Alright, I’ll scale back on some of that Destiny’s Child Reunion Shade I threw yesterday because this is giving me everything. The lyrics/song are kind of generic, but this instrumental?? Stop. Cannot take it. I can’t wait to see them perform this at the Super Bowl.
Amerie is totally underrated. I wish people understood what she’s trying to do the way I understand. (I don’t have any explanations for her new mushroom haircut, but that’s beside the point). She’s got an album coming out later this year and she’s releasing a mini-LP to drum up some interest. This is the first single and it’s just straight-forward R&B. She’s toned down her DC Go-Go leanings, but the harmonies are still all Amerie.
I’ma cross my fingers that she’ll sell a few records this time since everybody slept on Because I Love It and In Love & War. Get into it.
Divas have a reputation of being a little snooty, not really wanting to share the spotlight or work with anyone else. When they do decide to record a duet, the result is usually pretty amazing, but they’re so few and far between. You could almost fit every duet recorded by Janet, Mariah, Beyonce, and Madonna onto one album.
Not Whitney. Before she was made it big, she seemingly spent all her time recording duets with Jermaine Jackson, and over the course of her career, she released duets fairly regularly. Whitney wasn’t just the best singer of our time because she had a great voice—she had great ears too. You can’t add vocal flourishes without being able the hear the chords, and you can’t sing a great duet without being able to hear your partner.
So, let’s countdown Whitney Houston’s greatest duets!
** “Impossible/It’s Possible” with Brandy I’m gonna drop this in as an honorable mention because that whole Cinderella experience was huge. Brandy was working with her idol, Whitney was executive producing, ABC got it’s highest movie ratings of all time, and it was a multi-ethnic cast retelling classic Disney.
10. “Something in Common” with Bobby Brown If I didn’t have such conflicting emotions about their relationship, I’d actually rate this song higher. It’s actually a pretty good production from LA Reid and Whitney & Bobby sound good together on a record.
9. ”We Didn’t Know” with Stevie Wonder This mid-tempo jam is everything I love about the early 90s: casio keyboard, epic 5-minute length, major/minor keychanges, and Whitney Houston.
8. “It Isn’t, It Wasn’t, It Ain’t Never Gonna Be” with Aretha Franklin This sassy duet with the Queen of Soul in the late 80s didn’t burn up the charts like Whitney’s earlier releases, but it’s a welcome, upbeat addition to both of their catalogs.
The really unfamous third of Dirty Money (Diddy being famous and Dawn being moderately famous) released a mixtape. It is SUPER extra-medium. So bored with this. Except this song. I’m usually not on board when a song slips into a new character halfway through the track—one half is always better than the other. But the beginning of this song is a banger and then Kalenna just smooVes it out a little for the last half. More stuff like this please, Ms. Harper, and less of that Everything Else You Made.
(Well, “Pain & Alcohol” is also good. But you really can’t hate a song built on lyrics like Cause I’m feelin like a white girl / on cocaine / Took three Vicodin / I feel strange / Pushin one hundred hittin curves in the rain /shouldn’t drive drunk with love on the brain )
I always forget how fun Just Whitney is to listen to. This track is pretty much the funkiest song in Whitney’s arsenal. So much of the album is just hainty and pure attitude.
I only know 3 people who still care about Cassie. I am not one of them. But I am all about this song. It’s too dance-oriented to make her blow up, but damn. Somebody did their good good production on this track. The video drops tomorrow, but even if it sucks, I have a new jam just in time for Valentine’s Day.
Also: I really want someone to vogue to this. Like, classy vogue though. Not that slinging-weaves and fallin-out Attitude Vogue.
Listen to this track.
