THIS WEEK'S ALBUM RELEASES:
WHITNEY HOUSTON JUST WHITNEY ARISTA

By Andy Gill


Surely only a celebrity would imagine that the best way to combat excessive public interest in one's private life would be to write and release a single about, er, excessive public interest in one's private life, as Whitney Houston does here with the chippy "Whatchulookinat?". As if that alone weren't enough to ensure increased interest in the travails so frequently afflicting her marriage to Bobby Brown, then having Bobby produce the track should guarantee blanket coverage in the gossip columns. It's a decent enough track, certainly the best thing here, feisty and funky if a little too self-obsessed - rather like Whitney herself, one suspects. "God is the reason my soul is free/ And I don't need you lookin' at me," she sings, clearly in denial about her position as a performer. These kinds of "look/don't look" vacillations underscore all of Just Whitney, which focuses on the singer's own life like no previous Whitney Houston album. Songs like "Unashamed", "Tell Me No" and "Love That Man" could have been written to order for her present situation, espousing as they do faith and fidelity in the face of insecurity, while "Dear John Letter" and "On My Own" involve wistful contemplation of a possible future flying solo, so to speak. Behind the veneer of personality, however, there's much less actual character to the music.