"Courage" album - Official Topic

[LukeD]

I am amazed at some of us - the fans - capacity to *CENSORED* and moan and whine and be unpleased and unsatisfied and disappointed and on an on about dead albums, chart drops, perceived bad setlists, perceived bad promotion...

 

You take to a whole new level, and I wonder if this is really about Celine, or is it just a narcissistic notion "I want whom I am a fan of to be loved by all". Because I do not think this remarkable bitterness is all about Celine.

I kindly disagree with the use of the word perceived. I agree these things are up to opinion, but the vast majority of members agree that the current set-list is pretty bad. Objectively, it fails to represent the album. I agree about the statement regarding the narcissistic notion. Personally, I want Celine to promote the album and take songs from it on stage, because I am feeling that she is treating the album in a way that does not allow me to experience it in a collective manner. Listening to her new songs is very much a private ritual. And I am also afraid that neglecting her new album, will lead to poor commercial reception, which will lead to Celine abstaining from recording music for a considerable amount of time.

I have tried and tried with the album. I find it so dull. I skip most songs.

You said this just about 4 times in a single page.

Could you please elaborate on this? What is the hit-material you are thinking about? Do you mean Hello by Adele is better song than Courage for instance? Or than Imperfections, Perfect Goodbye or Boundaries are worst songs than Lose You to Love Me by Selena? Many of the songs in Courage would be hits if sang by a current young artist, I have no doubt about it (and many of the critics actually stated this). Did you watch AMAs on Sunday? If you tell me that those current "hits" by the younger artists are better than many of the songs in Courage then I must have a very different taste or maybe I'm too old, but what I saw on Sunday was pure crap (apart from Dua Lipa and a couple more).

PREACH!

I personally don't think that this album contains any fillers at all. This is the very first Celine album that I could listen to from beginning to end without skipping a song.

I agree. The album is very strong. Every song has a purpose.

ANDHC is the definition of an album with a few hit potential and great songs with the rest being fillers. No matter what she does at this point, no hit potential songs will become a hit because she's 51. Courage is an amazing, a lot better than some of her previous albums, even some from the 90's. LTAL is actually FILLED with fillers, just look at the streams of the album tracks compared to MHWGO.

Her 90s albums had so many fillers. ANDHC too. I mean Rain-Tax is #4 in this album.

The album has flopped. It's dull and boring with poor tone. I've removed it from my car. First celine album I've done it with. It's just not a patch on others. Sorry it isn't. Six years for that ?! And now a world tour which is Vegas on wheels x

Your car is not that important. What you do with it is not that important either. Sorry if I shocked you. Edited November 28, 2019 at 06:44 PM by LukeD

[tomier]

#37 I think...not 100% sure though...

I had to check my memory before replying to this lol, because I had thought it was at a similar position in the start. In the "imperfections" topic page 2 Fanxiaogiang posted the song at 28 in the US and that was kind of in line with what I was thinking. So it's matched (so far) it's peak from the original release. Edited November 28, 2019 at 06:23 PM by tomier

[marc-02]

Imperfections up to #27 on iTunes USA

[scielle]

Imperfections up to #27 on iTunes USA

 

That's great, but let's not forget the download market has cratered so badly (it's now about 5% of the industry), that it doesn't take much at all to be #1 on iTunes.

 

For example, current #1 album is Frozen, and its total digital album sales last week (from all digital platforms, so incl, Amazon, Google Play, etc.), were just 9.3k (and probably less this week since it's 1 week post release).

 

So Courage being at #16 on iTunes and Imperfections on #27, while a really nice jump, isn't likely to have a very significant chart impact because the absolute sales numbers are small.

[scielle]

And to add to the above, albums that are currently in the #10-15 spots on the iTunes albums chart have been selling about 250 copies / day on iTunes this week to get to those spots, and another 5-10 copies / day on each of Google Play and Amazon (digital download, not physical).

 

So a #16 on iTunes might get her something like an extra 200-300 digital copies today. Hardly moves the needle.

[ryba]

 

 

ANDHC is the definition of an album with a few hit potential and great songs with the rest being fillers. No matter what she does at this point, no hit potential songs will become a hit because she's 51. Courage is an amazing, a lot better than some of her previous albums, even some from the 90's. LTAL is actually FILLED with fillers, just look at the streams of the album tracks compared to MHWGO.

 

And also, since you can't be satisfied with "it is #4 in the dance charts of Congo", perhaps you should stop ignoring the fact that she just achieved her 5th number one album on the BILLBOARD TOP 200.

