Review:

on 2012-02-13 gutterseed Said:

I learned tonight that Whitney Houston was found dead in a Beverly Hills hotel room bathtub, and couldn't help but imagine the scenario. A long battle with drugs, domestic violence, and raising kids along with a semi successful music career full of pop hits, most noteably the theme from the bodyguard, a cover song that got endless airplay; "I will always love you".
I love the innocence of this album. "greatest love of all", "you give good love to me", and "saving all my love for you." I'm not sure what the inspiration behind it was, but it's unfair to say that Whitney's voice hits every spectrum from blues to soul. While I don't listen to this genre of music I understand why artists from this genre die from overdoses. Their music is uplifting when they make it, you can't help but see that she's full of optimism and working through personal issues. She relays her dreams to the listeners, offers great advice years before her 12 step road to recovery began. "Find your strength in love" is a cornerstone. "Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all". Makes you wonder if this album of innocence is a look inside of a Whitney Houston full of pain and suffering, but because of the uplifting aspects in her music that pain and suffering gets over looked.
The entire tone of the album is the present moment. Making important moments last forever, makng relationships work in every aspect. This album is that of a young woman with talent bearing her soul to let the listener know what love is. I can't help but think that had he not been diagnosed with some sort of depression, given some sort of counseling after making this album, she might still be living. Every song is set up for failure. Up until I actually listened to it, I had no idea she was such a griever. It's difficult to understand how people overdose years later until you listen to an album, where the innocence of the world meets the cruelty of the world, and life just spirals downward and one is unable to gain control of their life.
Prior to reviewig this album, I had heard it in 6th grade, it was the "make out album" that everyone tried to french kiss the entire way through. As I was listening to it to review it, I came across some of her greatest hits, and the sad thing about Whitney's life is that she really was looking for that "greatest love of all", and that she actually had it, she had a child.
I hope that Whitney finds the peace and healing that she deserves. She had been haunted for years by drug addiction, domestic violence, and most likely mental trauma and mental illness that just kept her from being so happy, yet she was able to portray it through her beautiful voice. Her drugs took her pain away temporarily when the people she let into her heart and allow them to lift her spirits left her alone and crushed. Despite all the optimism and hopeless romanticism, her bluesy, soulful voice could hit all ranges. Music really lost another gem to the world of drugs. Listen to her catalogue, and you find her just begging for other's to help her, and you can't help but look at Whitney's fate and understand how awful loneliness and having dreams can actually be. On earth she wanted someone to be there for her, someone to fix her, she most likely had it with her daughter, but she needed that in a man. I can't believe how much pain is reflected in this woman's voice, she wants what every human wants and lays it on the table; to be accepted, to be loved, to be respected, and to not be in so much pain cause by another human .
That said, it really pisses me off that Whitney would devote such a huge portion of her life wanting to pleasing a man, and completely ignore her daughter. I guess drugs can make you obsessive, especially when you're the one thinking it's you that's making the people in your life leave. Perhaps she pushed her daughter away from her as well.
Human's can't fix each other. I'm not even sure a doctor could fix Whitney. What I can say is that I have a true appreciation of her talent, her voice, her song arrangments, and her willingness to bare everything for the listener. What sucks is society can't listen to a song like "I have nothing" and the rest of her discography and go "ok we need to help a fellow human being get help". I understand that music is expression, not to mention an industry in which Bruce Dickenson put's it best "nobody cares until somebody famous dies", it's just a very sad thing to listen to her music after you find out they're dead and it's a huge wake up call, any member of her recording team could have taken her lyrics and sat down to talk with her and ask if everything was ok. Sad when record execs make decisions to produce painful memories without even attempting to help the individual. Perhaps she was tired of the industry using her as their "recovery" story and not using her for her talent.
RIP Whitney, may you find peace that you needed, and may your pain be finally resolved by a higher power that cannot hurt you, and force you to make records so that the record company execs can make more money. I'm glad they're totally out of the equation. I hope all of your songs you are singing now are pain free and you don't have to sing the sad songs any more.
Not Rated