Even I'm not so crass as to blue bin a Whitney Houston album the day after her death, though indeed her death is what prompted me to review this LP. I have mixed feelings about this album, as the vocals are consistently stellar ("How Will I Know," "Saving All My Love for You") but the production and arrangements are very dated, with a lot of electronic rhythm tracks for the up-tempo cuts and the ballads inevitably arranged in the "I Will Always Love You" mold ("Greatest Love of All"). Ultimately, we will remember Houston more for her voice than for her songs, and though she doesn't show it off nearly as much as I would like, when she does, I am left with no doubt that she was one of the two greatest commercial pop singers of the era, along with Mariah Carey. For me personally, I will always wonder what she could have done with better songs and a less commercial approach, but maybe that's beside the point.
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