She’s baaaaack! With her Vegas show wrapping up and a tour looming, Celine is eager to re-establish her musical cred. So, on her first English pop album in five years, Voice-zilla pulls out all the stops in a quest for contemporary musical relevance. She hires big production and songwriting guns like Linda Perry, Ben Moody, John Shanks, Aldo Nova and Kimberley Rew. She flirts with everything from arena-rock and blues to electronica. She borrows lines from Eurythmics, covers Heart’s Alone, and harps on about how she’s changing and, yes, taking chances with her music. And while her intent may be transparent and the results somewhat unfocused, here’s a shocker: It’s not completely atrocious. True, Celine is still virtually incapable of subtlety — she cannot resist turning almost every song into a chest-beating anthem with those wailing Valkyrie pipes of hers. But thanks to the slate of well-chosen (and undoubtedly well-paid) collaborators and some songs with a bit of bite, this is far from her most self-indulgent and annoying work. In fact, you might even want to take a chance and pick it up.

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