Monday, September 20, 2004
Chic - C'est Chic
It's 1978, disco is booming and New York's Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards have worked out its secret. Like all classic pop trends, disco has a magic formula. There's one recipe for a floor-filler, one for a good-time party jam and another for a slow number. A good disco album has two of each, one on each side, forming two sets with the same emotional curve. Rodgers & Edwards realised that, and so they created C'est Chic.
This album is more than just disco-by-numbers, though. Chic's classic rhythm guitar, heavily-sampled bass lines and subtle string sections provide subtance to the structure. This wasn't lost on the record-buying public; the LP quickly went platinum, as it captured the perfect disco mood at exactly the right time. Dancers wanted to take home the essence of the club, and here they could do exactly that (much in the same way that Ibiza compilations sell today).
How does it sound today? You've got to push past the enormous hit of "Le Freak", with its pulsating groove and promises of cheap beef ("aahhhh, free cow!") - it sold over four million copies, making it Atlantic Record's biggest selling single ever. Also familiar is the Side 2 floor filler, "I Want Your Love", complete with tubular bells. That leaves the come-down ballads, which wouldn't sound much on their own, but work well against the upbeat tracks that precede them. The same can be said of the remaining tracks, which are more formulaic and less intrinsically exciting.
Nonetheless, this is the perfect example of a disco album; probably the best of its kind. Everything is there - just look at the cover, resplendant in faux European charm. Trashy but not tacky; exactly how disco should sound.
This album is more than just disco-by-numbers, though. Chic's classic rhythm guitar, heavily-sampled bass lines and subtle string sections provide subtance to the structure. This wasn't lost on the record-buying public; the LP quickly went platinum, as it captured the perfect disco mood at exactly the right time. Dancers wanted to take home the essence of the club, and here they could do exactly that (much in the same way that Ibiza compilations sell today).
How does it sound today? You've got to push past the enormous hit of "Le Freak", with its pulsating groove and promises of cheap beef ("aahhhh, free cow!") - it sold over four million copies, making it Atlantic Record's biggest selling single ever. Also familiar is the Side 2 floor filler, "I Want Your Love", complete with tubular bells. That leaves the come-down ballads, which wouldn't sound much on their own, but work well against the upbeat tracks that precede them. The same can be said of the remaining tracks, which are more formulaic and less intrinsically exciting.
Nonetheless, this is the perfect example of a disco album; probably the best of its kind. Everything is there - just look at the cover, resplendant in faux European charm. Trashy but not tacky; exactly how disco should sound.
# posted by Sam : 13:02
