Living Proof (Cher album)

Background

After the commercial success of Believe (1998), Cher released her twenty-third studio album not.com.mercial in late 2000. It was sold exclusively online and had a "not commercial" sound, hence she did not consider it as an "official" follow-up to Believe. The singer began work on her twenty-fourth studio album in 2000. She began giving hints of the album at the time, calling it "son of Believe" because "that's how I differentiate it in my mind", and elaborated that "If you liked Believe, you're going to love the new one, because the new one is so much fun. I mean, I never get — I'm never, like, oh, saying, you know, oh, this song I'm doing, this album is so terrific, or this I'm doing is so terrific. But the on this new album is so terrific. I just — I love it". Cher commented about one of the songs she was considering for the album while recording it:

"I have one of those CD machines that you can play in your shower. And so I was listening to the demo tape of the new album so I could learn it, and I was singing and dancing around my shower. I almost killed myself. I was dancing and I forgot it was wet. Thank God I got like a little seat in my shower, and I slipped, and I caught myself on the seat. But I was having the best time, forgetting that I was actually dancing around in the water. It was like some sort of strange 2000 version of Singing in the Rain".

For the album, Cher collaborated with musicians including Stargate, Chicane and previous collaborator Mark Taylor. She said "It's been hard for me my whole life, because people have thought I was cool or thought I was just a terrible waste of time. But now a lot of people who wouldn't have given me the time of day are submitting songs that are really brilliant. I'm having a chance to have great songs and great producers — I'm so lucky". Cher said her favorite song slated for the album was a cover version of "When the Money's Gone", written by Bruce Roberts, stating it was "so perfect" for her. "It's about this person who's [asking her lover], 'If I lose all my money, will you still love me if we have to eat fast food out of a beat up car?'. It's so dance. It's so gay. It's so good", she said. For the album cover, Cher wears a "flowing" blond wig in contrast to her all-black, medieval-like outfit. The Dallas Morning News commented that "even with a pensive look on her exquisitely snipped and tucked face, she commands attention".

Music and lyrics

The original version for Living Proof opens with "The Music's No Good Without You". The song is a "lost love anthem", as Cher sings "The music's no good without you, the music's no good at all". It is a disco-inspired song filled with "hypnotic" synth lines, while Cher's vocals are manipulated with Auto-Tune which made her sound like the "embodiment of a haunted extra-terrestrial". The following track "Alive Again" is described as a "trance anthem", and its lyrics revolve around Cher singing about the "broken world of a dissolved relationship". "I only wanna learn to feel the rain/Then maybe I could stop the leaves from falling/I only wanna learn to freeze the flame/I know I'll be alive again", she sings during the chorus. Third song "Song for the Lonely" lyrically "evokes September 11", and addresses subjects such as heroism, longing, bravery and perseverance over a disco beat. Musically, it abandons electronic instruments in favor of a more pure and impassioned performance. The following track, "A Different Kind of Love Song" lyrically alludes to themes of tragedy, heroism and brotherhood, while musically it has "cloud-scrapping chorus, breezy melody, and a kitschy production tics", including Cher's heavily processed vocals by Auto-Tune.

The fifth song "Rain, Rain" is a "dressed-down" track with "electronic gurgles and aquatic vocal renderings", in which "listeners get a glimmer of Cher's husky vocals". Next song is "Love So High", where Cher's "fondness for Latin music is brought to the fore". The seventh track on the original version, "Body to Body, Heart to Heart", is a Spanish-influenced song penned by Diane Warren. Eighth song "Love Is a Lonely Place Without You" lyrically carries the theme of a "brokenhearted symbol of a strong but decidedly single woman". The following track, "Real Love", is a "top-notch electro-clash number" with computer-altered vocals adding a futuristic feel" to it. The tenth track "Love One Another" is a "plaintive plea" which showcases Cher's "diva ability to bring people together". The eleventh song on the original version of the album, "You Take It All", is an "alpine breakbeat number", while the track that replaces it on the American version is "When You Walk Away", another track penned by Warren. The closing song, a cover of Bruce Roberts' "When the Money's Gone", is an "airy track" which has "rapid-fire drum beats".

Promotion

To start marketing Living Proof, Cher made an appearance on German TV show Wetten, dass..? on October 13, 2001, and performed "The Music's No Good Without You". It was followed by performances of the song on occasions such as Top of the Pops, Parkinson, Royal Variety Performance, Sen kväll med Luuk, Bambi Awards, Premios Ondas, among others. BBC One aired a documentary titled Still Cher on January 3, 2002, which followed Cher as she toured Europe promoting Living Proof in 2001. Cher made a number of performances to promote the album's release in the United States. She opened the 2002 American Music Awards on January 9, 2002 with a performance of "Song for the Lonely", accompanied by dancers and wearing a blonde wig. She also appeared on The Rosie O'Donnell Show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Late Show with David Letterman and VH1 Divas promoting the song. Cher also performed "A Different Kind of Love Song" on the comedy series Will & Grace in 2002, where she made a special guest appearance in the episode, "AI: Artificial Insemination Part 2", as God. It was also performed during the 50th American Bandstand.

Cher embarked on her fifth concert tour titled Living Proof: The Farewell Tour in June 2002 in Toronto. It was originally planned as a 59-date tour in North America, but due to the popularity of the tour, Cher extended it a number of times to play in territories she either had never been to or had not played for a long time. The tour gave Cher the opportunity to perform in new territories in Europe and North America, including her first tour to reach New Zealand. According to the Dakota Student, the performance at the Alerus Center, in Grand Forks, North Dakota was the largest single night audience the artist has performed for during her solo career. The final show took place in Los Angeles in April 2005 after a record-breaking 325 dates. The Living Proof: The Farewell Tour was a critical and commercial success. It became the longest running concert tour ever in North America and the highest grossing tour by a solo artist, earning an estimated $250 million ($306,568,410 in 2017 dollars) from 325 shows. The concert was broadcast on NBC from American Airlines Arena, in Miami, Florida, during Thanksgiving weekend. It attracted near 17 million viewers and won three Primetime Emmy Awards. The show was included on a DVD titled The Farewell Tour which was released in 2003.

