Has it been 10 years since Cher's Believe?

On Sunday mornings, I enjoy cleaning and doing laundry. It's also an excuse to listen to new CDs or dust off some old ones. In regards to the latter, I dusted off my CD of Cher's 1998 comeback CD, Believe. And, yes, it's hard to believe (sorry, couldn't resist) that it has been 10 years since Cher surprised the music world by releasing the biggest solo hit of her career - in her 50s!

The album and single of Believe was intended to be a valentine to Cher's faithful gay audience, an album full of up-tempo dance tunes. What Cher got in return was a major comeback and a worldwide smash. Ten years late, the album is still a fun dance record, and the album's single, including the overplayed title track, the underrated Strong Enough and All for Nothing, all sound fresh today. The production by Metro, Junior Vasquez and Todd Terry kept Cher's unique voice in the forefront, and while it is dance album, Believe is still pure pop. Even some of the album tracks are good -- Runaway, The Power are strong, while Taxi, Taxi sounds like it could have come from Donna Summer's seminal 1979 disco opus Bad Girls. Cher even updated her 1987 hit We All Sleep Alone to good effect.

You might be surprised to learn that Believe is an influential album. The use of the vocoder effect on the title track has become commonly used in music, even to this day. Artists such as Madonna, Britney and other dance artists have become quite fone of the voice-processing sound. Although Believe was not the first album to use the vocoder effect, it certainly helped pioneer it.

Ten years later, Cher is now in Vegas, entertaining audiences with an over-the-top spectacle that only Cher could pull off. She doesn't record as much -- the major success of Believe was not sustained on the follow-up Living Proof -- but you have got to give credit to Cher, she's been a consistent hit-maker for decades, and her music is also, for the most part, consistently good. If you own this album and have not listened to it in some time, you may be surprised how good it still sounds.

And yes, it's still great for cleaning.