I agree about LTAL. It is indeed filled with fillers. When it comes to ANDHC the only fillers for me are At last (boring and unnecessary) and Nature Boy (although her cristal clear voice and the piano are magical) Edited November 28, 2019 at 07:54 PM by ryba

[scielle]

I agree about LTAL. It is indeed filled with fillers. When it comes to ANDHC the only fillers for me are At last (boring and unnecessary) and Nature Boy (although her cristal clear voice and the piano are magical)

 

Haha, LTAL is virtually all filler to my ears, with few exceptions. I have to skip through probably 90% of that album.

But on ANDHC Nature Boy and At Last are THE best songs, the absolute highlights of that album. Nature Boy, especially, definitely in my Celine top 10 (maybe even 5) as far as her English songs go.

[ryba]

 

 

Haha, LTAL is virtually all filler to my ears, with few exceptions. I have to skip through probably 90% of that album.

But on ANDHC Nature Boy and At Last are THE best songs, the absolute highlights of that album. Nature Boy, especially, definitely in my Celine top 10 (maybe even 5) as far as her English songs go.

really? My all time favourite song of her is I’m Alive Edited November 28, 2019 at 08:02 PM by ryba

[Céline RO]

1574970843[/url]' post='2371195']

I agree about LTAL. It is indeed filled with fillers. When it comes to ANDHC the only fillers for me are At last (boring and unnecessary) and Nature Boy (although her cristal clear voice and the piano are magical)

 

I actually love most songs on LTAL (including THLAL). The only songs I would skip are “Where is the Love” and the duet with Pavarotti (and maybe MHWGO as well). Also, for me “At Last” and “Nature Boy” are some of the best songs on ANDHC. The songs I don’t like in that album are “Rain, Tax” and “Super Love”.

Edited November 28, 2019 at 08:12 PM by Céline RO

[scielle]

really? My all time favourite song of her is I'm Alive

 

Yes, really.

And I'm Alive is definitely in my bottom 5. Or maybe bottom 10, if I'm being generous.

 

So there ya go.

[Céline RO]

1574971357[/url]' post='2371199']

really? My all time favourite song of her is I'm Alive

 

My all time favorite is “Pour que tu m’aimes encore”. It’s the song that made me a Céline fan after hearing it on the radio and its lyrics are so magical. I mean she literally sings “je te jetterai des sorts”

 

I also love the way she performed this song back in 1995. It seemed like she was in total control of the song. Nowadays, unfortunately, she ruined it by not sticking to the beautiful melody by JJG.

[scielle]

My all time favorite is “Pour que tu m’aimes encore”. It’s the song that made me a Céline fan after hearing it on the radio and its lyrics are so magical. I mean she literally sings “je te jetterai des sorts”

 

I also love the way she performed this song back in 1995. It seemed like she was in total control of the song. Nowadays, unfortunately, she ruined it by not sticking to the beautiful melody by JJG.

 

Well, we were talking about English songs. The French is a whole other matter. I don't think any of her English songs make it into my top 10; all of that is French.

 

But anyway, this is the Courage thread. Which, as I've written in my prior (far too extensive!) reviews (here and here), is IMHO her strongest English work to date.

So let's not make this about LTAL or ANDHC.

Edited November 28, 2019 at 08:24 PM by scielle

[mirage]

And still it doesn't surprise me at all that they went completely silent.

 

It’s so weird- the momentum they were building and then its finally released and silence. It’s just weird. And such a shame for the album.

[Your_Su_Phu]

 

 

Haha, LTAL is virtually all filler to my ears, with few exceptions. I have to skip through probably 90% of that album.

But on ANDHC Nature Boy and At Last are THE best songs, the absolute highlights of that album. Nature Boy, especially, definitely in my Celine top 10 (maybe even 5) as far as her English songs go.

 

 

Those two songs are timeless standards but sadly, to me, her interpretations of them are a bit banal/forgettable

 

[smw]

Her interpretation of Nature Boy is sublime.

[Loup_garou]

Those two songs are timeless standards but sadly, to me, her interpretations of them are a bit banal/forgettable

 

Absolutely agree, everyone has different tastes on this things, for example ANDHC to me is her most incoherent album to date, full of badly produced midtempos, bland covers, and unnecessary translations of amazing songs and the cringeworthy GTSW. At Last and Nature boy are some of my favorite songs ever by Etta James and Ella Fitzgerald feat. Joe Pass respectively, but the production value on the album is just as bland as what they did with TSMGO (we're lucky we got the Calandrelli version afterwards). I only keep ANDHC and IS from that album ... and IA but only the Wake Up Mix with the Blondie Sample.

