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It's only been seven years between Just Whitney and 2009's I Look to You, not even Houston's longest time between albums, but it feels much, much longer, her glory days obscured in hazy memories of lost luster chiefly deriving from a bad marriage with Bobby Brown, chronicled in an embarrassing reality show for Bravo in 2004. I Look to You attempts to wash this all away with something of a return to roots -- a celebration of Houston's deep disco beginnings, tempered with a few skyscraping ballads designed to showcase her soaring voice. Houston's rocky decade isn't ignored, but it isn't explored, either: songs allude to Whitney's strength, her willpower as a survivor struggling through some unnamed struggle -- enough for listeners to fill in the blanks, either with their own experience or their imaginings of Houston's life. More than the songs, Whitney's voice tells the tale of her lost decade. The highs are diminished, the sweetness sanded away, leaving her a thick, knotty powerful growl that has an emotional pull not quite like a ravaged latter-day Billie Holiday, but not all that far removed, either; at the very least, Whitney can still sing, knowing when to wring emotion out of a phrase, knowing when not to push for the glory notes that she can no longer hit. This diminished skill set actually serves the showboating showstoppers well, turning them into something that operates on a human scale, injecting them with something approximating warmth, something that the songs quite deliberately avoid. Also, there just aren't that many of them on I Look to You, either. Most of the album splits the difference between burnished neo-disco and modern soul, aware of fashion but not pandering to them. Which isn't to say that these songs are necessarily age-appropriate, either: they're suspended in time and fashion, tinged with nostalgia but not quite taking into account that Houston isn't now (and never really was) a creature of the clubs. What she undoubtedly is, is a pro -- she sells these subdued glitzy productions, she makes boring songs interesting, she remains a forceful, tangible presence. With this admirable, if not quite successful, un-comeback out of the way, maybe she can pull away from the spotlight and settle into the serious business of finding songs to suit her new voice.
© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo
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Alicia Keys, Composer, Lyricist, Producer, Arranger, AdditionalStudioProducer - Norman Harris, Composer, Lyricist - Kaseem Dean, Composer, Lyricist - Swizz Beatz, Producer, Programmer - TONY MASERATI, Mixing Engineer - WHITNEY HOUSTON, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Miki Tsutsumi, Assistant Engineer - Ann Mincieli , Engineer, Recording Engineer - Christian Baker, Assistant Engineer - Val Brathwaite, Assistant Engineer
(P) 2009 Arista Records LLC
Harvey Mason, Jr., Producer - Nathaniel Hills, Composer, Lyricist - Franne Golde, Composer, Lyricist - Kasia Livingston, Composer, Lyricist - Fernando Garibay, Composer, Lyricist, Producer - Danja, Producer - Andrew Hey, Recording Engineer - David Boyd, Assistant Engineer - Dabling Harward, Recording Engineer - Michael Daley, Assistant Engineer - WHITNEY HOUSTON, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Tavia Ivey, Background Vocal - Marcella "Ms. Lago" Araica, Mixing Engineer - Adam Beyrer, Recording Engineer - Liz Gallardo, Assistant Engineer
(P) 2009 Arista Records LLC
Johntá Austin, Composer, Lyricist, Producer - Tor Erik Hermansen, Composer, Lyricist, AssociatedPerformer - Mikkel Storleer Eriksen, Composer, Lyricist, Recording Engineer, AssociatedPerformer - PHIL TAN, Mixing Engineer - StarGate, Producer - Damien Lewis, Engineer - WHITNEY HOUSTON, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Brent Stray, Guitar
(P) 2009 Arista Records LLC
Harvey Mason, Jr., Producer - Andrew Hey, Recording Engineer - David Boyd, Assistant Engineer - Giancarlo Lino, Assistant Engineer - Emanuel Kiriakou, Producer, AssociatedPerformer - Dave Pensado, Mixing Engineer - Dabling Harward, Recording Engineer - Luis Navarro, Assistant Engineer - C. "tricky" Stewart, Producer, Synthesizer - Pat Thrall, Recording Engineer - Michael Daley, Assistant Engineer - Robert Kelly, Composer, Lyricist - WHITNEY HOUSTON, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Jaycen-Joshua Fowler, Mixing Engineer - Lake View Terrace Voices of Praise, Vocal - Brian "B-Luv" Thomas, Engineer
(P) 2009 Arista Records LLC
Harvey Mason, Jr., Producer - Claude Kelly, Composer, Lyricist, Producer - Aliaune Thiam, Composer, Lyricist - Aliaune "Akon" Thiam, Producer - Andrew Hey, Recording Engineer - David Boyd, Assistant Engineer - PHIL TAN, Mixing Engineer - Dabling Harward, Recording Engineer - Damien Lewis, Assistant Engineer - Michael Daley, Assistant Engineer - Miguel Scott, Assistant Engineer - Akon, FeaturedArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Mark "Exit" Goodchild, Recording Engineer - WHITNEY HOUSTON, Composer, Lyricist, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Giorgio H. Tuinfort, Composer, Lyricist, Co-Producer, Programmer - Whitney Houston feat. Akon, AssociatedPerformer
(P) 2009 Arista Records LLC
