Fridae

I know... most of us thought that she sank together with that big chunk of steel they called the Titanic, but I'm afraid I'll have to be the one to burst your bubble. The unsinkable Celine Dion has resurfaced�amazingly with hardly any barnacles on her�after being submerged for two whole years. Nope, last time I checked, Jack was still dead�get over it.

This is Celine happily married (with a son) and ecstatic with everything. That itself should put an end to rumors about her being a closeted lesbian (she just looks like a man�the end.) If you saw her recording in the studio, you'd probably see happy juice oozing out of her pores. At least that's what I can infer from A New Day Has Come�the songs are happy and her voice is happy. Not surprisingly, the album debuted at number one in more than 17 countries.

Notice how "happy" seems to be the key word. No more Celine wailing All By Myself asking us to end her misery with .45-caliber. "I felt my singing was looser and more relaxed�and I think that comes from happiness," she says. "That's why I'm the world's greatest singer." (Okay, I made up the last line, but doesn't it flow better?)

The title track (and first single) is simply refreshing. A New Day Has Come (skip the boat-sinking album version) is as inspirational as Cher's Song For The Lonely�sans the wigs. Speaking of Cher, I can't help but notice that Celine experiments with more dancy numbers like Sorry For Love, Super Love, and Rain, Tax (It's Inevitable) �can you think of anything more country than that last title? A release of a full dance album wouldn't surprise me.

You'll hear a lot of the usual soppy Celine here (Have You Ever Been In Love, Goodbye's (The Saddest Word) , and The Greatest Reward) so keep that box of Kleenex handy. Meanwhile, pay close attention to how different she sounds in tracks like Ten Days (very Jewel-sounding), Etta James' At Last, Aun Existe Amor (she sounds more Latin than Christina Aguilera) and the gloomy remake of Nat King Cole's Nature Boy (you've heard it recently in Moulin Rouge).

Quite easily one of her best so far. Poo poo to the owner and the members of the Celine Dion Haters Club on the Net who'd like to see her vocal cords "ripped out and mailed back to Satan" (among other punishments).