Ralphy's C.D. Reviews

Review date 03-09-1999: Whitney Houston - C.D. My love is your love

Well first of all, I'm again not very fast in reviewing a CD, because it was already released at the end of 1998. That's because I generally don't buy CD's in this musical style (I do own the soundtrack of "The Bodyguard", which heavily features classic Whitney-songs), but through a friend I recently got a copy of "My love is your love". Since it has been more than a month ago that I reviewed an album out here and I didn't have anything more recent at hand and I'd like to give all (well almost all) musical styles a chance, I thought: "Why not review this one?".

Any comments you might have on these reviews

Visit my message board: Ralphy's Music and Stuff Forum

What to think of this latest Whitney-album? It's her fourth studio-CD (not counting her contributions to several soundtracks) and her first release since 1990's " I'm your baby tonight". Well, Whitney has gone hiphop (partly) in cooperation with the likes of Wyclef Jean, Lauryn Hill and Missy Elliott. Wyclef's work on the title song of the album works out alright. "My love is your love" is the best hiphop song on the album and among my overall favourites of her (although it's getting a bit on my nerves due to too much airplay lately). The Missy 'Misdemeanor' Elliott song 'In my business' is competing with the (classical style) movie duet with Mariah Carey "When you believe" for the worst song on the album contest. Lauryn Hill's contribution is a hidden track called "I was made to love him". A gender reversed remake (or should I say raping?) of Stevie Wonder's evergreen. I would rather have heard Whitney sing her version of the original song than this travesty (maybe my dislike for hiphop is influencing my judgment a bit here). Another cooperation is the song "Heartbreak hotel" (which has nothing to do with Elvis's song) on which Whitney seems to fullfill a wish of being in a girl singing group like the Spice Girls by teaming up with Faith Evans and Kelly Price. They pull it off OK and their voices work together nicely on this song (although I'm not a big fan of Faith Evans since the terrible "I'll be missing you"; Kelly Price I've never heard of).

What is your opinion about the CD's I reviewed? Vote for your favorite CD in this booth! You can only vote once a day.

Ralphy's CD Review Voting Booth

Then Whitney's own songs like the first (solo-)single "It's not right, but it's Okay". This song and a few others seem to be handling about her notorious marriage with Bobby Brown, but you couldn't be sure since she doesn't really write any of her songs, but it looks like she had a lot of lyrical input (or have other people tried to warn her through these songs especially in "I bow out" ?). "Oh yes" and "Get it back" are very mediocre songs who seem to be just album fillers, "Untill you come back" and " ...it's Okay" are okay, but the best classical Whitney pieces are " If I told you that" (not that classic), "I bow out" (maybe the best song), " I learned from the best" and " You'll never stand alone". The last two songs remind me the most of her classical style ballads. The mix between her former musical style and the effort to be a contemporary 'sista' makes the CD remarkable, although not phenomenal. It's a perfect background groove when you're busy doing others things, but I wouldn't describe it as an intense listening opportunity. What's next now for Whitney? Is she going totally hiphop on the next one and will it take another 8 years to come out? I've heard a rumor that she wanted to do something a bit country style like Shania Twain. Sounds interesting! I rate the album with a 6.1

Back to Ralphy's C.D. Reviews Page

Back to Ralphy's Cool Music Site