Review: Celine Dion grapples with husband's death on emotional, triumphant 'Courage'
Celine Dion has gifted us some of the most iconic power ballads of the past two decades, singing about unstoppable love on chart-toppers "It's All Coming Back to Me Now," "Because You Loved Me" and "My Heart Will Go On."
But her stories of everlasting romance took on heartbreaking new meaning in January 2016, when Dion's husband, René Angélil, died after a years-long battle with throat cancer. She was dealt another blow just two days later with the death of her older brother, Daniel Dion, also from cancer.
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It's the kind of loss that would cripple anyone, but Dion, 51, has handled tragedy with her usual grace and relentless work ethic: releasing French-language album "Encore un soir" in late summer 2016, playing shows in Las Vegas and across North America and even going viral with cheeky appearances in "Deadpool 2" and "Carpool Karaoke."
Now she's back with "Courage," her first English-language album in six years, which finds her dipping into a variety of genres as she teams up with a slew of hit songwriters and producers.
Clocking in at roughly 70 minutes on the album's 20-song deluxe version, "Courage" can at times feel overstuffed and impersonal, as she tries on squalling EDM bangers ("Flying on My Own") and middle-finger-waving empowerment pop (the Sia-written "Lying Down"), whose generic lyrics could've been plucked from any grab bag of empty platitudes.
Some diversions work: "The Chase" is a throwback to guitar-strumming, Sheryl Crow-style adult alternative, and deftly captures what it's like to have someone running through your mind. And Dion's rich, throaty voice is perfectly suited to "How Did You Get Here," a slinky doo-wop ballad co-produced by Bruno Mars hitmakers The Stereotypes ("That's What I Like," "Finesse").
But "Courage" truly soars when the five-time Grammy winner strips back the theatrics and gets personal, as she does on the album's poignant title track. "There's no replacing the way you touched me, I still feel the rush," Dion sings over a soft piano. "Sometimes it drowns me until I can't breathe, thinking it's only in our memories."
The emotional ballad captures the confusion and emptiness one feels after losing a loved one, as she describes the conversations and plans that will never happen and clings to courage to keep going ("I'm staring in the face of something new, you're all I got to hold on to").
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Other tracks paint bracing portraits of grief and uncertainty, wondering how and whether to let another person into one's heart. "Remember the good times, let go of the pain," Dion coos on the gentle "Say Yes," reminding herself, "You deserve to feel that rush again." And with "I Will Be Stronger," she delivers a rousing torch song that already feels like a karaoke classic, belting: "Sometimes love must die to be born again. One step up this road, it's not the end."
Honest, grandiose and endearingly messy, "Courage" is Dion throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks.There's plenty here for new and longtime fans to latch onto, the most important takeaway being that after a trying few years, the ever-resilient Queen Celine will be OK.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Celine Dion addresses husband's death on triumphant album 'Courage'
