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What she undoubtedly is, is a pro--she sells these subdued glitzy productions, she makes boring songs interesting, she remains a forceful, tangible presence.
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The set is a nice welcome back and a new beginning for the singer.
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For all that she's miraculously clawed back here, the one thing that eludes her is the one thing that made her exceptional: her voice. Without it she's just another R&B singer, and, good as it is in places, I Look To You is just another R&B album.
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Whitney Houston's first album in seven years, doesn't pretend to offer the unblemished 21-year-old we met on her smash 1985 debut, but it never?truly lets listeners inside the heart and head of the woman she is today.
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Houston, We’ve got problems
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Though I Look to You doesn't soar like the old days, it's fine to hear Houston working on her own recovery plan.
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MojoHouston has delivered an album that, despite a few middling tracks, is genuinely moving. [Nov 2009, p.95]
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The only evidence we have is a middling album marking a new chapter in a diva's life that doesn't sound any cheerier than the chapters that went before.
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If you let go of your preconceptions, what you’ll hear is a strong soul album by a mature singer who’s successfully channelling a lot of real pain in her music.
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Q MagazineYou can hear where the money went, even if her voice is far from the soaring force of yore. [Nov 2009, p.114]
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I Look to You spends little time looking back. It is a modern soul record, a collection of sleek, often spunky love songs that aim at something more immediate and tangible than nostalgia or catharsis: Houston wants back in the diva stakes.
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For the most part, I Look to You manages to sound completely contemporary without the use of guest rappers, dumbed-down lyrics, or slang.
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Houston's version of Leon Russell's American Idol staple "A Song for You" works up to a deliciously cheesy club-pop climax. Still, with a pair of "I Believe I Can Fly"–style contributions from R. Kelly and a blustery Diane Warren ballad called "I Didn't Know My Own Strength," there's no denying the message that I Look to You was designed to hammer home. Expect fresh drama soon.
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The album concentrates on reinstalling Houston, never resident at R&B's cutting edge, as an unchallenging pop-soul diva. This it does with style, weaving flashes of eurodisco thump around hooky melodies.
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She’s tentatively climbing back into the pop machinery, no longer invincible but showing a diva’s determination.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 64 out of 85
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Mixed: 12 out of 85
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Negative: 9 out of 85
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moshek.Sep 5, 2009
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Oct 10, 2017
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Oct 29, 2012