Title: Taking Chances
Genre: Pop/Rock
Label: Columbia
Release Date: November 13, 2007
When the US got its first taste of Celine Dion in 1990 with the release of her first English-language album, Unison, and it's lone top 5 Billboard hit, "Where Does My Heart Beat Now," Celine had already been a Francophone recording star in her native country of Canada for nearly a decade. Seventeen years later, Celine Dion is one of the world's most successful singers. She is reported to have sold an incredible 185 million albums worldwide - more than any other female artist - and is the singer of one of the biggest radio hits ever, "My Heart Will Go On," from the blockbuster film Titanic, as well as the winner of five Grammy Awards, including Album Of The Year for her 1996 blockbuster, Falling Into You.
Celine Dion released her last pop album in 2003. The album, titled One Heart, debuted at #2 on the Billboard Albums Charts, and eventually sold 6.5 million worldwide. Just the year before, A New Day Has Come, her first album since taking her "break" from music, had debuted at #1 on the same chart with 558,000 copies sold - her biggest first week sales to date - and sold around 12 million copies worldwide. In 2004, Celine released Miracle, a collaboration with photographer Anne Geddes which celebrates motherhood. And she's also released two Francophone studio albums and On Ne Change Pas, a best-of compilation of her Francophone recordings, including several pre-Sony tracks previously unavailable in any official Celine Dion international release.
Now, with the closing of her wildy successful Las Vegas show, A New Day, Celine Dion has released her 13th English language album, Taking Chances. The album debuted at #3 with 214,556 copies sold, which is fairly good in 2007 numbers for an album without a hit single, but a bit disappointing considering this is Celine Dion.
First week sales aside, time will tell how well this album does. But enough of that. What do I think of this album?
Frankly, I'm a huge Celine Dion fan. I love her beyond the point of sanity. But I don't blindly love everything she does. In fact, Taking Chances is the first Celine CD I've bought since A New Day Has Come over five and a half years ago. That was the last one I wanted to buy. I liked a few songs from One Heart and I enjoyed her Francophone releases. (I do, however, pretend Miracle doesn't exist, but that's neither here nor there.)
To me, the title sums up what this album is about - taking chances. Now I don't even pretend that this is a complete 180 from all the generic Adult Contemporary dreck she's been churning out since 1990. But it's definitely got some freshness to it that, frankly, Celine hasn't had in her music in a long time. Well, freshness for HER. Honestly, this album would be more contemporary in 2004 or 2005 than it is now, but it's not TOO stale yet.
For the first time in a long time, if ever, Celine is bringing to her English-language recordings some of her rock-flavored pop sensibilities that have been a part of her Francophone recordings since her multi-million selling 1995 album D'eux, known in the US as The French Album. True, it's still very pop. Celine will never do real rock and roll. She knows enough to not completely abandon her fanbase. But it's just enough of a twist, and, to even MY surprise, she's very convincing at it. From the opening title track to her cover of the Heart mega-hit "Alone," (Which I think is amazing in its new arrangement with the strings and music box intro, but I must say, even Celine can't sing this song as brilliantly as Ann Wilson.) to the funky bluesy-rocky feel of "Can't Fight The Feelin'," to "Fade Away" which sounds like it would have been at home on Kelly Clarkson's megahit Grammy-winning Breakaway album, the new "let's add some guitars" sound, which could have turned out so laughably bad and contrived, actually succeeds.
In addition, there's a couple of great danceable pop songs on here, which a lot of people might be shocked to find out she's done before. And quite a few of them, at that. (See "Misled," "Love Can Move Mountains," most of Unison, "Sorry For Love," "That's The Way It Is," etc.) However, this album's two major dance pop outings, the Shakira-channeling "Eyes On Me," co-written by Australian megastar Delta Goodrem, and the Euro-dance flavored "Shadow Of Love," are among the best of her career.
Don't think Celine's given up her trademark ballads. "A Song For You" is a gorgeous piano-heavy ballad featuring a gorgeously restrained vocal performance. The two tracks written and produced by Linda Perry, the soft-rock "My Love" and gospel-flavored "New Dawn," blend new and classic Celine effortlessly. The album's closing track, "Skies Of L.A.," written by Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, The-Dream and Thaddis Harrell, and produced by "Tricky" and Kuk Harrell, (Tricky and The-Dream were responsible for, among others, the Rihanna hit "Umbrella.") is a gorgeous dream-like piano-heavy track.
The album isn't a complete success, however. Despite the fact that the song "I Got Nothin' Left" is a very VERY good song, her extremely nasal vocal performance on the song almost makes it unlistenable. And not even the great bluesy production and great lyrics of "That's Just The Woman In Me" can make up for Celine's horrific attempt at channeling Janis Joplin. And to be honest, "Right Next To The Right One" does so little for me, but I don't hate it, so it could grow on me.
Finally, the title of the song "Surprise Surprise" really does say it all - it's the surprise of the album for me. When I first saw that track title, I admit. I laughed and expected it to be complete crap. But when the album leaked and I heard it, I was amazed at how much I liked it. And so far, Surprise Surprise and Fade Away, which is my favorite song on the album, seem to be the big fan favorites, and even seem to be favorites of people who aren't even big Celine fans.
To sum this way too long review up, Celine really has taken some chances with this album. If I'm honest, it's not THAT far removed from everything else she's done, and that's ok. Download "Treat Her Like A Lady" or look it up on YouTube for a prime example of what can happen when Celine tries to veer too far from what has worked for her in the past. But it's enough of a change that it doesn't feel like I've heard this album over and over already. I give Taking Chances 9 stars out of 10. Even if it flops quicker than Kelly Clarkson's latest effort, (Which sold a disappointing 698,000 copies in the US and fell off the charts after only 18 weeks. Sad, I love that album too.) I don't care. I think it's the best material Celine has recorded in years, and I'm just hoping the rest of the world realizes this too.
More images from the album. Click the small thumbnails for a larger view:
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