Whitney Houston (studio album) by Whitney Houston

Shortlisted for album of the year at the 1986 Grammys. The winner was No Jacket Required by Phil Collins

The singing talent is obvious, and some of the hits are classic pop songs for sure. But half this album is slow songs, and just a little boring - especially the 3 duets. Nothing bad, but as a collective, it only averages out to a "pretty good" album - not a great one.

From ilovelctr 06/14/2021 14:24

Seriously, there's a bad trend to rate this album and the likes of it low on BEA. The tremendous difference between the per-track reception and the overall album reception says it clearly.

One thing that I think is terribly conveyed is the fact any kind of performance has its artistic exaggeration, which is true even in the case of some 'raw' music. This does not mean that dramatic R&B does not possess genuine emotions; on the other hand, it very well does.

From planetneutral 12/18/2020 16:35

The hits aren't enough to make this a good album.

The least offensively bombastic and over-sung album of Houston's. Its arrival not-so-coincidentally accompanied a downturn in the quality of pop music across the board. Why? Because Houston made it all about being a belter and not a singer. Melody would always take a backseat in such an arrangement.

From VictorVale 01/02/2019 20:45

Assim surge a grande voz da próxima geração de cantoras.

From dmercado 02/04/2015 23:15

timtooky, you should listen to more black music before you make generalized statements. If you do not like black music, that is your opinion. There are tons of black women who sing purely out of love for music, you can message me if you want a list.

The music composition is conservative, trying to mimic earlier work by Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, etc but watering the arrangements down. Watering down and synthesizing arrangements was very common in the 80s once the industry saw how well it worked with artists like Phil Collins. Regardless, it's impressive how her delivery is able to carry emotions through the artificial sound of the karaoke machine. I have mixed feelings about this one.

From timtooky 04/26/2014 21:35

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From junodog4 10/09/2012 19:19

I don't like slick, safe pop. That said, Whitney Houston's voice was unbelievable. It's too bad she never had interesting songs to sing.

True masterpiece from true Queen of Voice. The whole track list is wonderful. My favorite songs are "You Give Good Love", "How Will I Know" and "Greatest Love of All"