| Cher's recording career has long taken a back seat to her acting pursuits, but with Believe she has come back with a vengeance as a throbbing disco diva. Although no fewer than five producers with dance pedigrees are along for the project (including Todd Terry, Junior Vasquez and Rob Dickins--who helped resurrect Rod Stewart's ailing career), this is by no means a dance album in the 1990s trip-hop sense of the term. Rather, it's a tour de force that summons mid-1970s images of strobe-lighted dance floors, sequinned miniskirts and writhing bodies. In "Power", Cher wails, "Ain't nothing changed much through the years". Not a bad thing in this case, since Cher's star was still rising in the steamy 1970s and '80s with a string of hits that included the disco gem "Take Me Home" and the haunting "If I Could Turn Back Time". Although not blessed with much vocal range, Cher knows how to work a song with her trademark sultry, slightly ironic delivery, and she's certainly in fine form on the masterful title track. --Jaan Uhelszki |
|
