Celine really blew me away with this CD. I defiantly recommend this album! Top Five Songs: A Cause, La Diva, Femme Comme Chacune, On S'est Aimé A Cause, Le paradis, Je Cherche L'ombre. The packaging is beautiful, it folds out contains two booklets (liner notes and a glossy photo booklet). The DVD contains clips recording sessions, photo shoots and a video shoot/blooper.

D'elles is Celine's follow up to 1995's bestselling

and as such, is a shout-out to grrrl power (the clinical-sounding official line is "a concept project that celebrates womanhood"). The lyrics for the thirteen songs were written by well-known female authors from Belgium, France, and Canada, including Fran'oise Dorin, Christine Orban, Nina Bouraoui, Marie Laberge, Lise Payette, Denise Bombardier, Nathalie Nechtschein, Jovette Alice Bernier, Janette Bertrand and George Sand (Baroness Dudevant).

The studio wizards include the four collaborators on Celine's last French album

: Jean-Jacques Goldman (music supervisor), Jacques Veneruso, Erick Benzi, and Gildas Arzel (the "four guys" referred to in the title of her earlier work). My favorite Acadien singer-songwriter Jean-Francois Breau (

) also contributes his songwriting expertise.

Some of the thirteen songs have uptempo flirtations with dance music (Et s'il n'en restait qu'une, A cause), while others are gentle slow ballads (On s'est aime a cause, Je ne suis pas celle). We even see Celine "duetting" with the late Maria Callas through studio wizardry on La diva, although Celine sings along so softly with Callas that it's difficult to hear how her operatic aspirations measure up. Another of the more experimental tracks is Lettre a George Sand, in which Celine recites the text of a letter from George Sand and dissolves into a melody that somehow reminded me of my grandfather's favorite religious song "Prayer of St. Francis." My least-favorite track was the grating lullaby Berceuse, in which Celine merely whispers the words and infinitely repeats the "Mama t'aime" ("Mommy loves you") chorus ad nauseum.

Overall, it's a pleasant, if sometimes bland, listening experience that makes for pleasant background music, but for the most part, the songs blended together and weren't instantly memorable on first listen. Also beware if you buy the deluxe edition from France: the bonus DVD is Region 2 PAL only; Amazon.com didn't specify that, and I ended up returning my copy since it was pointless paying $26 for a disc I couldn't play (I had erroneously assumed that the deluxe edition was the Canadian, not European import, and it was not labeled as such).

Those who are just used to listening to Celine in English and are doubtful about listening to songs they may not understand, fear not! This is a great CD and it is very soothing and exhilarating. It's wonderful to hear Celine's beautiful voice in her native tongue. It has passion and beauty. It's simply great.

The cd is wonderful but we tried to contact you about the dvd will not play in US but got no reply we paid extra for something we cannot use.

I don't know French but this is one of my favorites of her. The sounds and the voice are just amazing. I don't mind that I don't understand it as long as her voice is great as usual.