708 Whitney Houston - Whitney (1987)

 708 Whitney Houston - Whitney (1987)

Studio Album - Pop


About the Act:

Whitney Houston died in 2012. Her personal life and cause of death are just that, personal, and so I will not dwell on them.

In 1985, two years after being signed, her debut album was released. It was a total smash, selling a ridiculous number of copies worldwide. Her second album sold well. She kept making records and people kept buying them. She was one of the most-awarded and best-selling recording artists of all time, with sales of over 200 million records worldwide. She had seven studio albums, and acted in an equal number of films.

About the Album:

This was her second album.

My History with this Album:

None, although I know about half the songs. Apparently I'm one of the people in the world who don't have a copy of this album.

Review:

There are four things I like about this album. The best of those is Whitney's voice. She has a strong, well-controlled and fairly versatile voice (although when she sings high and loud all of her consonant disappear so it's hard to see the words. This is not much of a problem though). She has incredible control and technique.

The second is the music for the song "Love is a Contact Sport". I don't like the words much though.

The third is what I think is a soprano sax on one of the later tracks.

And the fourth is the cover. She is happy and smiley and quite attractive. Her teeth as so white!

Everything else... I don't like so much.

I don't like the completely overly cheesy and clichéd 80s arrangements and instrumentations. If anyone asks "what did the 80s sound like" - play them this album.

I don't like the fact that she didn't write any of the songs, or produce them, all she did was sing. She is very, very good at the singing, but it doesn't relate to the words she is singing at all. Once, years ago, I saw a clip of Whitney singing gospel, and she was incredible! I formed the opinion that the music she mostly sings is a complete waste of a good voice. She maybe disagreed when the millions came rolling in as one of the most commercial acts ever. Now, I know that there are other people who don't write their own songs, and some of them are quite good, but it takes skill to take somebody else's song and make it sound like you mean it.  When I stopped watching the X-Factor, it was because I realised that it was the triumph of style over substance, that vocal gymnastics had replaced honest performance, and that the musical world was moving to a place where Bob Dylan, Mark Knopfler and others like that would not get a second listen.

I don't like the songs. Only one, as mentioned, I enjoyed a bit musically. Even if Whitney sounded like she meant any of this, it is the biggest load of slushy pap I have come across in a long time. Some of the lyrics were so clichéd I was groaning and miming being sick as I drove. They are romantic songs about love, without exception, the worst of which is probably "You're Still My Man". 

I don't like the music. The songs go fast song, slow song, alternating through the album, and most of the slow songs sound like they would be at home in a cheesy musical. I generally like electric pianos, but here it is the mega-clichéd plinky-plink that heralds the slow song. This is soul with no soul, only sweetener. The backing could have been anybody "pop" from that period, Tina Turner, Madonna, Richard Marx, Wham... it is polished and polished and polished an polished until you might forget that it is something that proverbially cannot be polished. 

There is another song on this album that I kind of like, and that's I Know Him So Well, from the musical Chess. It is the worst song from the musical (the cheesy love song), but although it is a musical fondue, it's a slightly witty song, when sung as a duet, properly. On this album, it is sung as a duet, splitting the lines up wrong so it doesn't make sense any more. The outrage!

Artistically bankrupt. Commercial gold. Kerching. But... she can really sing.

5/10


Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/5Vdzprr5cOqXQo44eHeV7t

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoCWJhz_4WqHZN5tc6Jz-pGEadsRodsRo

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_(album)



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