I have yet to hear “I Look To You,” the new album from Whitney Houston that comes out Sept. 1, although an audience at the premiere in London yesterday did. What I do have is the cover art, which is over here on the right. And…it’s beautiful. Miss H. looks healthy, sober and like the older version of that flawless diva that Kevin Costner carried out of that club in “The Bodyguard”, and not the sickly wraith we’ve seen pictures of for the last decade. Those who have heard “I Look To You” say it’s pretty much Whitney Houston, with the familiar flourishes of the ’80s and ’90s – her fairy recording industry godfather Clive Davis said last night that ”we didn’t try to fit Whitney Houston into the market. The copyrights associated with Whitney in the 1980s and ’90s are part of the fabric of music today.”

I don’t know what that means, but she’s got some pretty impressive modern input for the album, including Akon, Alicia Keys, Diane Warren and R Kelly. Whitney also covers Leon Russell’s “A Song For You,” and if anybody can bring something new to that gorgeous but really well-visited song, it’s her.

Check it all out at http://www.whitneyhouston.com/main.html