Houston's new LP is a waste of her pretty voice

Date: November 30, 1990
By Parry Gettelman

From Orlando Sentinel (Florida)
Submitted by: Larry A.


** Whitney Houston, I'm Your Baby Tonight (Arista): How can someone with such a good voice be such an indifferent singer?

Whitney Houston sounds a little more "street" on her third album, thanks to beat-o'-the-month production from hotshot producers L.A. Reid and Babyface on three cuts. She pushes a bit harder than before to fit into the aggressive mix on "My Name Is Not Susan," "Anymore" and "I'm Your Baby Tonight."

As a dance diva, Houston definitely makes such vocal lightweights as Paula Abdul and Madonna seem pretty pitiful. But she's no Donna Summer. Summer always sounded as if she really meant every syllable of even the silliest lyric. Houston, for all the melodrama of her sudden high growls and sobbing swoops, always seems more intent on creating an effect than expressing an emotion.

A fourth L.A.-Babyface production, "Miracle," is a standard, schmaltzy synthesizer ballad. The most that can be said for it is that it blends in perfectly with "Lover for Life" and the two other slick, contempo-schmaltz tracks helmed by her longtime producer, Narada Michael Walden.

Singer Luther Vandross doesn't exactly distinguish himself behind the boards on the generic dance track "Who Do You Love?," replete with boring drum programs and keyboards-by-numbers. Houston seems to bring out the blandness in everybody. Her duet with Stevie Wonder on his "We Didn't Know" is almost as tedious as "Ebony and Ivory" even though it's uptempo.

Houston does let loose a little on "I'm Knockin'," which she co-produced with Rickey Minor. Maybe if she would take more control over her music instead of turning herself over to the hitmakers for packaging, she could actually say something with that pretty voice.