Whitney Houston
delivered
One Wish: The Holiday Album
, her first
Christmas
record, a year after her 2002 comeback,
Just Whitney
. If it seemed like that record played it safe, that's nothing compared to
One Wish
, which is the straightest
adult contemporary
record
Houston
had released in years. Of course,
holiday
records are the last place anybody would want to take a risk, since they're designed to be nice, pleasant mood music and this suits the bill nicely. The clean, pristine production, heavy on synths, sounds as if it was cut in the late '80s, yet it's also strangely spare, often being no more than a synth and a drum machine. Still, it's a sound that's well suited for
Whitney
and her thoroughly predictable set of material (the title track is the only new song, then the final two songs are recycled from the
soundtrack
of
The Preacher's Wife
). Ultimately,
is the kind of album that may only appeal to a fan of
who has already yearned for her
album, but for those fans, it will be satisfactory. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine