1st scathing review of tour

[Your_Su_Phu]

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertai...don-824250.html

 

Many singers perform in their second language and manage to sound convincing. Despite selling a reported 200 million albums – including 27 million copies of that Titanic soundtrack – Céline Dion is not one of them. Time and again, during a 105 minute-long set, the Canadian superstar warbles, mangles English syllables until they're unrecognisable and inserts unnatural pauses into lyrics like "I hold... on... to your body" in "The Power of Love".

 

Considering that most of her show consists of love songs, this is rather a drawback. In fact, as an interpreter, Dion only truly inhabits Jean-Jacques Goldman's "Pour Que Tu M'Aimes Encore", her French signature song, and "My Love", a Linda Perry bespoke number from Taking Chances, her misnomer of a current album, which has underperformed despite the involvement of dozens of writers and producers.

 

She opens with "I Drove All Night", the yearning Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly composition that served Roy Orbison and Cyndi Lauper so well, and which was Dion's last UK hit in 2003. She's only revving up but, even if her 10-piece band, heavy on the cheesy synths, are never quite loud enough, Dion is soon at full throttle and making light work of power ballads "It's All Coming Back To Me Now" – from the Jim Steinman/Meat Loaf canon – and Heart's "Alone". It's like Magic or Heart FM in front of your very eyes.

 

"It's been way too long," Dion apologises to her British fans as if to make up for the fact that she chose to play a record-breaking Las Vegas residency for five years instead of touring the world. Of course, the O2 has become an offshoot of Vegas, hosting Elton John's Red Piano show last year and now this soulless production.

 

The drummer must have played "All By Myself", Eric Carmen's guilty pleasure Seventies song, hundreds of times but still manages to sound leaden. Despite raising her eyebrows, at no point does Dion invest the song with any feeling. Undaunted, she collapses at the end and celebrates her vocal callisthenics as if she'd scored a touchdown.

 

The conveyor belts on which she slides and glides become metaphors for the whole shebang, which also features an ill-advised soul medley and ends rather flatly with "Love Can Move Mountains". Inevitably, the beached finale on the bank of the Thames is "My Heart Will Go On". Start swimming!

 

Céline Dion plays the NIA, Birmingham, tomorrow (see www.celinedion.com)

 

pisses me off but hey, you can't please everyone

Edited May 9, 2008 at 06:40 PM by Your_Su_Phu

[CelineAndRene]

"pisses me off but hey, you can't please everyone"

 

~ Agreed.

[Your_Su_Phu]

what gets me is that it's obvious he hates celine to begin with. and the comment about her "underperforming" album..

[Shesings2me]

Everyone's entitled to an opinion, but we have good taste and obviously this person does not!!!!!

[fred]

Even though the review is very critical I do agree on more than one point.

 

Considering that most of her show consists of love songs, this is rather a drawback. In fact, as an interpreter, Dion only truly inhabits Jean-Jacques Goldman's "Pour Que Tu M'Aimes Encore", her French signature song, and "My Love", a Linda Perry bespoke number from Taking Chances, her misnomer of a current album, which has underperformed despite the involvement of dozens of writers and producers.

Indeed it is obvious that the soul only kicks in on My Love and according to me Think Twice, and Alone. This booring setlist seems to be booring to perform aswell.

 

She opens with "I Drove All Night", the yearning Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly composition that served Roy Orbison and Cyndi Lauper so well, and which was Dion's last UK hit in 2003. She's only revving up but, even if her 10-piece band, heavy on the cheesy synths, are never quite loud enough, Dion is soon at full throttle and making light work of power ballads "It's All Coming Back To Me Now" – from the Jim Steinman/Meat Loaf canon – and Heart's "Alone". It's like Magic or Heart FM in front of your very eyes.

Couldn't be more true, there's something that's not quite too satisfying with this cheesy synth abuse overdose. And the orcastrations have prooved to manage to ruin several songs - best example Shadow Of Love.

 

The conveyor belts on which she slides and glides become metaphors for the whole shebang, which also features an ill-advised soul medley and ends rather flatly with "Love Can Move Mountains". Inevitably, the beached finale on the bank of the Thames is "My Heart Will Go On". Start swimming!

The Barney mimi-concert is just too misfitting.

 

what gets me is that it's obvious he hates celine to begin with. and the comment about her "underperforming" album..

 

I interpreted that as if the reviewer thinks the new album is underrepresentated in the setlist, even though she had so many people working with her on Taking Chances, there's not too many songs from that album in this setlist.

