Record Reviews: The Preacher's Wife

Date: January 10, 1997
By Steve McCarty

From South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
Submitted by: Larry A.


Whitney Houston - The Preacher's Wife (soundtrack) (Arista) "Ladeez and gennulmen, please put your hands together - or in your pockets - for the all-singing, all-dancing Miss Whitney Houston."

The squeaky-clean queen of pop-soul scores with another hit right to the mushy underbelly of her fan-base with this tie-in to the feelgood film of the same name in which she co-stars with Denzel Washington.

All right, she is not going to turn punk overnight, and presumably her hands were tied to some extent as far as the choice of songs goes, but no risks are taken here.

It is vintage Whitney: trademark soaring vocals to the front of the mix, a funky Step by Step the obvious single, and a hefty dollop of gospel from the Georgia Mass Choir spread throughout the top-value 15 tracks.

There is a curious version of The Lord is My Shepherd - it must be the alternative remix since it is unrecognisable as the psalm - and a lot of uplifting, Christian tub-thumping, as you might expect with such a film. It is all safe, predictable stuff, peppered with ballads almost capable of melting a cynical reviewer's stony heart on a lonely evening. "Houston, we have a problem," is unlikely to be a complaint from the faithful.

Curiously, the television commercial for the CD runs with a message of joy featuring the face of Tung Chee-hwa. Perhaps Whitney sees our man of the moment as her next co-star - or maybe a means of cracking the Chinese market. We should be told.