| Product Summary | | Label: ARISTA RECORDS/SBME | | UPC: 00886971003321 | | Release Date: 8/31/2009 | | Buy.com Sku: 211559426 | | Item#: M4QE72 | | Buy.com Sales Rank: 25050 | Format:  CD |
|
|
|
|
| Song Listing |  |
Disc 1
| | Song Title | Sample | | 1. Million Dollar Bill ~ Whitney Houston |  | | 2. Nothin' But Love ~ Whitney Houston | | | 3. Call You Tonight ~ Whitney Houston | | | 4. I Look To You ~ Whitney Houston | | | 5. Like I Never Left ~ Whitney Houston | | | 6. Song For You, A ~ Whitney Houston | | | 7. I Didn't Know My Own Strength ~ Whitney Houston | | | 8. Worth It ~ Whitney Houston | | | 9. For The Lovers ~ Whitney Houston | | | 10. I Got You ~ Whitney Houston | | | 11. Salute ~ Whitney Houston | |
| Track Listing
1. Million Dollar Bill
2. Nothin' But Love
3. Call You Tonight
4. I Look To You
5. Like I Never Left (feat. Akon)
6. A Song For You
7. I Didn't Know My Own Strength
8. Worth It
9. For The Lovers
10. I Got You
11. Salute
"...a strong soul album by a mature singer who's successfully channelling a lot of real pain in her music." Benjamin Boles, NOW Magazine
"The set is a nice welcome back and a new beginning for the singer." Gail Mitchell, Billboard
| | Album Notes and Credits |
Notes & Personnel Info |  | Despite her star having lost some of its luster in the 2000s, Whitney Houston is still regarded as a benchmark for modern singers of all stripes (from soulful divas to would-be pop idols). Almost seven years in the making, 2009's I LOOK TO YOU marks a music industry homecoming for the singer. Supported by a mob of A-list producers and songwriters including Diane Warren, David Foster, R. Kelly, Alicia Keys, and many more, Houston's vocals are in fine form on material ranging from hip-hop-tinged contemporary R&B ("Million Dollar Bill") to `70s covers (Leon Russell's "A Song for You") to adult contemporary torch songs ("I Look to You"). | | 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. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine | | 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 |
Producer: Larry Jackson; Whitney Houston |
| | Compilation Appearances |
| | Associated Artists and Works |
| | Technical Info | | Release Date : 08/31/2009 | | Original Release Date : 2009 | | Catalog ID : 10033 | | Label : Arista Records (USA) | | Number of Discs : 1 | | Studio/Live : Studio | | Mono/Stereo : Stereo | | SPAR Code : n/a | | UPC : 00886971003321 |
|
| | Professional Reviews | | Rolling Stone (p.54)
- 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "It is a modern soul record, a collection of sleek, often spunky love songs that aim at something more immediate and tangible than nostalgia or catharsis..."Entertainment Weekly (p.60)
- "[S]he seems relieved to turn to lighter stuff, like the saucy-sweet Alicia Keys collaboration 'Million Dollar Bill' and airy Akon duet 'Like I Never Left.'" -- Grade: B- Los Angeles Times 8 of 10
Certain voices stand like monuments upon the landscape of 20th century pop, defining the architecture of their times, sheltering the dreams of millions and inspiring the climbing careers of countless imitators. Whitney Houston owns one of those voices...When she was at her best, nothing could match her huge, clean, cool mezzo-soprano -- not Madonna's canny chirp, not Bono's stone church wail nor Bruce Springsteen's ramshackle growl. No, it was Houston who best embodied the feminine but gym-toned, black-inspired but aspirationally post-racial sound of global crossover pop. Like a Trump skyscraper, Houston the singer was as showily dominant as corporate capitalism itself...Then, like many a glorious edifice, Houston's voice fell into disrepair. Drug abuse and a rocky marriage to New Jack jerk Bobby Brown made her a tabloid staple. More tragically (for listeners, at least), her excesses trashed her instrument, which age and normal wear and tear would have imperiled anyway...The pain and, frankly, disgust that so many pop fans felt during Houston's decline was caused not so much by her personal distress as by her seemingly careless treatment of the national treasure that happened to reside within her...But should we begrudge the fact that Whitney Houston now has to work at singing? It's all to her credit. What's hard to give up is the dream of painless perfection that the young Houston represented, back in the yuppie era, when her voice sounded like the easy money that was flowing everywhere. Of course, that didn't turn out so well for anyone else, either...Though "I Look to You" doesn't soar like the old days, it's fine to hear Houston working on her own recovery plan. - Ann Powers
|
|
| | Bio | | | Whitney Houston Born into a musical family on August 9, 1963, in Newark, New Jersey, Whitney's success might've been foretold. Her legendary heritage is as familiar as America's greatest icons: the daughter of famed singer Cissy Houston (who made her name in the Drinkards gospel quartet, and later the Sweet Inspirations vocal group of Aretha Franklin and Elvis Presley renown); and the cousin of singers Dee Dee Warwick (who introduced the original '60s versions of "You're No Good" and "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me") and her sister, superstar Dionne Warwick. Whitney's mother and cousins nurtured her passion for gospel music since birth. As a teenager, Whitney was already singing on the scene in New York, and records with her first young performances in the '70s and early '80s, album credits with such eclectic acts as Michael Zager, Chaka Khan, Herbie Mann, the Neville Brothers, Bill Laswell's Material, and others, are much sought-after collectors items. In 1983, near the end of Arista's first mega-successful decade of operation, Clive Davis was taken to a New York nightclub where Whitney was performing, and signed her on the spot. Two years went into the making of her debut album, but the results were worth it. The self-titled Whitney Houston (March 1985) launched Arista's second decade, and yielded a string of hits including "You Give Good Love" and three consecutive #1 singles, the Grammy-winning "Saving All My Love For You," "How Will I Know," and "The Greatest Love of All," which has become a veritable anthem. Not only did the album establish her as an important new recording artist, but it went on to sell over 12 million copies in the U.S., plus many millions more abroad. This LP set the record as the biggest selling debut album by a solo artist. With over 170 million combined album, singles and videos sold worldwide during her career with Arista Records, Whitney Houston has established a benchmark for superstardom that will quite simply never be eclipsed in the modern era. She is a singer's singer who has influenced countless other vocalists, female and male. Music historians cite Whitney's record-setting achievements: the only artist to chart seven consecutive #1 Billboard Hot 100 hits ("Saving All My Love For You," "How Will I Know," "Greatest Love Of All," "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)," "Didn't We Almost Have It All," "So Emotional," and "Where Do Broken Hearts Go"); the first female artist to enter the Billboard 200 album chart at #1 (her second album, Whitney, 1987); and the only artist with seven consecutive multi-platinum albums (Whitney Houston, Whitney, I'm Your Baby Tonight, The Bodyguard, Waiting To Exhale, and The Preacher's Wife soundtracks, and My Love Is Your Love). In fact, The Bodyguard soundtrack is one of the top 10 biggest-selling albums of all-time (at 17x-platinum in the U.S. alone), and Whitney's career-defining version of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You" is the biggest-selling U.S. single of all-time (at 4x-platinum).
|
|
| |
|
|
