Can Whitney Houston make a comeback?

Whitney Houston hasn’t released any new material in five years, said Nick Levine in the blog Digital Spy, so it’s “a bit of an event” that the first single from “the comeback album she’s prepping for November” was leaked online over the weekend. But unfortunately, “Like I Never Left” isn’t “a blistering statement of intent that proves The Voice never left her,” and it doesn’t make us forget about her past drug problems. Instead, it’s just a “bland, mid-tempo duet with Akon.”

Houston is a “legendary songbird,” said Marc Malkin in E! Online, and the lyrics of her new track “couldn’t be more perfect for her return to recording. In one verse from the three-minute, 39-second cut, Houston coos, ‘Yes, your girl is coming back.’” We can’t wait for her new album. “Welcome back, Whitney! And please stay this time.”

There is “lots of excitement” about Houston’s new single, said Roger Friedman in FoxNews.com’s 411 blog. Let’s just hope that her new album actually comes out. “Sources tell me she’s only completed a few tracks and it’s not nearly ready,” and that the single was released to “encourage Whitney to finish her album already.”

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Don’t worry, said the blog Right Music, Houston has “finally landed on her feet.” She “scored herself “a $100 million dollar record deal” with Arista Records, and now that Bobby Brown is out of her life, she’s managed to “kick her drug habit” and eating disorder. The “Queen of the Night” is back.