I Had My Heart Beaten Down but I Always Come Back for More

There is no more annoying phrase in the American lexicon than, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” First, the city stole that phase from every spring breaker. Ever since The Real World set up shop on the Strip, more and more reality shows take place there or make a pit stop for an episode or two there. And in today’s world where everyone has a camera phone and the desire of instant celebrity, rarely does anything actually stay in Vegas.

The most egregious example of how things in Vegas don’t necessarily stay in Vegas is the release of Taking Chances from Céline Dion, who, up to recently had been spent the last four years at Caesars Palace entertaining blue-haired woman who needed some rest from pulling the slot machine lever all day. But now she is back to torture the rest of the world outside of Vegas with all her hand waving and weird performance moves.

But really the most annoying thing about Dion is that her songs are, for the most part, catchy. Don’t tell me that late last decade when the Titanic song came on and your windows were up you weren’t singing along. The lead single and title track follows that trend with a catchy vibe that you know you shouldn’t like but can’t help sing along. And don’t hate her for blatantly stealing the “talk with me like lovers do” from Here Comes the Rain Again because the song was actually written by Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics. Certainly you can hate her because she is Canadian, French Canadian at that, her creepy old husband, the duet with R. Kelly but don’t hate her for stealing that song.

You can also hate her for the extremely bland cover of Alone by Heart which is could have been recorded at a karaoke bar (or on a national karaoke televised competition) because adds nothing to the original. In fact, the title track aside, the album as a whole is pretty bland without any over the top power balled courtesy of Jim Steinman or Diane Warren for Dion to tackle. Instead we get songs written by The-Dream, the guy suggested we all stand underneath Rihanna’s Umbrella-ella-ella-eh-eh-eh, who wrote the most boring of all, the album closer Skies of LA.

Although there is a song near the end That’s Just the Woman in Me, a song originally recorded by Katrina and the Waves (yes that Katrina and the Waves) that stands out with a weird bluesy vibe to it. Then in the middle of the song without warning Céline starts to sound like Janis Joplin, okay, she actually starts to sound like Melissa Etheridge channeling Joplin, but you get the point. Had she taking more chances (see how I worked in the album title, I’m clever like that) like this on the rest of the album, maybe it would have been more enjoyable.

Song to Download - Taking Chances

Taking Chances gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.