Whitney's not paying attention to music
by Ted Shaw
Windsor Star
Eight years between Whitney Houston studio albums is a long time to wait. Cissy Houston's kid and Bobby Brown's wife has undeniable musical credentials, but on the evidence of this album, she's paying more attention to her film career. The choices here, in some cases, are mind-boggling. Erratic doesn't begin to describe My Love Is Your Love. It contains some of the most touching ballads Houston has ever recorded, but it also includes electronic, R&B drivel that amounts to little more than simplistic riffing. The most substantial entry here is Until You Come Back, a torch song for the millennium. It's the desert rose in a wasteland of music, the only song that challenges Houston. A couple of other tracks are mediocre, like the Mariah Carey duet, When You Believe. This tune from the animated movie, The Prince of Egypt, is available on a soundtrack and you'd be better off getting it there. The Diane Warren song, I Learned From the Best, which was produced by David Foster, recalls some of Houston's more romantic stuff. But forget about the rest. It's Not Right But It's Okay, the lead-off track which could fairly describe most of the album, cops Earth Wind & Fire's kalimba sound for no apparent reason. Heartbreak Hotel, which isn't the Elvis Presley song, unfortunately, is too long by half. My Love is Your Love, the title song, is vague reggae with no charm. And at least two tracks -- If I Told You That and Get It Back -- aren't even complete songs, just doodling on repeated rhythms. December 3, 1998 | 
