Céline Dion teases upcoming album with three new singles
Céline Dion’s English speaking fans have been waiting for new material for a while, but things are finally moving. The Canadian superstar released her most recent English record Loved Me Back To Life back in 2013, while the French album Encore Un Soir dropped in 2016. In the meantime she released single ‘Recovering’ (2016) and Dead Pool 2 soundtrack ‘Ashes’ (2018), as well as the dance pop banger ‘Flying On My Own’ earlier this year. Dion’s new album Courage will be out on the 15th of November and to make the wait more enjoyable for her fans and give them a taste of what is to come, she releases the three new singles ‘Imperfections’, ‘Lying Down’ and title track ‘Courage’.
‘Imperfections’, produced by DallasK and co-written by pop star Lauv, Nicholas Perloff-Giles, Michael Pollack and DallasK, is a soft bop with a contemporary radio pop production. It is very 2019 and very Céline Dion all at the same time. Sure, it might be considered a bit basic, especially the predictable lyrics, but there is nothing wrong with a basic little bop. Vocally, Dion keeps things simple and subdued, especially for her standards.
She makes up for this lack of belting on ‘Lying Down’, a modern pop ballad co-written by Sia, David Guetta and Giorgio Tuinfort. Sia wrote ‘Loved Me Back To Life’ for Céline before and her influence is just as hearable on ‘Lying Down’. The build up is bombastic, the vocals are larger than life and the hooks are undeniable. Sia’s style suits Céline’s vocals like a glove and is perfect to make her sound contemporary. The lyrics about ‘not taking it lying down’ when someone tries to take something from you are again quite basic, but overall this is a powerful tune and exactly what I would hope Dion to sound like in 2019.
The third of the new tracks is the album’s title track ‘Courage’ and sure has the most personal content. The piano and strings based ballad was written by Erik Alcock, Liz Rodrigues and Stephan Moccio, who also produced it. The power ballad is an emotional one, dealing with the loss of a person close to you. It is hard not to feel all the feels when Dion belts out the lyrics “Cause it’s not easy when you’re not with me… and it’s a train wreck, but I won’t crash yet, as long as your echo never fades out”. With the losses Dion has experienced in the past few years, this song must be close to her heart and she sings it with emotive vocals and a whole lot of passion. It is the least radio friendly of the bunch, but the track that leaves the biggest impression.
This preview makes me excited for more new Céline Dion material!