Rating: (Snoozing Viewer)

Whitney Houston


It isn't easy making a bad Christmas record. Even novelty acts like the Chipmunks and Paul McCartney have knocked out the odd holiday classic. But after so profoundly wrecking her singing, acting and performing careers over the past few years, Whitney Houston is more than capable. It's not entirely her fault: Even though she scats her way through "The Christmas Song," treats "I'll Be Home for Christmas" as if it were written for a piano bar, and lets her daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown sing on "Little Drummer Boy," it's the made-in-a-sweatshop synthesizer and slap-bass effects that really tank what is essentially Houston's last-ditch attempt at proving she still has some mundane adult-contemporary life in her. That and the inclusion of "Who Would Imagine a King" and "Joy to the World" from the "Preacher's Wife" soundtrack, reminders that at one point this woman could actually sing. -- Aidin Vaziri.

Whitney Houston
One Wish - The Holiday Album
Arista
$18.98