15 November 1998
Another piece of the ’99 and ’00s pop renaissance starts to move into place. Among the seven (7) co-writers on ‘Believe’, along with Cher herself, is Brian Higgins, soon after this to join forces with Miranda Cooper and form Xenomania, the celebrated writing-production team behind that string of fantastic Girls Aloud singles and a few Sugababes crackers too. Cher has said she re-wrote the lyrics of the second verse to toughen them up, but it’s not recorded by posterity or liner credits which of Higgins or the other five came up with the best line of the song and perhaps of the year: “Do you believe in life after love?” Because we’re so familiar now with Xenomania’s modus operandi—cram a song with as many sensational hooks as possible and get kick-ass women to sing them—I tend towards Higgins on this. Much as with the generation of rock and pop acts pre-ABBA who spent every night of their working lives staring up at a brand of spotlight called Super Trouper without a metaphorical lightbulb also appearing over their heads, you wonder how some other songwriter hadn’t already come up with such a stunningly obvious idea and construction, but no matter. Sometimes it’s the simplest things that are the touch of genius.
Cher’s slightly bellowing delivery, if one can be said to bellow only slightly, partially obscures that brilliant lyric hook. This means the main takeaway for most listeners to ‘Believe’ is the nugget of Auto-Tune warping on her voice in the pre-chorus and chorus. Auto-Tune’s pitch-shifting technology will generally be used as concealer, but here it’s face-paint, designed to be seen and to make an impact. It’s another inspired moment.
Let’s also give the singer their due here. Much like that chorus lyric, it seems obvious now that Cher was perfect for disco-diva anthems, but all through the ’80s until the late-’90s she was singing soft rock. Here, Cher’s innate charisma, strength and humour are both launchpad and rocket. Okay, maybe another singer could have also brought out some of the hurt, doubt and frustration in the lyrics, but Cher does Cher and faulting her for it is like complaining about nightfall. She brings her own qualities to ‘Believe’, makes a great record her own, and sets us up nicely for the meteor shower of brilliant chart pop that fills our skies the following year onwards.
