"Play Me Like A Love Song" - Official Topic

[rfkavanagh]

What people always seem to forget is that unreleased songs are not always available for release. There are always business criteria and contractual limitations involved. It doesn't matter if they've been recorded and produced to final stage - since Céline doesn't write her own material, the songwriters/composers/sometimes producers have control. Certainly the more successful writers will have conditions for release - must make a primary album, must be a promoted single, must be the title track, etc. If they're not going to get that from Céline, they'd rather shop those songs to other artists who will give the tracks more attention and potentially lead to greater success.

 

It's not like the '90s when any writer would have killed to get a song on FIY or LTAL because even the most throwaway song would earn a fortune on a 25-30MM-selling album (even with the egregious extra songwriting cuts required by René). Those days are long gone, and just placing a track on a Céline album is no longer the high-profile, high-prestige, money-making endeavor it once was.

 

Now that's not to say that there aren't plenty of opportunities for unreleased material to see the light of day still - lots of writers whose songs have yet to find a new home would likely still be happy to have them released and at least earn a few pennies rather than have them sit there earning nothing. I'm just pointing out that even if Céline recorded 100 songs for Courage, maybe only half of them are still options for release. And even then they'd still have to be cleared legally and contractually, and maybe not all of them worked out as well as they'd hoped, or weren't suited to Céline's image or the album concept, etc. But of course that still leaves lots of other potential options, particularly from such a long career.

 

Releases are still possible, but it takes time and effort and expense - and those are not things Team Céline and Sony are currently interested in investing for what will likely be very little return. They already had underwhelming results the last time they tried a "rarities" kind of compilation, and that was during Céline's heyday (although they also made it a complete mish-mash of a release that didn't seem to know what it wanted to be or be aimed at any specific audience). Sadly, releases like this won't become viable money-makers until they're posthumous.

[ryba]

It's still hard for me to believe that Celine actually recorded 100 songs in the Courage sessions. I think it's more like "Gosh she recorded 100 songs for that album!" in the sense of "man, she recorded quite a lot of songs".

 

If she recorded 100 songs professionally in the studio take after take while doing her summer tours and doing her Vegas shows she would he no voice. I don't believe that. Maybe it was enough songs for 2 albums (so around 40 songs), but certainly not 100.

[rfkavanagh]

100 songs is highly doubtful; much more likely a typical Céline exaggeration/talking point. Otherwise, Courage would have been one of the most expensive albums ever!

[celinesounds]

Don’t forget that she was preparing the album since 2016

 

If I’m not wrong it started with Recovering

[alltheway0384]

no one records 100 songs for a single album, not even Céline, you have to stop dreaming seriously. already when we see the horrible arrangements of most of the courage titles, they surely should have worked more on those already. even on the album version "The chase" she sings the refrains out of tune, whereas on the demo she sings perfectly in tune. same for boundaries.

[idroveallnight]

People can believe what they want to believe but he didn’t mince words with me and I have no reason to lie as a member of this forum for almost 20 years. Initially he said 80 and then he said it was actually close to 100. We got more new songs on Courage than any other album. It was just a fun fact I thought fans would appreciate but as always it’s met with pushback and complaints. Whatever the number actually is there are songs in existence above and beyond what made the final cut. Period.

[CelinesDIVO5]

no one records 100 songs for a single album, not even Céline, you have to stop dreaming seriously. already when we see the horrible arrangements of most of the courage titles, they surely should have worked more on those already. even on the album version "The chase" she sings the refrains out of tune, whereas on the demo she sings perfectly in tune. same for boundaries.

 

So now you’ve heard the demos?

[blueangel92]

What people always seem to forget is that unreleased songs are not always available for release. There are always business criteria and contractual limitations involved. It doesn't matter if they've been recorded and produced to final stage - since Céline doesn't write her own material, the songwriters/composers/sometimes producers have control. Certainly the more successful writers will have conditions for release - must make a primary album, must be a promoted single, must be the title track, etc. If they're not going to get that from Céline, they'd rather shop those songs to other artists who will give the tracks more attention and potentially lead to greater success.

 

It's not like the '90s when any writer would have killed to get a song on FIY or LTAL because even the most throwaway song would earn a fortune on a 25-30MM-selling album (even with the egregious extra songwriting cuts required by René). Those days are long gone, and just placing a track on a Céline album is no longer the high-profile, high-prestige, money-making endeavor it once was.

