CELINE DION – Loved Me Back To Life – CD review

CELINE DION
Loved Me Back To Life
Sony

Well, after a very poor display on the X-Factor (saved only by the car crash that was Robbie Williams), I was concerned about this album. After all, this is the greatest female singer of my lifetime, and all I could hear was an array of “effects”. Which is not what you want from a Celine Dion album. Now, I know that people don’t sing anymore, but when you have someone who can sing, why would you do that?

And my fears were justified. The first half of this album is very poor indeed. Evenmore “effects”, a plethora of Rihanna vocal trills and a serious lack of good songwriting. It made me very sad indeed. The title track and lead single ‘Loved Me Back To Life’ tries to be dramatic and fails. ‘Somebody Loves Somebody’ is just rubbish, as you would expect from someone whose biggest credit seems to be a Susan Boyle album track.

The duet with Ne-Yo, ‘Incredible’, is even duller. Things are almost saved with ‘Water And A Flame’, which is a cover of a Daniel Merriweather song. It’s the first time they leave the voice untouched and it’s all the better for it. Finally things kick into place with ‘Breakaway’ which is almost untouched by computer. I wasn’t fussy for the Stevie Wonder duet. I didn’t think it was a special song first time around, and nothing here changes my mind.

‘Thank You’ and ‘Thankful’ are ballads by numbers, but at least you can hear Celine Dion sing. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed ‘At Seventeen’. Another song I wasn’t fussy for first time around, but you can tell that’s one that means a lot to Celine, and she sings here heart out on it. Things end with ‘Always Be Your Girl’, a song written for and about Celine, and ‘Unfinished Songs’, a ballad from Diane Warren that won’t be one that’s remembered.

So. Half a good album. Which, when we’ve waited this long is a real shame. There was no need to try and make Celine “current”, and whoever decided that the Dion voice needed “treatment” should be beaten within an inch of their life, and never allowed near her again. For shame.

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