“Find your strength in love,” Whitney Houston sings at the end of a new live album, “The Concert for a New South Africa (Durban).” She spends a full minute pronouncing those five syllables.
The song is ‘Greatest Love of All’. At the beginning of the last line, Houston darts from note to note. At the word ‘power’ her amazing alto flourishes, climbs and adds vibrato. When she encounters the word ‘love’, she playfully jumps through different notes and lets the last one stick, the power of the beauty matching the message.
Houston was a singer, and that is reaffirmed by “The Concert for a New South Africa (Durban).” Sadly, the album also shows how the pop diva’s incomparable talent was wasted before she died in 2012 at the age of 48.
The album comes out on Friday, following the limited theatrical release of a film commemorating the 30th anniversary of Houston’s three 1994 concerts in South Africa – in Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town. They celebrated a newly united nation after apartheid and the election of Nelson Mandela as president.
This album contains the first album held in Durban on November 8, 1994. It is also Houston’s first ever live concert album.
“I have never felt so much love,” Houston tells the stadium crowd. Ten of the digital album’s 21 tracks (there are 24 tracks in total, including an intro and three versions of the same song, including the live track, a previously unreleased studio recording and a remix) contain titles containing the word ‘love ‘ or something like that. variety, and huge hits are spread throughout the set. They include “I Will Always Love You,” “How Will I Know,” and “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me),” all fun to hear in such a festive setting.
Unfortunately, the scale of the event only reinforces Houston’s tendency to sing too much. Her delivery seems intended for the top row of the stadium, which is understandable but tiring if you listen through earbuds. Maybe you should have been there.
The vocal theater lyrics are often ill-suited to inferior material, and Houston wrings the lyrics as if trying to remove the froth. The excess is compounded by the dated, overcooked arrangements of her large supporting cast, which range from sappy synths to hairband guitar solos, although there are quality contributions from the horns and backing singers.
The second half of the show has moments of grace. Houston turns it up on “Love Is,” a beautiful ballad that also appears on the album in a previously unreleased 1990 studio recording and a remix. Houston delivers her compelling reading of “Greatest Love of All,” and a bouncy “Touch the World” completes the occasion.
The best moment comes when Houston takes the audience to Megachurch. “Jesus Loves Me” becomes a children’s song for the ages as it demonstrates an uncharacteristic sense of feeling in the tradition of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin.
That’s followed by “Amazing Grace,” and when Houston twists the word “wretch” with violent vulnerability, the lyrics sound as heartfelt as anything she’s ever sung.