Who Did It Better? Another Year Has Gone By

 Who Did It Better? 

Another Year Has Gone By

For this special holiday edition of Who Did It Better?, I've chosen a little ditty which has probably escape the attention of most. However, I felt it appropriate for this stretch of time between the holidays of Christmas and New Year's Day. Sung by two phenomenal artists, it perfectly captures wistfulness and hopefulness of this remarkable time of year.

Another Year Has Gone By is a holiday song written by Bryan Adams and Eliot Kennedy. Adams produced the track for Celine Dion's 1998 holiday album, These Are Special Times. Critics were generous with praise calling the album "no ordinary holiday project" with "thoughtfully produced original compositions", such as Another Year Has Gone By. 

Released on November 3, 1998, the album sold 12 million copies worldwide, 5.6 of which were in the US. Two of the songs on the album were nominated for Grammy Awards - The Prayer and I'm Your Angel - for Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals.

Plumb is a singer, songwriter, recording artist, performer and author who has sold more than 500,000 albums and over two million singles worldwide. While she is still considered a Christian artist, her biggest successes - In My Arms, Drifting, Hang On, Need You Now, and Beautifully Broken - are Top Ten dance hits. In addition she has co-written songs for other artists, such as Michelle Branch, Mandisa, Mandy Moore, Jaci Velasquez and Natalie Grant. 

 On November 29, 2019, she released a holiday EP, It's Christmastime, which included her version of Another Year Has Gone By. 

And that's the whole story.

Now?

On to the competition!

The Song: Another Year Has Gone By

The Competitors: Dion vs. Plumb

Another Year Has Gone By - Celine Dion

Another Year Has Gone By - Celine Dion

Celine Dion

A little country vibe there, with that intro? I do like how they dovetailed her opening croon to that guitar line. Nice. 

I've come to believe that Dion is the female equivalent of Johnny Mathis. Their strange ways with phrasing, vowel sounds, syllables, and stuttering oddness, not to mention the way they pop a note while singing through their nasal cavities, make them two peas in a pod. I'm not sure what motivates some of Mathis' odder vocal choices, but I think Dion's foreign take on the English language is the key to hers. 

Here, she's clipping notes and syllables, while coming up with a new pronunciation for the word 'remember'. And then, 'things we said right from the start'? I think. 

They are keeping this FM Lite. And those backing vocals are tailored perfectly. I can't imagine all the vocal reconfiguring one has to do in order to do backup vocals for this lady. It's not a song, it's a jigsaw puzzle.  

Nothing is as telling as that instrumental bridge heading into the second verse. This arrangement? Some first class middle of the road pablum. Gloppy is another word that comes to mind. 

Because of the achy-breaky way she's choosing to sing this, she brings all sorts of unnecessary syncopation to every single phrase of verse two. It gets on my nerves. Sing a note. Connect it to the next note. Try a bit of legato. It's like she's taken vocal lessons from post-Glitter Mariah Carey.  

So, here's something odd, and I've included an example below: when she sings live? She doesn't sound like this. She sounds so much better. Like a singer who has actually listened to other people sing and has a grasp of what melody is all about. Live, there's nothing as clipped and bleated as what we are hearing in this recorded version. 

And the instrumental break? I have no idea what they are trying to communicate with all that muted, mummified instrumentation, and when Dion comes in trying to recapture the magic of her musical entrance, well the magic is long gone, hon. 

You know what you should never do when singing about something you consider precious? Sing it as if it is precious. You should sing about what it means to you. You should sing emotions and colors - not breathy little syllables cooed with pursed lips. This is too precious. And therefore, it comes across as horribly canned and insincere. 

The song isn't much either, and when you sing it in such a manner you call attention to that fact. 

Yes, the recording is pristine, incredibly clean and there is a bit of an aural synthesis between the ping of those guitar strings and Dion's voice... but that doesn't make it any more of a winner.

So, a lump of coal to all involved on this one. 

Yeah... not a fan.

Plumb

Plaintive bit of piano into a doo-wop arrangement. Nice and warm. I admire people with a sense of humor. It evokes an era while sounding very modern. 

Huh, I wonder if when purchasing the rights to this song one has to sing it as if it arrived broken. 

I like the pluck of the strings. I like the percussive fills. 

I think her vocal style is a bit more relatable than Dion's, but she's still copping a lot from Dion's original read on this. I do appreciate the warmer environment though. And singing it so choppily makes more sense given the more lighthearted arrangement. It's those doo-wop woah-woah-woah's which provide license for such a vocal choice. So, I'm thinking Plumb has made a smart move here. 

Plumb's voice has an achy breaky quality. And the natural breaks in her range or the rapid fire vibrato at the end of her phrases create a kind preciousness, but I don't feel it's overwhelming. A lot of female bluegrass singers utilize a similar sound. There's more legato, more connectiveness in her delivery which helps me find some musical common ground to relate to. 

Obviously, she's providing her own backing vocals here. 

And I get it... it's a stylistic choice, breaking all those syllables and fracturing those notes... that's part of the song's supposed charm. In fact, I think it's the only novelty this song has going for itself. Every song needn't be Luther Vandross smooth. 

But... it dances on my nerve. 

Nice ending.

The Verdict

Ah, the horrors of modern holiday music.

I find Plumb's version to be equal parts coy and wistful with just enough pop smarts to keep things fun. To find the joy in this song, I think one really needs to up the fun quotient. I'm not sure that either version is the ultimate this song could be. I have a feeling someone like Katy Perry could have a lot of fun with it.   

Clearly, (was I too hard on her?) my take is that Celine takes this song (and herself) way too seriously. She sings it so preciously I want to run screaming from the room. 

Plumb's approach is more natural, less cloying, and more relatable. 

So, like a musical Jack Horner, I'll stick in my thumb and pull out Plumb. 

And probably never listen to this song again. 

--- ---

And that's enough of me. 

And that's the end of a great year for Who Did It Better?

Until next year...

As always, thank you for reading and listening!

Another Year Has Gone By - Celine Dion

Cut - Plumb