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Overview
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, 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 it.
Product Details
Release Date: | 08/31/2009 |
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Label: | Arista |
UPC: | 0886971003321 |
catalogNumber: | 710033 |
Rank: | 161510 |
Tracks
Album Credits
Performance Credits
Whitney Houston Primary ArtistDonnie Lyle Guitar,Musical Direction
Kenny Mason Choir Director
Charlotte Gibson Background Vocals
Gary Houston Background Vocals
Tavia Ivey Background Vocals
Bernt Rune Stray Guitar
Courtney Blooding Background Vocals
Lake View Terrace Voices Of Praise Choir, Chorus
Jochem van der Saag Synthesizer
Technical Credits
Whitney Houston Composer,ProducerLeon Russell Composer
Franne Golde Composer
R. Kelly Arranger,Composer,Producer
Clive Davis Producer
Norman Harris Composer
Eric Hudson Composer,Producer,Instrumentation
Larry Eaglin Jackson Producer
Pat Thrall Engineer
Diane Warren Composer
Emanuel Kiriakou Producer,Instrumentation
Harvey Mason Producer,Vocal Producer
Fernando Garibay Composer,Producer
Abel Garibaldi Engineer
Andrew Hey Vocal Engineer
Ann Mincieli Engineer
Swizz Beatz Programming,Producer
Johnta Austin Composer
Ian Mereness Engineer
Alicia Keys Composer,Producer,Vocal Arrangements,Vocal Producer
Kasseem Dean Composer
Dabling Harward Vocal Engineer
Anita Marisa Boriboon Art Direction
Michael Daley Assistant Vocal Engineer
Kasia Livingston Composer
Aliaune "Akon" Thiam Composer,Producer
Jeff Meeks Engineer
Andros Rodriguez Engineer
Claude Kelly Composer,Vocal Producer
Adam Beyrer Engineer
Mark "Exit" Goodchild Engineer
Mikkel Storleer Eriksen Composer,Engineer,Instrumentation
Chad Jolley Engineer
Giorgio Tuinfort Composer,Programming,Producer
Damien Lewis Engineer
Jochem van der Saag Engineer,drum programming,Sound Design
Jordan "DJ Swivel" Young Engineer
Nate Hills Composer
Marcella Araica Composer