I felt like listening to some disco today. My girlfriend was in a bad mood, having some stress due to coursework, so I decided that we should listen to some Chic together for a while and she could happily forget stressful educational duties. It helped and now I am listening to Chic's self-titled debut and one of their later albums, Believer, again. C'est Chic has long been a favorite of mine but I have never thoroughly delved into the bands discography in such a way that I have done over the last few months. The debut record does show glimpses of danceable brilliance, with the obviously named "Dance, Dance, Dance" and "Everybody Dance". I also liked "Strike Up the Band". What makes Chic for me is the basslines - you can rave on about Nile Rodgers guitar work, as you should, but it is carried so well over Edwards bass. On the debut record, the organic relationship between these two has not fully developed nor has the songwriting, so at times it results in long passages of stale instrument filler. 1.5 here, Intriguing.
Believer is much different, though. This was the last record before Chic broke up until 1992's Chic-ism. Believer was branded a failure, which, when looking at the hard numbers, is right, but musically, it is a really cool record. Much more synth-based, it sounds almost proto-disco house at times. Rob Sabino really does work some magic with the synthesizers. With a few more listens, this could easily work its way up to the top of list with C'est Chic. Undecided, but will probably land on 2.0-2.5 when I get properly into it.