You, a multitude of other well-known songs, one of the best world cinema’s melodrama The Bodyguard – these and many other things associate with the name of splendid Whitney Houston. One of the world’s best selling performers, possessing the amazing recognizable vocals, Houston has made a brilliant music career, acted in films, inspired millions of listeners with her ballads and still serves an example for a great number of beginning performers. Releasing the 2002 studio work Just Whitney the singer did not please the audience with new albums for some time. Though longer hiatuses have already taken place before, during this one quite an unpleasant event has happened in her life – the definitive divorce from Bobby Brown that resulted in loneliness and the change of values with all that finding reflection on Whitney Houston’s sixth record I Look To You. Becoming a kind of returning to roots the album exceeds the best expectations pretending to be one of the year’s best pop releases.

A surprisingly contemporary album I Look To You

If listening to the previous album one could state that Whitney made attempts to sound more mainstream collaborating with popular producers, the tendency is reduced to minimum on I Look To You. The record offers both danceable compositions with disco elements reminiscent of Whitney’s earlier works such as I Wanna Dance With Somebody and I’m Every Woman, and soulful ballads in the style of The Greatest Love Of All. At the same time the album is surprisingly contemporary in particular because it has been recorded with such producers as Swizz Beatz, Stargate, Johnta Austin and some others, and the songs are written by some really talented authors. The album opens with the splendid single Million Dollar Bill which Alicia Keys has written especially for Whitney – this is a song about search of love, expecting perfect relationship, refined with the most contagious danceable chorus. The track Nothin' But Love is a new dance hit contender whereas Call You Tonight is a somewhat calmer R&B composition with a memorable tune. The central song on the album is of course the title one, I Look To You: according to Houston herself, it tells of everything she has come to at this stage of her life. The only collaboration on the record is Like I Never Left featuring Akon, while the cover of Leon Russel’s 1970’s A Song For You is also one of the album’s highlights. Yet a true masterpiece here is the ballad I Didn't Know My Own Strength, written by Diane Warren and produced by David Foster, a real anthem of a strong woman.

The songs to remain in the history

No doubt such singers as Whitney Houston are not born every day. Her songs will remain in history pleasing all: adults, children, lovers, heart-broken, those looking for the answers to the main questions and simply those fond of good music. Although it has almost passed a fourth of the century since her eponymous debut album was released the singer has not recorded too many albums. Nevertheless almost each of them has given the world unforgettable hits, and I Look To You is not an exception in this respect. Of course, the voice that everyone who has heard it at least once can recognize from the very first sounds has undergone some inevitable changes but like a good wine it is now richer and more soulful. As for Whitney’s personal life you are sure to have no doubt that now everything is going to be fine with it after listening to I Look To You. The album closes with Salute, stylized as a military march, on which Whitney claims that she has been here all this time and says good-bye to her past. Therefore we can be sure that Whitney Houston is going to please us with her wonderful songs for a long time to come.

Alexandra Zachernovskaya
07.09.2009