Believe

11/10/1998 3:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Bob Gulla

It's a fairly well-known fact that the Cher we've known over the last 10 or so years has been a class act as an actor, director, and uh, writer. But the cheesy house rhythms and cheap gimmicks on her latest album Believe don't do that reputation justice. In an effort to update her image, she's resorted to heat-of-the-moment electronica and disco-related urban dance tracks, a ploy that simply lands her a distant second to Madonna, who cruised this musical stretch over a decade ago.

Of the 10 songs here, Cher escapes programming technology on just two tracks: Amy Grant's "The Power," which has a vague gospel feel and a fine vocal performance from Cher, and "Dové L'Amore," in which Cher and her producers inexplicably decide to fuse Spanish guitar with Italian-language lyrics. It may be "what the kids are listening to" and it may give Cher new life on the pop charts, but this two-bit dance stuff does less than zero to enhance the diva's impressive body of work.