Maps of Music

Loved Me Back to Life (2013)

Where the lyrics of Loved Me Back to Life take you, and where it was really made.

The album was first meant to be called Water and a Flame, a title taken from a song that was not Dion's own, and it was renamed in July 2013 after a public dispute over credit.

Key places

Recorded at Abbey Road (2013)

Recording site Abbey Road Studios — Abbey Road is listed among the recording locations for the album, with Eg White credited for the London sessions. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: Jubilee line to St John's Wood station, then about a 5-minute walk.

Recorded in Los Angeles (2013)

Recording site Chalice Recording — Chalice Recording is among the Los Angeles studios credited for recording work on the album. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Recorded at Echo Beach (Jupiter) (2013)

Recording site Echo Beach — Echo Beach in Jupiter is listed as a recording location; the pin uses city-center coordinates, not the exact site. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Recorded at Larrabee (2013)

Recording site Larrabee Sound Studios — Larrabee in North Hollywood is listed among the recording locations for the album. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Recorded at Oceanway in Nashville (2013)

Recording site Nashville — Oceanway in Nashville is listed as a recording location; the pin uses city-center coordinates. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Recorded at RMV in Stockholm (2013)

Recording site Master Plan — RMV in Stockholm is listed as a recording location; the pin uses city-center coordinates. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Recorded at At the Palms (2013)

Recording site Studio at the Palms — At the Palms in Las Vegas is listed as a recording location for the album. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Recorded at Triangle Sound East (2013)

Recording site DARP Studios (Atlanta) — Triangle Sound East in Atlanta is listed as a recording location; the pin uses city-center coordinates. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Recorded at Triangle Sound West (2013)

Recording site Chappell Studios (Encino) — Triangle Sound West in Encino is listed as a recording location; the pin uses city-center coordinates. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Recorded at WallyWorld (2013)

Recording site The Enterprise (Burbank) — WallyWorld in Burbank is listed as a recording location; the pin uses city-center coordinates. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Loved Me Back to Life: 25th studio album and 11th English-language album by Canadian singer Celine Dion
• Released 1 November 2013 by Columbia Records
• Dion's first English-language studio album since Taking Chances (2007)
• Produced by Babyface, Tricky Stewart, Eg White, Walter Afanasieff, and others
• Blends contemporary pop and R&B with selected Las Vegas covers
• Commercially successful: debuted at number one in Canada and number two in the United States

Background

• June 2012: Dion's official website announced recording had begun for her next English and French albums, planned for fall 2012
• The English album was first planned to include studio versions of songs from the Las Vegas show Celine
• September 2012: Sony Music postponed the release to 2013
• March 2013: René Angélil said the delay came from a change in concept, with the focus moved to original songs
• The album was first planned with six covers and six originals; the final set kept two covers, 'At Seventeen' and 'Overjoyed'
• July 2013: the title was changed to Loved Me Back to Life
• Dion first performed the title song live at the Céline... une seule fois concert in Quebec City in July 2013

Recording

• Songs were recorded in several cities, including London, Los Angeles, Nashville, and Stockholm
• Ne-Yo recorded the duet 'Incredible' with Dion; he later described the collaboration as challenging
• 'Overjoyed' appears as a duet with Stevie Wonder, with a new arrangement by Stevie Wonder and co-production by Tricky Stewart
• The title track was written by Sia and produced by Sham and Motesart

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Born 30 March 1968 in Charlemagne, Quebec, Canada, the youngest of 14 children.
• Discovered by future manager and husband René Angélil after her brother sent him a demo recording of her first song "Ce n'était qu'un rêve".
• Angélil mortgaged his home in 1981 to fund her first record, La voix du bon Dieu, which became a No. 1 hit in Quebec.
• Won the Yamaha World Popular Song Festival in Tokyo in 1982.
• Won the Eurovision Song Contest 1988 for Switzerland with "Ne partez pas sans moi".

Career

• Debuted in the Anglophone market with Unison (1990), followed by Celine Dion (1992).
• Breakthrough with "Beauty and the Beast" (1991) with Peabo Bryson, winning her first Grammy.
• The Colour of My Love (1993) and Falling into You (1996) became major international successes.
• "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic (1997) became her signature song and one of the best-selling singles.
• D'eux (1995) became the best-selling French-language album.
• Held the A New Day... residency at Caesars Palace (2003–2007), the highest-grossing concert residency; the Los Angeles Times ranked her the top-earning artist of the 2000s.
• Announced in 2022 a diagnosis of stiff-person syndrome, cancelling tours; returned to performing at the Paris 2024 Olympics opening ceremony.

Members

• Solo artist; manager and husband René Angélil (died 2016) guided her career.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Metacritic: 65/100, indicating generally favorable reviews
• AllMusic: three and a half out of five stars; the review said the album 'flirts with new ideas but never hooks up'
• The New York Times: Jon Caramanica praised Dion's willingness to evolve and called the album 'positively peppy' compared with her usual ballad style
• Rolling Stone: Dave Dimartino, writing for Yahoo Music, called it 'a damned fine, polished thing'
• USA Today: Elysa Gardner gave three out of four stars and noted Dion's 'softer, grittier vocals'
• The Oakland Press: Gary Graff gave three out of four stars and wrote that the album finds Dion 'creatively frisky'
• Slant Magazine: Eric Henderson gave three out of five stars but found Dion's shift toward contemporary material unconvincing
• The Boston Globe: Steve Morse criticized the ballads as 'littered with syrupy, easy-listening, trite-lyric ballads'

Reappraisal

• Critical opinion was mixed: several reviewers praised the new direction while others found the contemporary sound unconvincing
• Praise often centered on 'At Seventeen', which Slant named a highlight

Records

• Canada: debuted at number one with 106,000 units, Dion's 13th number-one album in the SoundScan era
• Canada: certified four-times platinum by Music Canada (shipments of 320,000) in December 2013
• United States: debuted at number two with 77,000 copies, her highest-charting album since One Heart
• United Kingdom: debuted at number three with 53,000 copies; certified platinum later
• France: entered at number three; certified double platinum by SNEP for 200,000 units
• Netherlands: number one; Belgium and Taiwan: number two
• Worldwide sales: about 1.5 million copies

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Dion's 2013 Las Vegas concert 'Celine' was the source for two covers on the album, 'At Seventeen' and 'Overjoyed'
• Dion performed the title song live for the first time during the Céline... une seule fois concert in Quebec City on 27 July 2013
• The original title, Water and a Flame, was taken from a song written by Eg White and first performed by Daniel Merriweather and Adele
• Samantha Ronson wrote a blog post criticizing the credit, and Daniel Merriweather shared it on Facebook in June 2013
• Dion's management replied on her website that all writers and producers were credited in the liner notes

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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