Well I had a listen last night when my digital album became available and then have been listening a little today also. On the whole I really like the album. Stand out tracks for me are The Hard Way which just reminds me of my cousin who'd been ill. The entire way through her treatments we joked that she couldn't do anything the easy way. And that song is just bang on her whole story. I sent it to her this morning and she cried!
Other favourites are The Chase which has a strange vibe about it. It makes me nostalgic but I haven't really worked out what for. I think it reminds me of the early/mid 90s or even late '80s. Sunny days and hearing a song that stuck in your head but you didn't know who it was and you had no internet to look it up so you just were happy when you did catch a bit of it on the radio... That's a strange thing to be nostalgic for but there you are. For The Lover That I Lost is lovely, looking back on relationship with hindsight and seeing that even the bad times were good.
How Did You Get Here almost sounds like it could have been on Falling Into You. It's very Phil Spector. It's very '90s does '60s and if Celine's vocal delivery was crisper and more polished and less relaxed as she is now it would be a Falling Into You song. It would fit right in with Dreaming Of You and I Love You from that album. It also sounds very Christmasy but that's no doubt the Spector vibe. Sigh.... Those Spector tracks will never see the light of day.
Perfect Goodbye is a gorgeous sad song about the end of a relationship but it's also dark. It's like pretending everything is ok that last night when you know in the morning that you'll never see that person again. I was talking to a my cousin about the album today and she also mentioned the dark vibe. She said she got a Nick Cave murder ballad vibe from it, which is funny as it reminded me of Kylie's Bitter Sweet Goodbye as far as lyrics go. And Celine Dion says"Shit" in this one. It's a gorgeous song, and very dreamy/ unreal due to the way the piano is produced/echoed.
Heart Of Glass is also pretty good. It sounds like a Ryan Tedder/Leona Lewis song, like it came from Leona's Glass Heart album. Which is funny considering the title. It's a good song though. Actually it's a pretty amazing pop song. It's on now and I also get a strange Annie Lennox Diva thing from it.
Ironically, Best Of All isn't even the best of the album. It's my least favourite song on the album. I think I will put Ashes in it's place.
Strangely the song Play Me Like A Love Song isn't on the album. I thought that was the best Celine song I had heard in a long time when I heard that little clip a few months back. Not happy that it's not on the album.
I think this album is actually missing that full on Celine Diva moment. There's no I Surrender, or Break Away or Think Twice or All Coming Back To Me Now or... There's not that big power ballad standard song. I don't think there is that instant one on this album. Although that song may be Lying Down, I'm not sure.
I don't have the physical CD yet so I cant tell who wrote or produced what. Online when you look up the track listing for Courage it says 21 songs, the last being called Soul. I don't have that song?
Something I have to note is that I really miss how Celine's vocal used to be produced back in the '90s and '00s. After Taking Chances it seems that the producers relaxed in their approach. Sometimes Celine's pronunciation is very difficult to understand. I know this is likely more how she speaks naturally but when she was introduced to the English speaking audience her pronunciation on songs was crystal clear. This somehow made her voice sound brighter and her vocals crisper. Every inflection was heard. I think a lot of this was David Foster and Humberto Gatica. In the albums that came after Taking Chances I think a lot of the vocal production sounds awful. Like they don't know how to capture her voice to it's full advantage. Sometimes lines in a song are very difficult to understand and you have to read the lyrics to make it out.