Released on: Mon 25 Nov 2002
WHITNEY HOUSTON - 'JUST WHITNEY' (ARISTA)
Score 3.5

Say what you like about divas, but at least they give you your money's worth. If the music isn't working, there's always the soap opera surrounding it to keep everyone enthralled. Whether it's J Lo, Mariah, Lauryn or even shiny happy Kylie, these women draw their fans in to their worlds, even as that intrusion seemingly inhibits and depresses them. The girls can't help it.

And nowhere in the whole weird world of pop is this more the case than round at La Houston's gaff. In the past few years Whitney's private life has been the stuff of gobsmacking tabloid-tastic legend. Getting nicked coming out of Hawaii with a handbag full of dope two years ago was bad enough; reports of her increasingly erratic behaviour and ever more extreme mood swings reached such a crescendo that her record label felt the need to deny that she was dead.

So 'Just Whitney' is being trumpeted as the troubled siren getting back to basics. That's 'Just Whitney', back in the studio, laying down a few tracks with only some producers and musicians for company. Oh, and maybe a voice coach. And a fashion designer. And maybe the make-up artist, fitness trainer, dietician and perhaps even a spiritual advisor.

And, amazingly, perhaps, this is a cogent, compact and really quite good record, one that mixes upbeat, perhaps slightly clinical R&B with uber-ballads and occasional snatches of what appears to be an attempt at intimacy. It's not the equal of the often quite brilliant 'My Love Is Your Love', but it does prove that there's more to Houston than a string of worrying headlines and a back catalogue that's sold a staggering 140 million copies.

That said, Houston seems more than happy to play that arch post-modern game of referencing the publicly aired problems while never quite getting down to specifics. 'Whatchulookiknat' is the most obvious riff on these themes, with remixer P Diddy even popping up with the cliched "Houston, we have a problem" line. But 'Tell Me No' - a classy acoustic belter, which sounds like Whitney's been listening to Beverley Knight - finds her telling us that "You criticize my actions, but I don't see you standing in my shoes." And, in 'On My Own' she assures us that "I'm stronger now, I've learned from my mistakes."

Well, we can but hope.

-Angus Batey