Soaring to Glory

Ever since winning Britain's The X Factor in 2011, Little Mix have carved out a potent niche in the girl group pop market. While they certainly play well next to their similarly inclined contemporaries, they've ably set themselves apart from the post-Beyoncé pack by focusing on songs that straddle the line between retro-soul and modern bubblegum pop, while also showcasing their soulful, highly resonant vocal chops and saucy group chemistry. Their fourth studio album, 2016's Glory Days, is no exception and finds the group delivering a set of hooky, smartly crafted songs that balance swaggering, '60s-style R&B with stylish, electronic-tinged dance-pop…

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.