Cher releases net album

Cher recorded Not Commercial six years ago

Singer Cher has released a new album on the internet - but she admits fans might not like it.

Not Commercial, released on her official website on Wednesday, was recorded in 1994 on a shoestring budget when she was between record deals.

After it was rejected by a senior UK record industry figure, it lay "in a little safe" at home for six years, until a friend suggested she could use her website to sell it.

But now her die-hard fans can log on and order it - even though she says: "I'm not even sure it's any good."

She told US music website Wall of Sound: "I do think it will be meaningful to a few people. It's like some strange hybrid of music. Like stories sung to you."

One track, The Fall, is about the suicide of Kurt Cobain

Asked whether it could be categorised as folk, rock or pop, she replied: "I don't know what it is. You heard it. What kind of music is it?"

The album was written after Cher - who does not normally write her own lyrics - attended a songwriters' conference.

It deals with her unhappy childhood, the Catholic Church, the suicide that year of Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain and a relationship with a married man.

Despite the illuminating nature of the album, Warner Music UK boss Rob Dickens - a friend of the singer and now the head of the British Phonographic Industry - rejected the album as "nice, but not commercial".

She went on to make two albums - including 1998's Believe - for Warner, and is making a third now, due for release in 2001.

However, she is determined that Not Commercial will be a low-key release.

"I don't see this as being a very big album. I won't be playing it anywhere," she said.

"I was listening to it the other day and I thought this stuff is so personal, is anyone gonna give a s**t?"