Cher

Cher’s back, looking like a blond, leather-clad amazon ready to do battle on her new album, Living Proof. The battle is to maintain her new Gen-X dance floor audience from her 1998 mega-hit “Believe.” The first single, “Song for the Lonely,” a love letter to the people of New York, is not that dance floor hit. “A Different Kind of Love Song,” which follows, has a cool mechanical voice track and a disco beat. “Real Love” is another standout, a keyboard-driven dance track made for clubs. And she tries a few ballads like “Rain, Rain,” which show off her voice very well. The problem Cher has always had is that a sameness permeates so many of her songs. I’ve never heard the word “love” repeated so many times. That’s just a lack of creativity. Someone once said that after the apocalypse, only cockroaches and Cher will survive. With this album, at least, the roaches will dance.