Album Review: Whitney Houston "I Look To You"

It's been seven years & Whitney Houston is back. Her new CD I Look To You is a collection of singers' songs, & rightfully so. Basically, the whole world wants to know whether or not Whitney still has it, so let's uncover the answer!

The album starts out with "Million Dollar Bill," a song she worked with Alicia Keys on. This gives the best example on the project of what Whitney's place is in the industry today, mainly because it sounds like something Alicia might've done herself & Ms. Keys is probably the current artist most comparable to Whitney herself. For me, the fact that the song sounds a little too Alicia takes away from it a bit, but it's still pretty good. "Nothin' But Love" is slightly-better-than-average album filler, while the cool "Call You Tonight" is a little better. Our first big ballad arrives in the title track "I Look To You" & is probably my favorite one. R. Kelly, who wrote the song, sure seems to know his way around penning one. It displays Ms. Houston's voice as well as any track here & the result is not too shabby. The oober-powerful big notes aren't quite there like they used to be, but the tone pretty much is & she can still out-sing just about everyone else in the industry today.

I wasn't the biggest fan of the Akon-assisted "Like I Never Left" when it leaked & it still doesn't do much for me. I don't hate it though; it does offer a different vibe than is found elsewhere on the album. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Whitney's version of "A Song For You." She sounded phenomenal during the slow introduction & as comfortable as ever when the beat came in. Another ballad comes in the form of the Diane Warren-penned "I Didn't Know My Own Strength." You can't really sing along to this one, which makes it harder to embrace, but Whitney does sound great once again. I've gone back & forth with the lack of choir on the song as opposed to the leaked version & I can only say that they both have something nice to offer.

Another decent album filler can be found in "Worth It," but don't worry: your tracklisting isn't out of order. The next track is in fact supposed to be titled "For The Lovers" & it just so happens to be better than the preceding one. The more-or-less uptempo song is probably what you might call the most radio-friendly on the album & it's actually one of my favorites. Before you roll your eyes though, Whitney didn't go too far with the "current" sound because it still sounds like her. Up next is "I Got You," another result of Whitney's work with Akon, & maybe it's because I hadn't heard this track or the one previous to it before the album came out, but I really like this one too. It has a nice groove to it. When it comes to the closer, I feel like I'm the minority because I am quite a fan of the R. Kelly slow jam "Salute." It's a good, if not spectacular, display of vocals, but its best feature is that it's just a good song.

I Look To You is not only a solid balance of ballads & midtempos, but it most likely offers up what the classic Whitney fan is hoping to receive. I really liked that the slow stuff was there, but that it was spread out so that the album didn't get too boring. Some songs were better than others, but at the end of the day, Whitney's is the voice coming through the speakers & it's just as irresistible as ever.

Rating: 4/5 Stars