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If the ferocious ‘Swagger Jagger’ is to Cher what ‘Whatever U Like’ was to Nicole Scherzinger, then this must be her ‘Baby Love’ – y’know, the more “commercially palatable” follow up.

I don’t need to tell you this but ‘Swagger Jagger’ – as fantastic and on point as it was – really wasn’t for everybody. You either loved it or hated it and to be frank, that has always been the Cher Lloyd vibe. She’s like Marmite. But whether you’re lapping it up or not, you can’t deny your curiosity. This part singing/part fierce femmecee creature that broke out on last year’s UK X Factor has a long road ahead of her and what we wanna know is whether she’s gonna serve commercial records or go hard in a more underground direction. Pause. Put it this way, there was no way her label Syco would’ve let Cher evolve into some sort of niche artist.

‘With Ur Love’ (featuring Mike Posner) is that R&B-flavoured mid-tempo you can bop to in the car with the family. It’s feel good, it’s all-embracing yet still distinctly Cher in way of execution. The song was co-written by Savan Kotecha (the man behind several Britney Femme Fatale tracks) and produced by Max Martin, legendary hit maker for Kelly Clarkson, Backstreet Boys and such. Cher‘s team means business and although she appears daunted/unphased by an American crossover – y’all know that her label’s gonna push this song Stateside in the new year.

 
Having said that, I wasn’t necessarily excited for the song until I clocked the major moulah video that came with it. We’re talking about a massive production that kinda looks like a Dow Jones-breaking hybrid of Kylie‘s ‘All The Lovers’ video with a really good tampon commercial.

Check out three highlights in Cher’s joyous new video:

1) Cher’s serving mugs for days.

What a stunning transformation from chav princess to glamourous Top Shop girl! Cher’s wardrobe and styling in this video is thoroughly on point – once again pitching her as the girl y’all wanna hang with, albeit running with a slightly different crowd these days. She is truly serving face in this video. Look at that mug – gorgeous, sweet and feminine. There wasn’t a single close up of that looked unpolished.

2) It’s not about the money, money, money.

Of course, it is. You can’t launch a proper popstar on a dime store budget. Are we all impressed by the bright colours, huge cast and cinematic production here? It’s kinda like the time Syco invested all that money in Joe McElderry‘s ‘Ambitions’ video, except ‘With Ur Love’ is arguably not as much of a commercial risk.

3) Sugababes 5.0?

Given their speed of evolution, Sugababes 5.0 should look like this in – what – two years? Heidisaurus does not approve.

Footnotes:

Cher Lloyd will drop ‘With Ur Love’ in the UK on 30 October. Meanwhile, her breakthrough ‘Swagger Jagger’ should be hitting Aussie digital stores on 14 October. One is not expecting big things as only a handful – and it sure looks like less than five – radio stations in Australia have added the song.