 

/fred

[MrPotato]

I agree with the fact that it was not feasible to get a 'fresh' set with new arrangements (as opposed to the Vegas one, that is) upon such short notice. But God ... the arrangements suck big time ... I totally disagree with the reviewer on the voice though. Céline was, is and always will be an outstanding performer. I simply thought that this 'Taking Chances' adventure was a good time to revamp the sound, generally speaking. Mego did a good job at the time, but now is time for something else, at least I thought ... From what I heard, the voice is there, but all the rest is highly teethgrinding. Being a musician myself, I can't help but disagree with the choice in musical arrangements. If you wanna go for 'All-Live' instrumentation, do it Streisand's way and bring the whole orchestra with you, not just 1 guitar, 1 violin, a few percussions and all of that drowned in a cheap synthetizer dizzy sound abuse. It's not goosebumping at all and really does not back up Céline's voice at all. Otherwise, I really think it's possible to get a fresh sound with some pre-programming and a few live instrumentation for the feel of it (Add a Guitar, piano or violin Solo here and there with good interaction with Céline, but that's it). The 'Taking Chances' orchestration makes Celine sound totally off-keys. If you listen carefully, Céline is right in, it's the arrangement that is not ! I'm really disappointed because it could have been Céline's Glory. Instead, I just get the feel of a Vegas Encore without the extravaganza that made it glow ... In my opinion, they should have taken more time to do some serious re-hearsal and really take advantage of a guy like Jamie King in the boat.

 

Clearly, this reviewer came to see the show only to prove himself right ... force to admit that he is for some points.

 

[fred]

I agree with the fact that it was not feasible to get a 'fresh' set with new arrangements (as opposed to the Vegas one, that is) upon such short notice. But God ... the arrangements suck big time ... I totally disagree with the reviewer on the voice though. Céline was, is and always will be an outstanding performer. I simply thought that this 'Taking Chances' adventure was a good time to revamp the sound, generally speaking. Mego did a good job at the time, but now is time for something else, at least I thought ... From what I heard, the voice is there, but all the rest is highly teethgrinding. Being a musician myself, I can't help but disagree with the choice in musical arrangements. If you wanna go for 'All-Live' instrumentation, do it Streisand's way and bring the whole orchestra with you, not just 1 guitar, 1 violin, a few percussions and all of that drowned in a cheap synthetizer dizzy sound abuse. It's not goosebumping at all and really does not back up Céline's voice at all. Otherwise, I really think it's possible to get a fresh sound with some pre-programming and a few live instrumentation for the feel of it (Add a Guitar, piano or violin Solo here and there with good interaction with Céline, but that's it). The 'Taking Chances' orchestration makes Celine sound totally off-keys. If you listen carefully, Céline is right in, it's the arrangement that is not ! I'm really disappointed because it could have been Céline's Glory. Instead, I just get the feel of a Vegas Encore without the extravaganza that made it glow ... In my opinion, they should have taken more time to do some serious re-hearsal and really take advantage of a guy like Jamie King in the boat.

 

Clearly, this reviewer came to see the show only to prove himself right ... force to admit that he is for some points.

 

Oh My God! Thank you for that spot on post!

 

This has been the case for years actually but it is more than visible now. Thank you for putting in words what I couldn't.

 

/fred

[carthal]

I agree with the fact that it was not feasible to get a 'fresh' set with new arrangements (as opposed to the Vegas one, that is) upon such short notice. But God ... the arrangements suck big time ... I totally disagree with the reviewer on the voice though. Céline was, is and always will be an outstanding performer. I simply thought that this 'Taking Chances' adventure was a good time to revamp the sound, generally speaking. Mego did a good job at the time, but now is time for something else, at least I thought ... From what I heard, the voice is there, but all the rest is highly teethgrinding. Being a musician myself, I can't help but disagree with the choice in musical arrangements. If you wanna go for 'All-Live' instrumentation, do it Streisand's way and bring the whole orchestra with you, not just 1 guitar, 1 violin, a few percussions and all of that drowned in a cheap synthetizer dizzy sound abuse. It's not goosebumping at all and really does not back up Céline's voice at all. Otherwise, I really think it's possible to get a fresh sound with some pre-programming and a few live instrumentation for the feel of it (Add a Guitar, piano or violin Solo here and there with good interaction with Céline, but that's it). The 'Taking Chances' orchestration makes Celine sound totally off-keys. If you listen carefully, Céline is right in, it's the arrangement that is not ! I'm really disappointed because it could have been Céline's Glory. Instead, I just get the feel of a Vegas Encore without the extravaganza that made it glow ... In my opinion, they should have taken more time to do some serious re-hearsal and really take advantage of a guy like Jamie King in the boat.

 

Clearly, this reviewer came to see the show only to prove himself right ... force to admit that he is for some points.

 

 

very well said buddy. i agree with y0u and the critic in some point. thats what we call constructive criticism. i dont know that she has a small set of band considering the large venues and stadiums that she performs on this tour.. tsk tsk tsk...

[J-Man]

what gets me is that it's obvious he hates celine to begin with. and the comment about her "underperforming" album..

 

I interpreted that as if the reviewer thinks the new album is underrepresentated in the setlist, even though she had so many people working with her on Taking Chances, there's not too many songs from that album in this setlist.

 

/fred

 

No, the reviewer is saying that the album itself underperformed (a bit of a flop) despite the collaborators involved.

Haven't seen the show yet, so don't know about the way it sounds. But I'm sure that as soon as I see Celine any objective critiscism will, hopefully, dissapear!

So what if, in the words of Justin Timberlake, "She's bringing cheesy back", that's part of the fun of her in concert.

[marckvls]

F¨%# HIM!!!

Whats this?? He's complaning about everything! Go see someone else then, and shut up