CHER: I'D RATHER BELIEVE
IN YOU (1976)
1)
Long Distance Love Affair; 2) I'd Rather Believe In You; 3) I Know (You Don't
Love Me No More); 4) Silver Wings And Golden Rings; 5) Flashback; 6) It's A
Cryin' Shame; 7) Early Morning Strangers; 8) Knock On Wood; 9) Spring; 10)
Borrowed Time.
So, with the commercial failure of Stars, Cher was once again put in the
hands of calculating craftsmen rather than people with a nobler understanding
of music — for her second Warner Bros. album, the producers were Steve Barri
(who'd previously worked with various bubblegum acts, mostly) and Michael
Omartian (a session keyboardist and Christian disco-rock artist with album
titles like Adam Again!); their main
joint claim to fame up to that date was collaboration within the band Rhythm
Heritage, remembered mostly for the ʽTheme From S.W.A.T.ʼ (of course,
«remembered» is probably a rather strong word here).
The logical expectation here would be an
all-out disco album, but apparently the time was not quite ripe yet — this was,
after all, still a pre-Saturday Night
Fever kind of world, and so there is really only one song that borders on
disco, without yet embracing all of its stereotypes: ʽLong Distance Love
Affairʼ, a surprisingly catchy and turbulent pop-rocker that aspires to
conveying some genuine emotional turbulence — with a grappling instrumental
string break and a pretty damn good performance from Cher himself: songs about
adultery, even long-distance one, have always seemed right up her alley anyway.
(Basically, she always sounds more convincing when she sings about cheating
rather than when she sings about being
cheated, even if in real life it was usually the other way around).
Most of the other dance-pop numbers on the
record, curiously enough, are oldies: decent, but unspectacular covers of ʽI
Know (You Don't Love Me No More)ʼ and ʽKnock On Woodʼ, as well as a take on the
poorly remembered Gayle McCormick hit ʽIt's A Cryin' Shameʼ. She gives all of
these a pleasant, listenable Cher coating, and the arrangements, replete with funky
guitars, loud brass, and agile rhythm sections, all reflect good mid-Seventies
craft. But the only other song that manages to stand out a little is
ʽFlashbackʼ, a new composition by Artie Wayne that combines elements of pop
balladry and funk with creative arranging touches (harpsichords? ghostly electric
guitar sighs in the background? bring 'em on!) and a great chorus hook — Cher's
"...and I flashback!.." with a meaningful pause after the two big
beats is arguably the most attention-drawing moment of the album, and, on the
whole, ʽFlashbackʼ is closer to «art-pop» than anything else on here, a classy
song that could have gone down in history as a major highlight of the 1970s had
it been done by any other artist.
Everything else, including the title track, is
in the balladry camp, and not very interesting: ten years later, this stuff
would have been presented in the shape of pop-metallic power ballads and sound
disgusting — here, it just sounds okay, with strings, pianos, horns, and gospel
background vocals creating a decent generic ambience. ʽBorrowed Timeʼ,
concluding the album, seems catchier to me than the rest, but that's not
saying much. They do not irritate, and that's the best I can say about all of
them. Overall, I am surprised at how
okayish the record is as a whole, and ʽLong Distance Love Affairʼ with
ʽFlashbackʼ probably belong on any reasonable Cher anthology, even though,
frankly speaking, they don't have that much to do with Cher as an artist... but
then again, what does? Other than that, I'd rather believe in somebody else.
"still a pre-Saturday Night Fever kind of world"
ReplyDeleteYeah, but Donna Summer's Love to love to love you already had been a worldwide smash hit. It wasn't exactly risky anymore to predict that disco (and punk) owned the future.
George, are you going to cover the travesty with Gregg Allman that comes next in the timeline?
ReplyDeleteI knew the name Michael Omartian sounded familiar - he recorded your favourite album, Rod Stewart's "Camouflage"!
ReplyDeleteAh, it's nice to see Gayle McCormick mentioned here. Tragically underrated - there's more to her career than just "Baby It's You".
ReplyDelete