Arista
Urban Contemporary, 2002

Oh Nippy, poor Nippy. Okay, so Whitney Houston doesn’t like the press reporting her drug busts and health problems. So instead of actually giving the world a helluva comeback album, she releases this blah CD Just Whitney, gives bizarre interviews, and then acts as if the world owes her a great favor for her deigning to grant us another CD.

Oblivious to the clock of her career ticking by, she goes on the defensive in this CD, ripping apart the tabloids for DARING to report drug problems she later confesses to having (Whatchulookinat), and then swears that she will be number one again and we will be very sorry we ever dissed Ms Houston’s skeletal ass (Tell Me No), and we don’t understand the things she has been going through, so we shouldn’t be so hasty to stone her (One of Those Days).

All – yes, all – the songs here lack any memorable hooks. The whole CD sounds like a rushed affair, actually. It is as if the producers contracted to do this album just fished out whatever was on top of their reject bin to Ms Houston, who then just sang out whatever she was told to sing. I kind of like One of Those Days, if only because it is quite a bitter reflection to the possible state of Ms Houston’s mind nowadays. The horrible Whatdahellizzit or whatever it is called is the liveliest track in this CD, and that’s just how lackluster this CD is.

Ms Houston’s real comeback album was that fabulous 1998 release My Love is Your Love. If she has released something like that one today, everything will be forgiven. Just Whitney is just a sad subdued and whiny half-baked effort from a talented singer who just seems unable to dig herself out of the ditch that is the sum of her personal problems. It’s sad. Won’t somebody help her? She is – was – such a fabulous singer.