 

Now that's not to say that there aren't plenty of opportunities for unreleased material to see the light of day still - lots of writers whose songs have yet to find a new home would likely still be happy to have them released and at least earn a few pennies rather than have them sit there earning nothing. I'm just pointing out that even if Céline recorded 100 songs for Courage, maybe only half of them are still options for release. And even then they'd still have to be cleared legally and contractually, and maybe not all of them worked out as well as they'd hoped, or weren't suited to Céline's image or the album concept, etc. But of course that still leaves lots of other potential options, particularly from such a long career.

 

Releases are still possible, but it takes time and effort and expense - and those are not things Team Céline and Sony are currently interested in investing for what will likely be very little return. They already had underwhelming results the last time they tried a "rarities" kind of compilation, and that was during Céline's heyday (although they also made it a complete mish-mash of a release that didn't seem to know what it wanted to be or be aimed at any specific audience). Sadly, releases like this won't become viable money-makers until they're posthumous.

 

such an insightful post. I swallowed ever word. thank you for your wisdom

[ryba]

1694559218[/url]' post='2436752']

People can believe what they want to believe but he didn’t mince words with me and I have no reason to lie as a member of this forum for almost 20 years. Initially he said 80 and then he said it was actually close to 100. We got more new songs on Courage than any other album. It was just a fun fact I thought fans would appreciate but as always it’s met with pushback and complaints. Whatever the number actually is there are songs in existence above and beyond what made the final cut. Period.

please don’t be mad, I don’t think you lie. And I appreciate your information a lot I was just wondering given the fact that Celine never done this before.

 

But then again it could be very true when we consider how some Courage songs sound. She sounds awful and as if she only did one take and that was the final cut. No effort whatsoever. That would explain why she managed to record a huge number of songs relatively quickly

[blueangel92]

please don’t be mad, I don’t think you lie. And I appreciate your information a lot I was just wondering given the fact that Celine never done this before.

 

But then again it could be very true when we consider how some Courage songs sound. She sounds awful and as if she only did one take and that was the final cut. No effort whatsoever. That would explain why she managed to record a huge number of songs relatively quickly

 

couldn't agree with you more. i can really feel the tiredness through many songs in Courage. They are not perfectly crafted

[alltheway0384]

 

 

So now you’ve heard the demos?

 

I have some of them yes.

[alltheway0384]

For those who are interested here are 2 parts cut from two demos that I have for the album COURAGE, Bondaries and The chase. I wouldn't publish the demos in full though.

 

If it asks for a password, here it is: Celine333

 

https://sendeyo.com/show/cc29e5f1a1

https://sendeyo.com/show/004b7557a6

[Celinelife]

The Chase is good overall, but like the line I might run but won't walk away is a bit odd.

 

Boundaries is terrible

[Gicedi]

Unfortunately, all her latest projects (even since A new day dvd) are so much voice_edited that makes it unpleasant and annoying to me.

And thats my comment to the "Say yes"campagne. Because if indeed they say yes i dont want any project with this voice results when i know that Celine can be sound much much better and more natural!

The real campagne here would be "Stop overedited Celines voice". or to raise the pitch. And they do the same to all official live releases. They use so much compressor that you hear a dry voice, without vibrato and natural movement.

 

There are song that you literaly can hear the autotune (f.e first verse of "Thankful") and the joke with the high pitched songs (like I got nothing left).

 

To me thats a problem you can listen also to the recordings to Mr Pagannini. Jazz vocals HAVE to be natural and flexible. But with the overedited they did it sounded awful (when we know what great things she did at the concerts).

 

And maybe this is a reason we all love to listen Play me like a love song, beside that it sounds like a great song, we hear a natural Celine's voice with all the flexibility and the colours!

Edited September 13, 2023 at 02:18 PM by Gicedi

[blueangel92]

For those who are interested here are 2 parts cut from two demos that I have for the album COURAGE, Bondaries and The chase. I wouldn't publish the demos in full though.

 

If it asks for a password, here it is: Celine333

 

https://sendeyo.com/show/cc29e5f1a1

https://sendeyo.com/show/004b7557a6

 

OMG. so precious to hear. even though they sound exhausting. but it's nice to have new materials since then

[Schwa83]

For those who are interested here are 2 parts cut from two demos that I have for the album COURAGE, Bondaries and The chase. I wouldn't publish the demos in full though.

