Date: Feb 28, 1998
Weeks: 2
I've always liked the movie Titanic. I never bought into it as some classic romance story, I just thought it was an effective disaster movie, where the romance story was crucial to giving the disaster story emotional weight. This song, on the other hand, has some significant problems.
The biggest issue is that the version of the song that charted, the version embedded above, is overproduced in just the right way to drain away most of the emotional charm. The soundtrack version is a more effective, simpler piece of music that matches the movie score pretty well. It fits, and carries a genuine, if soft, emotion. The single version just adds more to the mix. There are extra windchimes and little plucky harp noises. The drums start up much sooner and get much bigger. There are unnecessary background singers. There's that 90s power ballad electric guitar for no reason except that's how you make a cheesy power ballad in the 90s. And the effect I hate the most is the vocal echo that is applied to Celine Dion's voice, especially in her very last "My heart will go on and ooon (on on on on)." It doesn't sound like she's singing it in an echo-y concert hall or stadium. It just sounds like a fake effect applied for emphasis, and it doesn't need to be there.
The music that works is the flute and the strings, which exactly what the soundtrack version of the song consists of. I even like how the soundtrack version builds in intensity and adds in some light drums when they are appropriate. The soundtrack song isn't the greatest thing ever, being kind of slow and plodding and overdramatic even for a song about the Titanic, but it is an effective song to match the movie's score. The overproduction in the single version ruins the parts of the original song that work. At least the version with movie sounds didn't gain too much traction, because it's dreadful.
Celine Dion is a good singer. She gained a reputation for oversinging later in her career, but here I think she gives the song the drama that is necessary. She matches the music, she's quiet and subtle when she needs to be, and she sings big when the song gets big. I like her performance here.
The lyrics are decent. They're a lost love. Obviously in the movie, that lost love is lost to death, but there's room to interpret the lyrics as referring to an old relationship that is over but still remembered fondly. "Far across the distance and spaces between us" can have either meaning. These lyrics walk that fine line between being generic and being universal, so I generally give them a pass. Except for one passage. "Love was when I loved you." Generally pop songs get mocked for using the word "love" that much in such a short space. It's immediately followed up with "One true time I hold to." That's a pretty generic lyric, too. It's not that it's badly written, exactly, but it just doesn't sound right. It doesn't flow, with all those "t" and "o" sounds so awkwardly placed. Coming so soon after the word "love" twice, it just doesn't sound good. It's an awkward part of a set of lyrics that's okay at best.
My verdict: Don't like it. I might have a harder time making this decision if I was judging the soundtrack version. But the annoying overproduction in the single version makes it easy.
I actually don't think I've ever listened to this version before, just the soundtrack version. I've not seen the video before with Celine Dion standing on the deck of the Titanic. Cheesy!
ReplyDeleteI think I read somewhere that they originally wanted Enya for this piece, but maybe I'm misremembering. But if that was the case, it makes sense with the rather Celtic sounds of the pipes and chimes, especially apparent in the soundtrack version.
Also, "Love was when I loved you/One true time to hold to" follows the Anglo-Saxon poetic pattern of alliteration between half lines. I'm sure that's what French Canadian Celine Dion was going for, right?