Céline Dion Album: “Taking Chances”

Description :

Personnel: Evelina Gard (vocals); David Stenmarck (spoken vocals); Chuck Harmony (various instruments); Michael Thompson (guitar, electric guitar); John Shanks (guitar, bass guitar); Michael "Fish" Herring, Jesse Bond (guitar); Tim Christensen (guitars, Mellotron, bass guitar, drums); Karl Engstrom (guitars, keyboards, programming); Peer Astrom (guitars, bass guitar, drums, programming); Sebastian Thott, Sebastian Nylund (guitars); Emanuel Kiriakou (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano, keyboards, bass guitar, percussion, programming); Linda Perry (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano, background vocals); Aldo Nova (electric guitar, keyboards, electronic percussion, keyboard programming); David Levita (electric guitar); Per Sporrong (violin); VSL, Linda Lampenius, Jeff Bova, Lee Blaske, Ulf Forsberg (strings); Linday Perry (piano, organ, Mellotron); David Hodges, Fred Nelson (piano); Robert Wells (grand piano); Doug Perry (organ); D.C. Collard (Hammond b-3 organ); Kristian Lundin (keyboards, programming, background vocals); C. "Tricky" Stewart, Martin Sutton, Jamie Muhoberac, Pat Leonard, Ned Douglas (keyboards); Calvin Palmer, Matty O'Brien, Paul Ill, Marty O'Brien (bass guitar); Jeff Rothschild (drums, programming); Nathan Wetherington, Damon "DJ" Jefferson, Abe Laboriel Jr., Jim Keltner, Dorian Crozier (drums); Christopher Neil, Donna Simon, Belle Erskine, Kara Dioguardi, Lucy Woodward, Delta Goodrem, Ne-Yo (background vocals). <p>That enormous mop of Stevie Nicks-style rock-chick hair on the front cover of TAKING CHANCES is the first clue that this is a different sort of album for Celine Dion. The formerly carefully coiffed French Canadian singer's first mainstream pop effort since 2002's A NEW DAY HAS COME, TAKING CHANCES is Dion's rock album. Guest producers and songwriters include former Evanescence co-leader Ben Moody, Canadian hard rocker Aldo Nova, Britpop master Kimberley Rew (of Soft Boys and Katrina and the Waves fame), and Linda Perry, who wrote and produced hits for Pink and Christina Aguilera, among others. Over the course of these 16 songs, Dion applies her bombastic, unapologetically operatic vocal style to an entirely new context, and the combination works well. Perry, Rew, and Moody in particular have previous experience working with female singers with big voices, so their songs match Dion's expressive vocal power with wailing guitars, dramatic piano crescendos, and subtle reminders of the rock of arenas past, from BORN TO RUN-era Bruce Springsteen to Heart's power ballad days. Indeed, one of the album's highlights is perhaps the definitive version of Heart's "Alone." While not noisy enough to worry Dion's easy-listening fans, TAKING CHANCES lives up to its title admirably.

Okay. I can't blame her for wanting to look as young as possible and as hip as possible but that picture.

Music is okay. I suppose in a world where all CD releases are so safe and although there are great singers there no longer are producers with much originality, this CD just kind of exists. Nothing groundbreaking.

Sorry to all you hard core fans. Just my 2 cents.

I would like to tell Celine Dion that I have always defended her arrogance and self-conceit to anyone who would criticize with, "but she has a great voice"--I flew to Vegas and spent a fortune seeing her performance there when she first opened. Now, she has definitely gone off the reservation with finding her "inner-self"--this is an awful album, isn't she too old and should be too sophisticated to sing this genre of songs, even if it is being sung from her gut. Isn't one Britney Spears one too many?

I own ALL of Celine's cds. even duplicates from overseas, so you can see I AM a big fan of Celine.! I got so excited waiting for this CD to be released......the moment I put it on the player I was stunned...this does not in any way sound like a Celine cd!!! These songs are lousy, but for 2-3. CELINE: Get back your old arrangers,producers and song stylists or your career will be nil with kind of offering to your fans. The unreleased in the USA CD D'Elles however by Celine is superb and I recommend it highly.