How dare listeners forget the time Cher covered Neil Young? Wonderful, dreadful, or as is the case for Stars, somewhere in-between. Her 1975 release has flown so far under the radar that it still isn’t on streaming platforms. Only recently did it receive a remaster. There is no rush from Cher and her team to reprint this one, unfortunately. Stars may have fared poorly at the time of release, but like Scott Walker’s Scott 4 and The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, it has only grown fashionable to like it. Crucial to that is the quality within. It may not sound right to see Stars as one of the best releases Cher put out, but compared to her grating pop reliability, the out-there choice of covering Eric Clapton and featuring Bob Dylan drummer Jim Keltner, is astounding. A bold misstep is still a wrong turn for an artist whose credibility comes from consistency. Stars is out there by Cher’s standards, and is a truly great experience because of this soft-rock regret.
If opener Love Enough is anything to go by, Cher is still stuck in those string quartet Sonny and… days. It takes a little warming to, but that brilliant vocal depth is what keeps Stars together. There’s a point where the string section swells and Cher delivers two lines rhyming name and game, and it is here where she walks the edge. Every artist must contend with the fear of becoming a cruise ship act. Cher steps close here, but backs off from the Elvis Presley-playing-Las Vegas vocal range. She brings these out-there and seemingly random cover choices back to an instrumentally and vocally strong spot. A fade-out for Love Enough is a cheap way out, but such was the popular choice of the time. There is little more we can do about that, and it works effectively given the context of fading love heard earlier in the song. What does work though, is Bell Bottom Blues. A staggering moment from Cher here.
Not because she successfully adapts these songs to a broader emotional value, but the hopelessness of doing so only adds to the heartbreak of classics like Bell Bottom Blues. She has failed successfully. Songs like Mr. Soul are built on those breezy, rock and roll guitar riffs. It’s a tone which works because it was popular at the time. Artists like Cher are best when they are reflecting strong, popular tones. Those fade-outs are tiresome, but they hardly detract from what becomes a bizarre and very solid collection of cover songs. There are some bold instrumental developments here, some going a little too far. Just This One Time would make even the most egregious Michael Jackson song sound reserved, though Cher sounds strong with this heartstring-pulling instrumental swell.
Stars takes a bit of a turn in the latter half as Cher begins trying to bring in conflicting genres. The Bigger They Come, the Harder They Fall is a tad messy, but those lighter grooves are likeable all the same. It’s a stretch better than Geronimo’s Cadillac, a gruesome pop endeavour of little interest to those who like their ears in working order. Love Hurts is where Cher starts to struggle, the string sections are too heavy to handle. Even with that, there is much to enjoy about Stars, a consistent covers album which stands up decades on. A few ingenious choices, great songs which are handled well and carefully by Cher, are highlights. It’s an album worthy of celebrating, though not too much. It is still, after all, an artist chasing relevancy through the words of others. There is hardly sincere love at play here, though Cher does have a voice which can carry nearly all genres.
