Chér

By her third studio album in barely a year, Cher sounds like she knows the pace is unsustainable. Chér arrived in September 1966, just months after The Sonny Side of Chér, and the rush shows. Sonny was apparently determined to ride the "Bang Bang" wave before it broke, and the result is a record that often sounds like Cher waiting for permission to commit. The song selection is a step up from its predecessor, but Sonny still seems to be reaching for whatever might chart rather than building an album that knows what it is.

Cher's voice here is almost too sweet, as if she's auditioning for the role of Karen Carpenter three years before Karen would actually arrive to claim it. You can almost picture young Karen taking notes on the deep-yet-delicate restraint. But let's be honest: that restraint is what makes Chér feel so un-Cher. On "The Twelfth of Never," she's so subdued you can practically hear Sonny in the background whispering, "Keep it cute, honey."

Years later, Cher nailed the diagnosis herself: "It was a time when girl singers were patted on the head for being good and told not to think." That's exactly what Chér sounds like: a powerhouse vocalist forced into a Stepford Wives mold, stripped of the edge that would later define her.

But it isn't all restraint. "Sunny" opens the record on what should be peak cringe (the Sonny/Sunny pun is almost too much) but Cher's emotional delivery saves it. "I Feel Something in the Air" is the real surprise: a dark little number where Cher's deadpan delivery nails the song's bleakness, capturing the dread of a teenage girl facing an unwanted pregnancy. It's raw, it's real, and it's one of a handful of moments on the album where the fire breaks through.

And there's "Alfie." Cher starts soft and angelic, then builds into the belter we know is lurking underneath, a sneak peek at the vocal powerhouse she'd become. Dionne Warwick's version may have stolen the US show, but it's Cher's take that pops into my head whenever I casually drop "What's it all about, Alfie?" into conversation.

Chér is the sound of a young artist in a mold she was never meant to fit. The cracks where she breaks through are the album's best moments and the reason the album is worth the time it takes to find them.