Cher insists her forthcoming follow-up to 1998's dance smash Believe is so good it's dangerous.

"I almost killed myself the other day in my shower," the 54-year-old singer said recently. "I've got one of those shower CD [players], ... and I was dancing and I slipped and almost broke my leg. I thought, 'You're a f---in' nut job!' I get so excited — even the demos for these songs are good. I was having a blast takin' a shower."

Cher flew to England on Tuesday to begin recording the album, which will follow in the Eurodance footsteps of its predecessor. The singer had planned to go to England in September, but got caught up doing fund-raisers and public appearances in support of Al Gore.

Cher said her favorite song slated for the album is "When the Money's Gone," written by Bruce Roberts (Barbra Streisand, Roberta Flack). "It's so perfect for me," she said. "It's about this person who's [asking her lover], 'If I lose all my money, will you still love me if we have to eat fast food out of a beat up car?' "

"It's so dance. It's so gay. It's so good," she said.

All of the songs are upbeat, get-down numbers, with the exception of the ballad "For the Love." "It's really weird because when I was getting the key for it, I started crying," Cher said. "It's so tender."

The singer said she will work with different producers for the LP, and said she hopes to enlist David Foster (Whitney Houston, Celine Dion) to record the ballad.

"It's been hard for me my whole life, because people have thought I was cool or thought I was just a terrible waste of time," Cher said. "But now a lot of people who wouldn't have given me the time of day are submitting songs that are really brilliant. I'm having a chance to have great songs and great producers — I'm so lucky."

The album is not yet titled. "I keep calling it Son of Believe, but I'm sure that's not going to be the title," she said.

Cher released Not.Com.mercial, an album she recorded in 1994, last week exclusively through her cher.com Web site. The album represents her only attempt at full-fledged songwriting.

"If I had burning aspirations to write songs, I'd do it, but I don't," she said. "It happened that one time and somehow seemed to work, and that was a great moment in my life. I'm not a songwriter. I'm just an ... artist, in some sort of strange way."