Cher – Believe

'Twas in the eleventh month of the year 1998 A.D. that the wicked Cheryl The Sarkisian sought to tear the world asunder, via the unleashing of the arcane practice known only as 'Autotune' unto an unsuspecting populace. Embodied within the incantation 'Believe', its fell bombast echoed forth throughout the land, corrupting all that it touched. The people cried out for mercy, and begged The Sarkisian to put an end to the misery, but no such mercy was forthcoming (and indeed the twisted, knurled visage of The Sarkisian showed naught but pleasure at all she had wrought). The prophecies of Nostradamus himself had warned of such a day, though were left unheeded, for even the most pessimistic of Men could not have conceived such a terrible fate could ever come to .

Fearing all would soon be lost, a group calling themselves the Wonsal Brothers did plot to contain the rot through the unknown medium of 'Seedies'. Once the dark din had been sealed inside a Seedy, it could be cast into the Abyss, never again to exact its evil infuence. But The Sarkisian had anticipated this, and a counter-invocation caused the Seedy to multiply, first into tens, then into hundreds, and on into countless thousands. These thousands of Seedies came to roost in the homes of the masses, inflicting constant torment with Believe incantating ad infinitum.

Thus, the thorny tendrils of Autotune took root in every nook and cranny of the craft of 'popular music', and never again were things to be the same (though two youths involved in the trade of animals for human companionship succeeded in taming the Beast somewhat, and composed numerous 'bangers' consequently).

Huge swing and a miss on this release unfortunately. And what a shame that is. Given it is one of the most infectious and iconic pop songs of all time, you'd think a 2x12" DJ pack would deliver on at least one remix that "scratches the itch" of the original song. We get tribal house, filter house, and Eurodance flavored remixes here, but none of them satisfyingly translate "Believe" into an effective, straightforward, house floor filler. The instrumentals on the Club 69 mixes are pretty solid tribal-ish / big room workouts, but in that context, Cher's acapella just feels tacked on and distracting. All the others are really just tedious, overwrought turn-of-the-millennia affairs. The "Almighty Definitive Mix" comes the closest to what one would want out of this release, but also ultimately just flounders.

My play times came in at 9:10 for side 1 and 7:41 for side 2

I bought this after seeing go cheap on eBay. Didn't buy it from HMV as it was too expensive at the time. To be frank most of these remixes were dull and not worth the effort. Some did not even modulate properly and sound very amateurish as a result! In my honest opinion the original version and the Almighty Definitive Mix are the best tracks here.

After buying CD1 of the same title, I bought this in order to get all the versions available on UK release. The Almighty Definitive Mix seemed to be the only version worth having on vinyl and the other versions really do leave a lot to be desired. The sleeve isn't firm card like, but it is a little glossy, which is nice. Track A2 appears on CD2 as does track B1 in an edited form (and even that is probably too long). I mainly got this as I am a fan of vinyl more than anything else and the song was quite iconic. It's such a shame the remixes are quite bad, with the exception of the Almighty Definitive Mix. It's a shame the original version was not included. That appears to be a trend of 12" releases unfortunately.

This is a single of probably one of the best songs in pop. It was often said that Cher's vocals went through a computerised glitch and could not be reverted. If so why not rerecord the vocals? I think the synth type vocals are not too bad and they don't interfere much anyway. This particular pressing is probably the best one to get as it featured the original song, followed by two of the best remixes. I have heard some of the others and they are just dire. Some even sound quite amateurish. The best of the lot are definitely included here. The Almighty Definitive Mix has a good beat and keeps interest and the Xenomania Mix has obvious remix features but still retains the important parts of the original track.

The full-on, special-effect usage of Autotune was novel and interesting back when this was released. Combine that with Cher's star-power and talent and you've got a massive hit on your hands. For better or for worse, Believe was also an earworm....albeit, a robotic-voiced one that could eventually wear heavy on one's nerves, (some sooner than later.) Unfortunately, in the years following, multiple other artists decided they too wanted a turn playing with recording engineers' dials. The result was something close to a popular insurrection against Autotune and rightly so.

That said, by using it as a special-effect, Cher pushed Autotune out of the shadows and into the public consciousness so labels can't hide their off-key artists behind it so easily. That alone deserves our respect and thanks.

I'm sure I'll want to hear this recording again someday...if I live long enough. (Mea culpa Cher, I'd consider myself blessed to hear you sing this or anything else in-person.)

One of the first records to use autotune as an effect. An almost robotic effect. This devided the audience, some loved it - and other was not happy about it....

The 90's equivalent of "bad" dance music. "Disco Duck" might be a good example of Bad 70's dance music. (although I would take that song any day over "Believe")

A contrived, generic-sounding dance-pop song which gave us something that still has infected every other pop/rap song since—AUTOTUNE

FAR better things to explore in dance music than pop drivel like this IMO.

Can we check the CD, Single, CD1 UK and European release again for duplicate? both are shown two times above..