My favorite thing about these pop ballads, and the quality that makes them polarizing, is how heavy they ladle on the sentiment. Bryan Adams is so certain you’ll be moved by the climax of “Everything I Do” that he lets the coda play out for a full 2:30. Bette Midler’s devout “Wings” earns those showoffy buoyant flourishes at the end. Even Andrea Bocelli gets out-opera’d in this set by Mariah Carey’s fireworks on “Hero.” The emotions are so big they're almost exhausting, but that’s fitting for a song like “Silent All These Years,” and its portrait of a woman at the end of her rope.