Whitney Houston’s last studio album, 1998’s ”My Love Is Your Love,” was a bold career reinvention, making the pop/R&B juggernaut sound fresh in a hip-hop-centric world. But ”Whatchulookinat,” a bitter first taste from her forthcoming follow-up, is a stumble in the wrong direction. The dated, funkless groove isn’t worthy of a second-stringer like Deborah Cox. And the paranoid, Jacko-like lyrics about press persecution highlight her recent troubles, which she should be helping us to forget.

Grade: F