Harvey Mason, Jr., Producer - Tor Erik Hermansen, AssociatedPerformer - Mikkel Storleer Eriksen, Recording Engineer, AssociatedPerformer - Andrew Hey, Recording Engineer - David Boyd, Assistant Engineer - Leon Russell, Composer, Lyricist - PHIL TAN, Mixing Engineer - Dabling Harward, Recording Engineer - StarGate, Producer - Damien Lewis, Engineer - Michael Daley, Assistant Engineer - WHITNEY HOUSTON, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Tiwa Sawage, Background Vocal
(P) 2009 Arista Records LLC
Diane Warren, Composer, Lyricist - DAVID FOSTER, Producer, Arranger, Keyboards, Background Vocal - Jochem Van Der Saag, Engineer, Programmer, Mixing Engineer, Synthesizer, AssociatedPerformer - Courtney Blooding, Background Vocal - WHITNEY HOUSTON, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer
(P) 2009 Arista Records LLC
Johntá Austin, Composer, Lyricist - Harvey Mason, Jr., Producer - Eric Hudson, Composer, Lyricist, Producer, AssociatedPerformer - Andrew Hey, Recording Engineer - David Boyd, Assistant Engineer - PHIL TAN, Mixing Engineer - Dabling Harward, Recording Engineer - Damien Lewis, Engineer - Michael Daley, Assistant Engineer - WHITNEY HOUSTON, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Tavia Ivey, Background Vocal - Jordan "DJ Swivel" Young, Recording Engineer
(P) 2009 Arista Records LLC
Harvey Mason, Jr., Producer - Nathaniel Hills, Composer, Lyricist - Marcella Araica, Composer, Lyricist - Claude Kelly, Composer, Lyricist - Danja, Producer - Andrew Hey, Recording Engineer - David Boyd, Assistant Engineer - Chad Jolley, Recording Engineer - Dabling Harward, Recording Engineer - Michael Daley, Assistant Engineer - Jared Newcomb, Assistant Engineer - WHITNEY HOUSTON, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Marcella "Ms. Lago" Araica, Mixing Engineer - Poet Ed, Assistant Engineer
(P) 2009 Arista Records LLC
Claude Kelly, Composer, Lyricist, Producer - Aliaune Thiam, Composer, Lyricist - Aliaune "Akon" Thiam, Producer - PHIL TAN, Mixing Engineer - Damien Lewis, Engineer - Miguel Scott, Assistant Engineer - Mark "Exit" Goodchild, Recording Engineer - WHITNEY HOUSTON, Composer, Lyricist, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Tony Love, Guitar - Giorgio H. Tuinfort, Composer, Lyricist, Co-Producer, Programmer
(P) 2009 Arista Records LLC
Harvey Mason, Jr., Producer, Mixing Engineer - Bigg Makk, Programmer - Andrew Hey, Mixing Engineer, Recording Engineer - David Boyd, Assistant Engineer - Dabling Harward, Recording Engineer - Michael Daley, Assistant Engineer - Abel Garibaldi, Recording Engineer - Ian Mereness, Recording Engineer - R.Kelly, Composer, Lyricist, Producer, Arranger - Donnie Lyle, Guitar - WHITNEY HOUSTON, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Jeff Meeks, Recording Engineer
(P) 2009 Arista Records LLC
Albumbeschreibung
It's only been seven years between Just Whitney and 2009's I Look to You, not even Houston's longest time between albums, but it feels much, much longer, her glory days obscured in hazy memories of lost luster chiefly deriving from a bad marriage with Bobby Brown, chronicled in an embarrassing reality show for Bravo in 2004. I Look to You attempts to wash this all away with something of a return to roots -- a celebration of Houston's deep disco beginnings, tempered with a few skyscraping ballads designed to showcase her soaring voice. Houston's rocky decade isn't ignored, but it isn't explored, either: songs allude to Whitney's strength, her willpower as a survivor struggling through some unnamed struggle -- enough for listeners to fill in the blanks, either with their own experience or their imaginings of Houston's life. More than the songs, Whitney's voice tells the tale of her lost decade. The highs are diminished, the sweetness sanded away, leaving her a thick, knotty powerful growl that has an emotional pull not quite like a ravaged latter-day Billie Holiday, but not all that far removed, either; at the very least, Whitney can still sing, knowing when to wring emotion out of a phrase, knowing when not to push for the glory notes that she can no longer hit. This diminished skill set actually serves the showboating showstoppers well, turning them into something that operates on a human scale, injecting them with something approximating warmth, something that the songs quite deliberately avoid. Also, there just aren't that many of them on I Look to You, either. Most of the album splits the difference between burnished neo-disco and modern soul, aware of fashion but not pandering to them. Which isn't to say that these songs are necessarily age-appropriate, either: they're suspended in time and fashion, tinged with nostalgia but not quite taking into account that Houston isn't now (and never really was) a creature of the clubs. What she undoubtedly is, is a pro -- she sells these subdued glitzy productions, she makes boring songs interesting, she remains a forceful, tangible presence. With this admirable, if not quite successful, un-comeback out of the way, maybe she can pull away from the spotlight and settle into the serious business of finding songs to suit her new voice.
© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo
About the album
- 1 disc(s) - 11 track(s)
- Total length: 00:44:27
- Main artists: Whitney Houston
- Composer: Various Composers
- Label: Arista
- Genre: Pop/Rock Pop
(P) 2009 Arista Records LLC
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