Bulking Done Right? The Double-sided Disc Of Celine Dion's "The Collection" Still Isn't Worth It.
Written: Aug 31 '09
Product Rating:
Pros: Disc saves space, "Let's Talk About Love"
Cons: "Falling Into You."
The Bottom Line: For real fans of Celine Dion only, "The Collection" puts two popular Celine Dion albums on a single double-sided c.d. and adds to the value of the package.
wlswarts's Full Review: The Collection: Let's Talk About Love/Falling Into...
My partner says that I kvetch way too much about the environment and the economy. What can I say? I have limited space and limited money! When it comes to compact discs, I have very limited shelf space and as a result, my local library is one of my best resources and when it comes to compilations of albums, I do look for ones that save space on the shelf, especially of older albums. So when Celine Dion released "The Collection," a bulk pack of two of her bestselling albums, I was skeptical. But then, I became just impressed enough to buy it for my partner, who is a fan of Celine Dion. The reason I ended up impressed is that "The Collection" does what none of the other Celine Dion two-packs do: it actually saves space.
"The Collection" is a one-disc version of two of Celine Dion's sizable and popular albums, "Falling Into You" and "Let's Talk About Love." The two albums are pressed onto a single double-sided compact disc and as a result, one can save shelf space on the two albums because the c.d. case is only one-album thick! This is exactly the right way to repackage multiple albums and save the environment and shelf space, so Celine Dion gets some points from me for that, which makes for a nice way to end my August Artist Of The Month's tenure!
This is a simple compilation of:
"Falling Into You" - http://www.epinions.com/content_475613531780 and
"Let's Talk About Love" - http://www.epinions.com/content_482167983748 without any additional programming benefits (no additional tracks) or incentives to buy. However, because the two albums are pressed into a single dual-sided disc, the packaging is only one c.d. case thick, which may save space on one's shelf!
With fourteen songs clocking out at 67:02, "Falling Into You" is anything but an exemplary display of the talents of singer Celine Dion. Dion, unlike Shania Twain who holds the record for most albums sold above this one, does not so much as co-write a single song. Dion shows up and sings. She sings the works of Aldo Nova, Andy Marvel, and Diane Warren. Almost every track is written by a different person or writing team and the album is similarly fractured in its production. Virtually every track has a different producer and it is amazing that the album sounds so blandly homogenized as a result (there are literally fifteen producers for the album, none of whom are Dion). Celine Dion does not perform a single instrument on the album, either. Instead, she just shows up and performs the lines that are put before her.
Herein lies the problem with "Falling Into You;" all of the songs that are put before Dion on the album, outside "River Deep, Mountain High" call upon Celine Dion to perform in almost the same way. Dion presents with a quiet, earnest voice that becomes more forceful and forthright as she sings longer, with obvious crescendos and a generally wispy quality that is alternated with a strangely subdued ballsy sound. So, for example, when it does not sound like Celine Dion is being stretched on a rack to elongate the notes of "It's All Coming Back To Me Now," she sounds demure and the instrumentals are produced to sound big, epic and powerful above her voice. The result is an odd combination of her trying to sound assertive with her vocals but being sublimated to the pounding strings and percussion, so she sounds unsuccessful.
She is successful with articulating on "River Deep, Mountain High." On that, she sounds appropriately in charge of the music, but there's no soul, no spark to her voice there. She has the appropriate volume and there seems to be the emotional intent in her voice, but the chutzpah, for lack of a better word, is just not there.
On the rest of the album, Dion sings so she can be heard, but she is produced on par with her instrumental accompaniment. Generally, the songs have her performing in her pleasant soprano voice with the lines clearly sung. The reason "Because You Loved Me" is so memorable is because the poetry is so directly and beautifully sung, just as "All By Myself" is so wrenching for the emotionalism Dion is able to express. She has an inarguably beautiful voice.
Lyrically, though, "Falling Into You" is hardly a masterpiece either of complexity or great diction. It does not matter how clearly Dion is able to sing lines like "The winds of the heart can blow me down / But I get right up and I stand my ground / I've tasted fear, my share of pain / The wasted tears of love in vain / I've held you tight, pushed you away / Now with all my might I beg you to stay" ("I Don't Know"), the poetry is unimpressive. Given the preoccupation with relationship songs, "Falling Into You" is surprising for the lack of emotional depth evoked by the lyrics.
