MY LOVE IS YOUR LOVE
Whitney Houston

Including David Foster, Babyface and Diane Warren - the usual suspects - there are 21 songwriters, arrangers or producers on Whitney Houston's first studio album in nearly eight years. It shows.

This is a prime example of music made by committee. It has about as much personality, too. It's that predictable, mechanical, posturing, slickly generic sound that passes for a lot of R&B music these days. These assembly line tracks could've been put under Mariah Carey's name, say, and no one would know the difference. I challenge anyone to tell these two high-priced divas apart on the sickeningly sweet duet called When You Believe (from the Prince of Egypt soundtrack). The oversinging is unbelievable.

To be fair, while Houston deploys her trademark fibrilating vibrato to excess, she reveals a bit more of herself than Carey generally does.

Heartbreak looms large - not about anyone specific, mind you (there's a disclaimer to that effect) - and she's convincing enough in songs like I Learned From the Best and Until You Come Back. These two (plus a groovy bonus track) stand out. The rest of the album is puffed up with snoozy, forgettable urban fare, songs that serve as sterile stages for the showing off of Houston's golden pipes - typical when you're in the diva industry.