What a time for Canadian music, eh? And, personally, either because I've been beaten down by sheer persistence or because this particular Celine album is a lot better than the others, I quite enjoyed this one. It's her second best-selling album, so I know that 50,000,000 Celine fans can't be wrong, but I didn't really get the big idea last time around.
Concerning the lead single, It's All Coming Back To Me Now, I have definitely Mandela'd myself into thinking that Meat Loaf had already recorded it, but apparently that wouldn't come for another ten years. Not only that, but I've now read about the dispute that Steinman and Loaf had over plans for it to be included on Bat Out of Hell II in the first place.
Anyway, this is about Celine. It's All Coming Back is a tremendous piece for her, slipping so easily into sweeping schlock as she does with the pipes to give it a ride. Declaration of Love is a good one and so is the title track, and River Deep, Mountain High makes me wish she'd done a duet with Tom Jones.
Frankly I'm just happy to feel like I finally get it.
Meanwhile, The Tragically Hip is back and earning Album of the Year at the Junos with Trouble at the Henhouse, their more official follow-up to Fully Completely with a rather subdued affair. I remember well the lyrics to Don't Wake Daddy that paid a small tribute to Kurt Cobain and hoped for the eternally sighing peace that he'd wished for in Pennyroyal Tea, but this album always began and ended with Ahead by a Century because, to me, it's a perfect song.
Meanwhile, The Tragically Hip is back and earning Album of the Year at the Junos with Trouble at the Henhouse, their more official follow-up to Fully Completely with a rather subdued affair. I remember well the lyrics to Don't Wake Daddy that paid a small tribute to Kurt Cobain and hoped for the eternally sighing peace that he'd wished for in Pennyroyal Tea, but this album always began and ended with Ahead by a Century because, to me, it's a perfect song.
I owned this CD but I ended up recording it onto a cassette and purging the disc itself, then that tape got lost in the shuffle over the years. In short, the whole album didn't grab me like their previous records had done and, in fact, I really only followed them by their radio releases from then on.
Side B, as I'd still call it even though we're right in the prime era of CDs right now, has really good stuff like Sherpa and Apartment Song to balance against the more hit-driven Side A. Someday there's going to be a beautiful blitz through the entire Hip catalogue, because listening to it now I wonder why I ended up tossing it aside.
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