A different take:
My favourite album: Risqué by Chic | Pop and rock | The Guardian
<p>Our writers are picking their favourite albums. Here, <strong>Paul Lester</strong> takes a tour through love's darker chambers with Chic</p>amp.theguardian.com
I do think opening the album with Good Times is a mistake. It’s a fourth of the album and sets up an expectation that not even “My Feet Keep Danicng” can live up too.
It also feels happy but has signs of all the dark that is going to follow. It would probably be a better closer.
It’s also deceptive. There is some complex shit happening in these sort of laid back dance songs. The bass lines the whole time are impressive as hell. There is an orchestrated feel to it as well: it’s kind of like progressive disco (obligatory @Joe Mac tag) but it ain’t noodly bullshit, these songs have tight forms and accomplished scoring. Everything fits and it all feels a little perfect, kind of like Steely Dan, but there is a thread of the deep funk - like this is a cleaned up Parliament and points towards some of the more sophisticated things Prince would do.
There is a pocket groove that defines the whole deal and on a cursory listen would seem samey but even in a second listen… it is blooming, flowering and showing itself to be more than just a daisy but a complex orchid of sound.
I’ve been known to defend a groove, I still think Filthy is of one Timberlake’s best songs (even if that album is a travesty). This album is just groove after groove after groove.
It’s also an impressive display of a group functioning as a group. The vocalists are clearly very capable - the melody in Will You Cry is almost operatic - but unlike most blues or blues based rock, no one really takes over. There are intricately syncopated bridges instead of searing guitar and bass solos which you almost want in a you need it kind of way, it brings you to the edge of wanton lust and then grooves back into the theme of the piece.
It’s an album to get lost in not to get lost in the background. It also doesn’t surprise me that given this group’s scores and writing about dance and prog music that this is probably going to be our lowest ranked album… it’s playing to an audience not meant to appreciate it (which is fine) but I think this album deserves more than one listen trying to figure out why it’s disco or why it opens with what should probably close it.
As I think about it and keep listening to it, the more I think it might be a masterpiece and probably belongs in a collection that has quite a bit of Prince, and A Taste of Honey and multiple Rufus records (you know… someone like me).
I’m not giving it a five or anything yet, but damn it really got me on the second listen.
Hey! Don’t you tag me as a hater of Nile Rogers or Chic! Joe likes the good times as much as anyone else!