Singles

"The Music's No Good Without You" was released as the album's lead single worldwide in November 2001, except for the United States. It was a success in the United Kingdom, debuting at number eight on the UK Singles Chart, making Cher one of the few artists to have a top 10 hit in five consecutive decades. The song managed to become a top ten hit in Canada and Italy. The American lead single "Song for the Lonely" was released in March 2002 and peaked at number 85 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Dance Club Songs chart. It also reached the top twenty in Canada, and the top forty in Romania.

"Alive Again" was released as a third and final European single from Living Proof in June 2002. Its commercial response was limited and quite poor in European countries, managing to chart in Germany at number 27, and Switzerland at number 80. "A Different Kind of Love Song", the second American single, topped the Dance Club Songs and peaked at number 30 on the Adult Contemporary songs charts. The third and final American singles were "When the Money's Gone"/"Love One Another" and released in February 2003. Although "When the Money's Gone" topped the Dance Club Songs chart, "Love One Another" did not chart at all.

Critical reception

Living Proof received generally mixed reviews from music critics. Michael Paoletta from Billboard was positive, stating that after a few listens, the record shows it is actually better than its predecessor Believe. Post-Tribune newspaper was also positive, saying the album "should show just how essential Cher still is in the world of pop". Baby A. Gil, writer for The Philippine Star, praised the album as "another rousing dancefest", while noting that "Cher's remarkable alto holds sway throughout. [...] Her singing is in full control and in better form than it was during her early days. You want living proof that time can stand still? Then this is an excellent example". Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine was mostly positive, noting that "each track pumps with melodies so thickly contagious that their hit potentials are essentially guaranteed", while even the album's weakest moments maintain the high-energy, club-ready pace. However, he also noted that Cher "shamelessly revisits her proven hit formula with such fervent immodesty it's hard to believe three years have gone by". Entertainment Weekly's Jim Farber was positive in his review, despite saying Cher's vocals seemed "even more worked on than her face. But she still has feeling". Colm O'Hare from Irish magazine Hot Press praised the album's international lead single "The Music's No Good Without You", noting it uses the same voice effect from "Believe", and said "it's almost a 'Believe' Part Two proving that nothing succeeds like repetition".

Barry Walters from Rolling Stone gave a mixed review, saying that Living Proof "endeavors to make lightning strike twice in the same place. [...] Unlike house music or modern R&B, Cher's twenty-first-century disco is built on fully fleshed songs and detailed arrangements, and the studio wizardry is even grander than before", but also felt that it "lacks its predecessor's unexpected impact". AllMusic's Kerry L. Smith called it a "peppy dance album that spouts warm sentiments and reverberating sounds to keep you going all night long", however noted that "the power of the album's punch loses its luster each time the auto-tuner kicks in, contorting Cher's deep, sexy voice into some kind of canned electronic robot dialect". Josh Regan from Dotmusic gave the album four out of ten stars, stating that Cher's voice was "as strong and distinctive as ever" on the album, but "the uptempo easy listening production courtesy of the likes of Chicane and Stargate means that this one is strictly for the mums and dads". He finished the review saying that it was not "so much House music" and was "more a three-bedroom bungalow with a nice bit of garden out back and a Volvo in the drive, but definitely no garage". The Dallas Morning News gave the album a C grade, saying Living Proof set itself up for failure by "shamelessly" copying and then overdoing the formula that made its predecessor artistically and commercially contagious. The review finished saying that it was "Believe II sans the imagination, the free-spirited pizzazz that made the former work so well". The album earned Cher a nomination on the Best Dance Recording category for "Love One Another" on the 46th Grammy Awards. However, she lost the award to Kylie Minogue's song "Come into My World".

Commercial performance

In the United Kingdom, Living Proof debuted at number 46 on the UK Albums Chart for the week ending December 2, 2001, and remained for three weeks on the chart. The album was certified Gold on November 23, 2001, by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), for shipments of 100,000 copies. It became her eighth consecutive album to be certified at least Gold in the United Kingdom. In Austria, Living Proof debuted and peaked at number 19, remaining on the albums chart for only five weeks. In France, it peaked at number 53 on the albums chart, during the week dated November 24, 2001. Living Proof debuted at its peak of number 13 on the German Albums Chart, on December 3, 2001. After spending 11 weeks on the chart, the album was certified Gold by the Bundesverband Musikindustrie (BVMI), for shipments of 150,000 units. In Australia, Living Proof debuted at number 68 on the ARIA Charts, on the issue dated December 3, 2001. On New Zealand, the album fared considerably better, debuting at number 26 and spending only a week inside the New Zealand Albums Chart.

In the United States, Living Proof debuted at number nine on the Billboard 200 albums chart, with first-week sales of 82,000 copies on the issue dated March 16, 2002. It became the highest-debuting album of her career, and her third-highest-charting album at the time. The album remained for 21 weeks inside the chart, considerably less than its predecessor Believe, which spent 79 weeks inside the Billboard 200. It was eventually certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of more than 500,000 units within the country. Living Proof has sold 520,000 copies in the United States as of December 2012, according to Nielsen SoundScan. In Canada, the album entered the albums chart at number 64 for the week ending December 2, 2001. As of December 2012, Living Proof has sold more than a million copies worldwide.

Personnel

Credits and personnel adapted from AllMusic.