Whitney Houston

Houston's sophomore album cemented her pop chart dominance with somewhat shrill offerings like "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" and "Didn't We Almost Have It All." The beats were infectious, the songs uncomplicated, and fans found the polished, not-too-soulful tracks just right for the era.

On one hearing, it's easy to dismiss Whitney Houston's new album as overcalculated,
hollowed-out pop product, so suffocated by professionalism that only the faintest pulse of
soul remains. But after several listens, it's nearly impossible to dislodge Whitney from your
brain. Like Houston's debut, this is a mess of an album that succeeds in spite of itself. But if
Whitney works – and its entry at Number One on Billboard's pop LP chart is a str... More >

It takes more than unsullied venality and the will to power to reign as the most revolting pop singer in Christendom. It takes active aesthetic miscalculation and, truth be told, more than a little luck. Like falling into the lame dance grooves of Jermaine Jackson and the odious megaschlock of Michael Masser, with Narada Michael Walden limited to "How Will I Know"--which becomes your breakthrough song as well as the only critically forgivable thing on your best-selling debut album in history. So this time Walden gets seven shots, with Masser down to two and Jermaine returned to the bosom of his family, and the results are forgivable--she does have a good voice, you know. (Grade - C+)