so Chic

In 1981, a lot of rock & rollers were claiming that the disco era was officially over. Disco, of course, never really died – a lot of the dance-pop, house music, Hi-NRG, and Latin freestyle that was recorded in the '80s and '90s was essentially disco – but as far as many of the radio stations and record company A&R men of 1981 were concerned, disco was dead. And that was bad news for Chic, a group closely identified with the disco era. Even though a lot of Chic's work had as much to do with funk and soul as it did with the Euro-disco sound, Chic was unable to live down its reputation as a disco group. But Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards gave it a try with 1981's Take It Off, an admirable, if uneven, project that finds the group downplaying the Euro-disco elements.

This is a straightforward bundle – a digital download release – of Chic's eight studio albums for the Atlantic label. Chic (1977), C'est Chic (1978), Risqué (1979), Real People (1980), Take It Off (1981), Tongue in Chic (1982), Believer (1983), and Chic-Ism (1992) are combined in one set, sold at a price significantly less than the sum of the individual tracks. There are no bonus tracks – just the albums straight up, as they were originally released.

Rhino/Atlantic are issuing The Chic Organisation 1977-1979 a new 6LP vinyl and five-CD box set that features CHIC‘s first three albums, Sister Sledge’s We Are Family and a bonus disc of seven-inch edits and 12-inch remixes.

CHIC's third album has been praised by many as their very finest, yet - perhaps because of the impossible task of surpassing two monster albums (C'est CHIC + We Are Family) - I feel this comes off a wee bit disappointing. Of course, there was the ambiguous "Good Times", possibly CHIC's very greatest track with Nard's classic bass line, this first single has made history of its own, and there's no denying the splendid quality of this record. "A Warm Summer Night" is a sensuous instrumental that belongs among my favourites with its corny "Te quiero papi" whisper. Needless to say, the music is faultlessly played, repeating the theme over and over again.

French guitarist/producer U-Nam is again standing tall and looming large on the smooth jazz scene with another creative gem called C’est Le Funk. In addition to dazzling us with his graceful and funky instrumental work (and one funky delivery with vocals from Tim “TiO” Owens), the album is loaded with strong production and presence. Wasting no time putting the groove into high gear from the start, the guitarist leads off with a driving track called “Smoovin’,” continues plowing ahead with the party groover “Something’s Up” and strutting right through the super-funky, hook-rich title track which features Nivo Deux (Nivo Deux is actually a project organized by U-Nam and wife Shannon Kennedy focusing on the incorporation of 80’s Pop, Smooth Jazz, and Electro-Funk).