Cher
Closer To The Truth

Cher defies the storms of retirement age by releasing her 26th studio album, Closer to the Truth, which arrives a full twelve years after Living Proof, the one that was supposed to replicate the success of Believe and instead garnered less than half of half. Yet, the sixty-seven-year-old "Goddess of Pop" hasn't spent the early tastes of the new millennium gazing from her gilded old age home at the rise of young chart-toppers. A "Farewell" tour post-Living Proof, a few compilations, a co-starring role alongside Christina Aguilera in Burlesque, the much announced, acclaimed, and then miserably trashed collaboration with Lady Gaga in The Greatest Thing (however leaked right in conjunction with Mrs. Germanotta's August release of Applause), a handful of zesty tweets with a dash of piquant annoyance towards rival Madonna (famous the "WTF is mdna?") and here we are at another labor of the Lady, the third consecutive attempt to ride the dance floors temporarily vacated for the baby stars post-Living Proof.

Closer to the Truth peeks into the tough and complex autumn discographic battleground without an effective supporting single, nor an efficient and competitive promotional-marketing machine, nor even the full conviction to expose itself to a serious risk, namely the meager takings at the Billboard box office and the charts of its international colleagues. The structure of the album, the mood, the sounds, the tributes are quite clear and evident: the last of a dance-house trilogy (initiated with Believe in 1998), declined in several solutions, tones, and atmospheres, intended to compose the puzzle of self-revival and self-tribute, while at the same time, sucking the last drops of juice from the danceable vein, now commercially and creatively at its end (except for the fantastic Electric by the Pet Shop Boys, which I may dwell on elsewhere). Along with glitter and sequins, Cher also lays down a hint of pop-rock, some country-funk shades and a tuft of ballads to season her 26th studio buffet. It is thus difficult to find any semblance of homogeneity in Closer to the Truth, a work that abundantly passes the sufficient mark but does not add anything innovative, particular, ambitious, and avant-garde other than a good bunch of carefree and frivolous pop tracks.

Woman's World, the lead single produced by Paul Oakenfold (one of the few famous DJs not having entered the most fierce mainstream roster of Guetta and Calvin Harris), builds its foundations on a europop theme not particularly significant and infectious, a rather colorless debut that nonetheless immediately anticipates the "prince" piece of the tracklist, Take It Like A Man, an enticing heir to The Music's No Good Without You blended with Madonna's Girl Gone Wild in a technopop triumph. The tracklist continues with yet another eurodance reference in Red, particularly close to Lady Gaga's works for The Fame and The Fame Monster, the pleasant synth-disco collage Dressed To Kill, the singular artificial danceable country in I Walk Alone, the haunting ballad Sirens and the duller I Hope You Find It, unfortunately chosen as the second single.

The trilogy is complete. Cher blends the explosive power of Believe and the somewhat quieter one of Living Proof to create a work halfway between sparkling wine and new wine, interesting overall yet with some "blemishes" and occasional "patches" here and there. It is nonetheless remarkable the return of someone who was supposed to wear slippers but instead chose to don again the shimmering dress, crowned by a handful of tiny Botox injections. After years, the pop hierarchy is complete, ready to serve the crème de la crème at the grand banquet and not just some finger food. Will she succeed?

Cher, Closer to the Truth

Woman's World - Take It Like a Man - My Love - Dressed To Kill - Red - Lovers Forever - I Walk Alone - Sirens - Favorite Scars - I Hope You Find It - Lie To Me