优秀散文赏析：A Decade of Song

英语自学网

　　Phil Spector, the genius producer behind such classic '60s hits as "You've
Lost That Lovin' Feelin' " and "Be My Baby," devised a production strategy
called Wall of Sound in which all the instruments on a record were put in the
service of one massive sonic blanket. Celine Dion's records work on a similar
principle. Her songs are slathered in huge timpani and heavy orchestral
arrangements. But where Spector aimed to sonically approximate the messy
emotions his singers were feeling, Dion and her legion of hack music biz
professionals (most notoriously, producer David Foster and songwriter Diane
Warren) meticulously fashion each bit of bombast merely so it fits unobtrusively
and inoffensively into the background of our lives.
        　　Not one of her albums has thus repaid close attention and, unfortunately,
All the Way A Decade of Song, her long-awaited greatest hits-plus, is a lot more
of the same. You'd think a greatest hits album would be the place to cherry-pick
those moments that have reached out and touched you. For sure, the Irish pipes
that open "My Heart Will Go On (Love Theme from "Titanic")" pluck at the
heartstrings as they conjure the memory of that doomed luxury liner. And "It's
All Coming Back to Me Now" is a camp masterstroke. The way the piano tinkles
outles out the theme or fun little touches like the drum crash after "thought
you were history with the slamming of the door" make up in thrilling melodrama
what the song lacks in rhythmic thrust.
        　　But practically everywhere else, the dull background noise eventually
annoys you in the foreground. Right off the bat, the well-tempered synthesizer
intro to "The Power of Love" is literally unlistenable, hitting the ears only
when she belts "Cuz I'm your lady " The musical backdrop to "The First Time Ever
I Saw Your Face" is so vague that it barely registers as anything at all, much
less a cover. Her reprehensible "duet" with Frank Sinatra's voice, "All the
Way", doesn't kick in until Ol' Blue Eyes gets resurrected.
        　　In every one of these examples, the focus is on Celine and her enormous
voice. Because she's so in love with her pipes, she won't surrender any of the
song's identity or shape. Ultimately, then, what you walk away with (or eject
from the CD player) is self-absorbed schlock.