 

On the other hand I looooove LTAL

[LukeD]

LTAL is not receiving the love it deserves...

 

The Reason, Immortality, Love Is On The Way, When I Need You, Us, My Heart Will Go On, Where Is The Love, Be The Man, Let's Talk About Love...

 

Love all these songs. My connection to Celine would not be the same without these larger-than-life, cinematic ballads...

 

I just think its filler songs like THLAL, Amar Haciendo El Amor, JALBOL, IHYTILY did not blend well with the above songs. Hence, it is not a cohesive album.

Edited November 28, 2019 at 09:43 PM by LukeD

[LukeD]

Back to the album, I think Courage is her most cohesive work to date. Very modern with exemplary production. Also, her strongest English album in terms of lyrical content. Vocals and enunciation could improve. It is probably the one thing that albums like ANDHC for instance - which has been mentioned A LOT - definitely have above Courage. Celine should always be aiming for more polished vocals. It is her bread and butter. Which is why I place Boundaries among her most beautiful songs. That head voice... Edited November 28, 2019 at 09:48 PM by LukeD

[Bruno Portugal]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courage_(Celine_Dion_album)

 

Can anyone here edit the album page on Wikipedia?

 

These charts are missing:

#1 Taiwan

#1 World

 

[IL_DINO]

Missing: Celine Dion. Where she is? I hope everything is OK. I hope nothing bad happened.

[scielle]

Missing: Celine Dion. Where she is? I hope everything is OK. I hope nothing bad happened.

 

Where she is? Spending time with her children over the holidays. As she should be.

[yoyoma]

 

 

Where she is? Spending time with her children over the holidays. As she should be.

Then why they schedule to release album during her off peak time

[scielle]

Then why they schedule to release album during her off peak time

 

You expect her to work on the biggest family holiday in America? Like, bigger than Christmas? After she hasn't seen her kids for weeks?

If you've never lived in the US, I don't think you can appreciate how big of a deal Thanksgiving is.

[yoyoma]

 

 

You expect her to work on the biggest family holiday in America? Like, bigger than Christmas? After she hasn't seen her kids for weeks?

If you've never lived in the US, I don't think you can appreciate how big of a deal Thanksgiving is.

Sigh, you don't get my point. Why they didn't release it in summer or august this year before the tour started. Now they released in mid nov and celine wont be free for promo etc.

[yoyoma]

 

Sigh, you don't get my point. Why they didn't release it in summer or august this year before the tour started. Now they released in mid nov and celine wont be free for promo etc.

 

Also Canadian thanksgiving was like a month ago. I am sure Celine follows Canadian practice

[scielle]

Sigh, you don't get my point. Why they didn't release it in summer or august this year before the tour started. Now they released in mid nov and celine wont be free for promo etc.

Also Canadian thanksgiving was like a month ago. I am sure Celine follows Canadian practice

 

Canadian Thanksgiving is nowhere near as big a deal as American Thanksgiving.

 

And Nov / Dec are the biggest retail months of the year. And, as has been clearly established, Celine needs physical sales to make any kind of dent in the charts since she's absolutely nowhere on the streaming map. So the choice of Nov should be quite obvious, I would think.

Edited November 28, 2019 at 10:53 PM by scielle

[yoyoma]

 

 

 

Canadian Thanksgiving is nowhere near as big a deal as American Thanksgiving.

 

And Nov / Dec are the biggest retail months of the year. And, as has been clearly established, Celine needs physical sales to make any kind of dent in the charts since she's absolutely nowhere on the streaming map. So the choice of Nov should be quite obvious, I would think.

 

We all know her first week sales are due to ticket bundle. Now with 2nd week, she can't even sell 5k of physical copies. How is that a great strategy. She has lost lots of fanbase since loved me back to life.

[joaofilho]

I think this fall is due to the lack of disclosure of the album, she disappeared from the media, only today she sang a song.

I think in 3 weeks the album goes back to the top 40.

[AdrienneM]

 

 

We all know her first week sales are due to ticket bundle. Now with 2nd week, she can't even sell 5k of physical copies. How is that a great strategy. She has lost lots of fanbase since loved me back to life.

 

LMBTL she did Infinitely more promo and back then it was the *height* of digital sales, both heavily contribute

[LukeD]

I actually think Courage barely has any fillers. Every song serves a purpose and has a different story to say.

 

Current Top 5 Songs:

 

01.Change My Mind

 

02.Perfect Goodbye

 

03.Imperfections

 

04.Boundaries

 

05.Heart Of Glass

Edited November 29, 2019 at 12:43 AM by LukeD