 

If it asks for a password, here it is: Celine333

 

https://sendeyo.com/show/cc29e5f1a1

https://sendeyo.com/show/004b7557a6

 

Thanks for sharing. Would love to hear them in full though.

[Shaun]

The “A New Day… Live in Las Vegas” CD…..now there’s one I wish they edited a bit more!

[Unisono]

For those who are interested here are 2 parts cut from two demos that I have for the album COURAGE, Bondaries and The chase. I wouldn't publish the demos in full though.

 

If it asks for a password, here it is: Celine333

 

https://sendeyo.com/show/cc29e5f1a1

https://sendeyo.com/show/004b7557a6

 

Thanks. These are the proves that Celine can still deliver emotions with her natural voice, even if it's deeper and mature. Boundaries sounds like the way she could sing it live, maybe less perfect but much more pleasant and real (the same thing I would say for Breakaway). I feel the emotion, the will to sing a song and not just to have a work done. The Chase is one of my favorite songs from Courage but I don't like how she sounds in some parts. I though she was her trying to sound like the one who sung in the demo or sound younger, with that thin and, I don't know how to say, sharped voice but maybe that's due to the producers and engineers that don't know how to work with a voice like her that doesn't belong to their times. Even the production in the chase demo sounds fuller. Maybe it's just a matter of quality but I'm quite glad to say that lately what sounds "bad" in her songs is not because of her but because of who's around her (even when they don't dare to give her instructions while recording a song). She has the voice. She's the instrument. Modern producers don't have idea of how using this gift, even if it has aged and changed.

Edited September 13, 2023 at 05:53 PM by Unisono

[AdrienneM]

Also, something I don't quite understand is why did she agree to record about 100 songs? That's very unusual. Did she think that she is all set for the future and will then release dated sounding songs every few years? Was she not concerned about overusing her voice?

 

I mean usually her albums were all recorded over a few months, in the case of courage she was recording songs as early as late 2016, so there’s well over 3 years worth of material. So her recording 40,50,60,100 songs really isn’t totally out of imagination

[AdrienneM]

For those who are interested here are 2 parts cut from two demos that I have for the album COURAGE, Bondaries and The chase. I wouldn't publish the demos in full though.

 

If it asks for a password, here it is: Celine333

 

https://sendeyo.com/show/cc29e5f1a1

https://sendeyo.com/show/004b7557a6

 

I will say, boundaries sounds so much better with a totally unproduced sound. Her voice just sounds so much more real and a lot clearer

[MaiconSC]

For those who are interested here are 2 parts cut from two demos that I have for the album COURAGE, Bondaries and The chase. I wouldn't publish the demos in full though.

 

If it asks for a password, here it is: Celine333

 

https://sendeyo.com/show/cc29e5f1a1

https://sendeyo.com/show/004b7557a6

 

These sound more natural to me... less "autotuned"...

[tomantha]

-nevermind Edited September 13, 2023 at 07:35 PM by tomantha

[Celinelife]

I noticed The Chase is missing background vocals in the demo

[delta]

hello peut pas écouter dit erreur sniff

[Davey84]

I will say, boundaries sounds so much better with a totally unproduced sound. Her voice just sounds so much more real and a lot clearer

 

I like way she sings 'guard' here. And I agree her voice sounds much better here. For The Chase, vocally, I don't hear so many differences with the album version.

[Davey84]

hello peut pas écouter dit erreur sniff

 

It didn't work on my phone, but it worked on my laptop.

[jpatdeleon09]

How come these demos sounded more natural and sound pleasing to the ear compared to the final edit. What’s happening with their ears?

[jpatdeleon09]

In boundaries..

 

Her voice is much better. I can hear natural vibratos, and I like how she included the humming part. And this is what I’m saying where she’s careful with saying the words and not speeding it up and chopping it by syllables. It’s smooth that reminds me her singing back in A New Day 2006 (ANDHC)

 

But it also sounds like for Live performance - pre recorded

Edited September 15, 2023 at 10:10 AM by jpatdeleon09

[jpatdeleon09]

I wish we can hear it in full. The whole courage album in natural voice.

[jpatdeleon09]

So the pronunciation were ruined because of the edited version. AYAY!