In 1995, Cher signed a new record deal with Warner Bros. after a two year break from work to get over an illness. She had recorded this album the year before over two days in New York City using The CBS Orchestra (aka Letterman\u2019s Late Show<\/i> band) to bring her self-penned songs to life. The songs had been written during a writer\u2019s workshop in France, which Cher attended in 1994, and upon signing the new deal the following year, she played them for Rob Dickens (head of Warner Bros.) with the view of using them for the new album. Dickens, however, thwarted those plans as he didn\u2019t care for the acoustic\/folk songs he heard and couldn\u2019t decipher a hit single among them.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
He told her that they were \u201cnot commercial\u201d enough for a Cher album and suggested that she shelve them and get to work on some more mainstream material that they could sell to the masses. That \u201cmainstream\u201d album turned out to be It\u2019s A Man\u2019s World<\/i>, <\/i>and unfortunately for both parties, it didn\u2019t do anywhere nearly as well as they thought it would, barely making a dent on the US charts. Cher\u2019s career was officially dead for the third time in as many decades, and just as each previous time she had resurrected it in a big way, this time was no exception.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
A change in management and a new risk-taking attitude saw Cher catapulted back into the charts with the stunning Euro\/dance-inspired Believe<\/i> album, which would become her biggest selling record ever. Once again, Cher was on top of the world and although she was now approaching her mid-\u201850s, she had never looked or sounded any better than she did now. Following a sold-out concert tour (1999\u2019s Do You Believe?<\/i>), Cher was keen to keep the ball rolling and decided that before recording another album of new material, she would finally release the personal set of songs that she had recorded some six years earlier.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
There was a catch, though; the album would only be released exclusively through her official website, as there was no involvement from Warner Bros. This, of course, means that to this day, few people apart from the diehards (yep, I am one) have actually heard this album in its entirety.\u00a0 It is now available for download through the usual avenues of enquiry, but the long delay has cemented it as one of rock\u2019s \u201clost albums.\u201d All of this is a shame because Not.com.mercial <\/i>is a fantastic album; it turns out the superstar performer is also quite the composer.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
None of the eight songs that Cher co-wrote with a selected few (mainly Bruce Roberts, who helped produce the album) are corny or clich\u00e9 in any way. Cher\u2019s voice has never sounded more soulful and versatile than it did during the mid to late \u201890s, and it is in glorious form throughout this collection of songs. The two cuts that Cher didn\u2019t write are also strong and complement the album well. The first is \u201cBorn With The Hunger,\u201d which is one of the more up-tempo tracks here and features some great slide-acoustic guitar. The other cover is a great reworking of Sonny Bono\u2019s \u201cClassified 1A,\u201d a song that Cher has always championed as one of Bono\u2019s finest compositions.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Cher wrote \u201cSisters Of Mercy\u201d about her experiences as a young girl in a Catholic orphanage run by nuns, left there by her destitute mother while she worked for a dollar a night in a diner.\u00a0 Cher\u2019s raw delivery is the perfect fit for telling this tale: \u201cThere\u2019s a baby sobbing softly, in a crib that\u2019s now a cage \/ She\u2019s done nothing to deserve this, but it sanctifies their rage \/ They use god like he\u2019s a weapon, only for a chosen few \/ Then hide behind pious faces, like the guilty always do.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Another moment of truth comes in the form of \u201cThe Fall (Kurt\u2019s Blues),\u201d a song Cher wrote for Kurt Cobain following his shocking suicide in early \u201994: \u201cIt\u2019s a shame about your future, a crime about your past.\u201d The song is a moving tribute and once again, Cher\u2019s rage is clearly audible in her delivery. In fact, throughout the album Cher continues to bare her soul, whether it\u2019s addressing her broken heart (\u201cWith Or Without You\u201d) or saluting the men and women we sacrifice in war (\u201cFit To Fly.\u201d) There are some lighter moments, though, when Cher takes a good look at herself on \u201cRunnin\u2019\u201d and warns her pal Heidi about making it in showbiz on \u201cDisaster Cake.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n
All in all, this is a fantastic album and one that Cher should have received far more credit for than she did. There really is no end to her talents, and I for one seriously hope there will be more songs from Cher\u2019s pen in the future.
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