First published on Diva Incarnate in 2011.
Foxy Lady was a stressed-filled album during its recording, and was a relative flop. Its draw relies on Cher's hollaback-girl voice in its supreme 70s vintage peak: it's single Living reflecting the singer's own personal life, and an underrated minor hit song Don't Hide Your Love.
Sign of the times (at least in Cher's own dwellings), Living In A House Divided became the album's only US hit single, albeit a minor one at #22. It Might As Well Stay Monday is a rainy ballad and Cher's masculine verses find a stubborn melancholy to excell within. Clearly on a torch song bender, Song For You is one of the better examples. Down, Down, Down gets more pop with some jaunty piano steps, but the bulk of the ballads such as Don't Try To Close A Rose and The First Time are basically filler. Let Me Down Easy is better. The folk-sounding sing-a-long If I Knew Then has been a regular highlight of many a budget Cher compilation, and she can certainly express rueful self-awareness in her sleep. Best of the bunch, Don't Hide Your Love evokes the wide-eyed pop melodies she specialised in during the 60s. Perhaps for this reason it failed to ignite the charts in a similar manner. I have always been surprised that it was never remixed to accompany her dance duties in the late 70s and late 90s - it's crying out for such tarty thrills to re-introduce itself. Never Been To Spain certainly stretches her androgynous characterizations, but is nothing exceptional.
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