"Falling Into You" is largely a quiet album when the orchestra is not being overbearing and herein lays the final problem with the album. Outside three or four of the songs, the musical accompaniment - large string sections, mellow percussion - begins to blend together such that the last half of the album has no distinct sound to it. The album is good for quiet, romantic nights or music to paint by for moody artists needing musical accompaniment to drown out the world, but it's a lot more average than it is extraordinary.
With fifteen songs clocking out at 71:08, "Let's Talk About Love" is another work where Celine Dion is the principle performer, but has minimal creative influence over the album. To her credit, on "Treat Her Like A Lady" Dion is one of four co-writers (but considering how lousy the track is, this might not be the ideal selling point for Celine Dion). Outside the lone co-writing credit, Dion did not write any of the music. She plays no instruments and while there are ten different producers for the album, Celine Dion is not one of them. Instead, Dion sings the works of other artists and on "Let's Talk About Love" she actually has recognizable songs from other contemporary artists, like the Bee Gees, who provide "Immortality."
That said, "Let's Talk About Love" is generally a good light pop album wherein Celine Dion sings about love and relationships. She has a soprano voice that is easily recognizable for anyone who lived through the late 1990s for songs like "My Heart Will Go On." It seems appropriate that in reviewing one of her other albums, I noted she was like Barbra Streisand and here she performs a duet with Streisand. The songs are mildly romantic songs appropriate for all ages and the album is fairly cohesive, if somewhat monotonous for those of us listening to a lot of Celine Dion's music this month.
The album has two major divergences in terms of its sound. While most of the tracks have a soft, ballad sound similar to the sound of "Immortality" and "To Love You More," the production and beats of "Treat Her Like A Lady" and "Love Is On The Way" are remarkably different. While thematically, they maintain the lyrical consistency about love, romance and having decent communications in relationships, stylistically, they sound different. "Love Is On The Way" returns Celine Dion to her Gospel roots. "Treat Her Like A Lady" attempts to move Celine Dion into a more hip-hop context. With a pounding bassline, the song attempts to give Celine Dion street cred with its lines like "She stopped going to church, she don't wanna go to school / She left with anger when he took her for a fool / Even though her friends tell her to just keep cool / Didn't tell her from the start just what he had planned / Right in her face with another woman / Now she's in jail for attacking her man" ("Treat Her Like A Lady"). This unfortunate set of terribly rhymes is mirrored only by how lousy Dion's vocals are as she tries to lend force to the words and come across as tough.
The rest of the album at least has Celine Dion presenting her songs as if she were exactly what she is, a dainty diva with a great voice. "Where Is The Love" has Dion singing slowly and sweetly at the top of her range and at the top of her game. Accompanied only by keyboards and faint drums, the song is a surprise great from the album which is otherwise populated by familiar covers or songs Dion made hits. The song is a classic love song in the way it sounds and feels and Dion's vocals help make it resonate with actual passion.
In fact, "Let's Talk About Love," outside the two divergences, sounds like a classic album of love songs and it works for that. This album easily establishes her future stage performances as one woman with minimal musical accompaniment crooning to gushing audiences. In fact, "When I Need You" is exactly the type of track one would expect to hear from a Las Vegas crooner. This is not to say that Celine Dion isn't good, but it is to acknowledge that Celine Dion is hardly an original.
If "Let's Talk About Love" had been Celine Dion's first album or even her first American English album, it would have resonated better. However, even paired with "Falling Into You," it is hard to listen to and feel anything other than a strange indifference to. She might have great vocal range, but her lyrics are almost all about love in the same mushy, teen gloss-eyed way and for those of us looking for something with real depth, even "Let's Talk About Love" doesn't have it. That said, it is an improvement in terms of prioritizing her voice and message and because the disc pairs the albums on a single disc that one only needs to flip over to get the other album with, that makes it enough to recommend.
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![The Collection: Let's Talk About Love/Falling Into You [Box] by Celine Dion](http://di2.shopping.com/images1/pi/c0/2a/38/2049143812-177x150-0-0.jpg)
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