Bikini Workout: Prepare to Bare (2009)

It's only been seven years between Just Whitney and 2009's I Look to You, not even Houston's longest time between albums, but it feels much, much longer, her glory days obscured in hazy memories of lost luster chiefly deriving from a bad marriage with Bobby Brown, chronicled in an embarrassing reality show for Bravo in 2004. I Look to You attempts to wash this all away with something of a return to roots – a celebration of Houston's deep disco beginnings, tempered with a few skyscraping ballads designed to showcase her soaring voice. Houston's rocky decade isn't ignored, but it isn't explored, either: songs allude to Whitney's strength, her willpower as a survivor struggling through some unnamed struggle – enough for listeners to fill in the blanks, either with their own experience or their imaginings of Houston's life.

As one of the most instantly recognizable voices in all of rock – in a career that has spanned four decades – there isn't much for Deep Purple's Ian Gillan to prove. But to his credit, he's still at it, as the frontman (to this day) for Purple, as well as returning to his solo career when the mood hits, as evidenced by the release of his 2009 offering, One Eye to Morocco…