Christmas wouldn’t be complete without a million reissued records, greatest hits albums, and, of course, the ever painful renditions of Christmas standards. Here she comes, the lungs from Quebec, with nine oldies and seven new tracks. The new tracks pale in comparison to the greatest hits and do nothing to enhance this record. The greatest hits are among some of the biggest singles in years, like “My Heart Will Go On” from the Titanic soundtrack, “Beauty And The Beast”, “Because You Loved Me”, and “If You Asked Me To”.
Listen to the first new track, “That’s The Way It Is”, and note how close it is to Backstreet Boys’ signature sound. Well, that is because Dion enlisted writer/producer Max Martin. Mutt Lange wrote and produced, “If Walls Could Talk”, which is a huge letdown. Speaking of letdowns, the cover of “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” doesn’t hold up to the Roberta Flack version.
Ol’ blue eyes, yes, I mean Frank Sinatra, does a duet with Dion on “All The Way”, which sounds like something left off of the original Sinatra album series, “Duets”. There is no chemistry, but that might not be so hard to understand, considering this wasn’t recorded as a duet. It’s being dubbed a tribute, pieced together from an old Sinatra recording. Even the Diane Warren penned track “I Want You To Need Me” is disappointing.
If you own all of Dion’s releases, you don’t need this record. If for some reason you are missing one of her greatest hits and have balked at buying a soundtrack for only one song from Dion, go ahead and buy this. And it would make for a great gift for that Dion fan on your list.
+ rae gun
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.