Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
This is the funk-soul siren's creative rebirth., July 10, 2008
Chaka makes her best and funkiest album for over two decades, and her powerful voice -- that first hit the airwaves with Chicago funk band Rufus in the 1970s and punched out the mighty "Ain't Nobody" and "I'm Every Woman" in the 1980s-- on this recording shines throughout.
"Funk This", which debuted at number 15 on America's top 200 album chart - her highest chart position since her first solo album in 1978 peaked at number 12 - is a return to Khan's purity.
Recorded in analogue, it's how she sounded before the "I Feel for You"-style disco anthems of the '80s.
The album opens with an autobiographical song she co-wrote with Terry Lewis. Over the slap-wristflick of retro-funk, Chaka recalls growing up fast in "Chi-town" where her "Momma was strict about them kids".
The vocals are tight and scratchy-raw. They capture the pent-up frustrations of a young girl whose curfew meant she was "Missing the funk of the night".
The mid tempo dancer "Back In The Day" has that Rufus sound to it, and that is also evident in the covers of two Rufus classics "Pack'd My Bags/You Got The love" featuring Tony Maiden.
The funky mid tempo dancers "Superlife" , "Sign Of The Times" and "Hail To The Wrong" keep up the pace, whilst the melodic mid tempo floater "One For All Time" is also classy.
Most of Khan's musical heroes are women: she's particularly effusive on the subject of her friend Joni Mitchell, who she says is "a genius and always just a beat away from funk." The new album features a cover of Mitchell's "Ladies' Man", on which Khan pours the ache of personal experience into lines such as: "Couldn't you just love me like you love cocaine?"
The beat ballads "Angel" and the raunchy version of "Foolish Fool" are also good. On "Angel", Chaka works through of her own drug use. "Troubled little angel," she sings "inconsistent flying blind most of the time/ Drama Queen/ Preening and untangling the feathers in her wings/ Captured by her dreams desperately she sings".
"Funk This" is a mixture of originals and covers of some of the best Rhythm and Blues, Funk, Blues, and Soul music from the past thirty to forty years.
One of the songs to show off her delicacy of touch is her cover of the Jimi Hendrix's "Castles Made Of Sand". A mid-tempo song about the impermanence of dreams and the dangers of living in a fantasy world, where Ms. Khan utilizes her voice to help generate a mood appropriate to the song.
This song is also a good example of her ability to put the song ahead of her ego instead of making it about her and her talents. While younger, less mature singers will look for any excuse to unload pyrotechnics and show off their abilities, Chaka is content to let the mood of the song dictate her performance. Listening to her duet with up- and-coming powerhouse singer Mary J. Blige on the most exciting track of the album "Disrespectful" that difference is made perfectly clear. The song is a Blige composition.
"It's the kind of song two women can really sing together," says Khan, who admits that when she listens to the track now she can hardly tell where her voice ends and the younger singer's begins.
You certainly wouldn't want to be the man on the receiving end of this duo. As the jerky beat smacks you round the face, Blige and Khan take total control of the song and the relationship it describes. "You can't make me lose my mind," they roar. "I'm too strong for you".
Also amazing is Chaka's versatility as a singer as demonstrated by the range of material that "Funk This" has to offer : from the full throttle Funk of the opening track "Back In The Day" to the ballad "Angel".
She shows that slowing the pace down does nothing to detract from her sincerity as a singer.
Too often people with strong voices become stentorian when faced with a ballad and equate emotion with loudness and straining for the upper regions of the scale.
Music icons like Chaka Khan are often stifled by the pressures of delivering a successful album to their fans.
"Funk This" is an album for all skeptics.
Through the preparation for this album, Chaka has admitted that she has "been on a little journey in the last few years".
Sometimes the path to re-discovery leads us back to where originally we began. Chaka Khan's "Funk This" reminds us why we fell in love with her over 30 years ago.
The reason is because she's hopelessly...FUNKY !
|
|
|
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
FINE & FUNKY GRAMMY WINNER~BRAVO CHAKA!!!, December 23, 2007
Legendary singer Chaka Khan is red-hot & fiery in this tremendous collection of stunning vocal performances that are among her best ever & opening with a self-penned funky grinder "Back In The Day", it is obvious the legendary lady is back in peak form in a grandiose & inspired production...late legendary singer/songwriter Ed Townsend's timeless "Foolish Fool" is definitive here featuring a gritty raw performance from Chaka that is soul-deep and satisfying.
Something very special about "Funk This" are winning self-penned keepers like the unique & rhythmic complex "One For All Time" and numerous others which show Chaka to be a wonderfully accomplished songwriter/composer making it easy to why this masterful & tremendous collection earned Chaka Khan two Grammy Awards...BRAVO CHAKA!
Chaka is back better than ever and a classic Khan performance is always a joy to behold so sit back and listen in wonder to "Angel" and be stunned by a performance of great depth and beauty...be enthralled by an artist at the peak of her wondrous ability to take the listener to another dimension in a haunting and brilliant way.
"Will You Love Me?" is exotic & mesmerizing with another brilliant Kahn vocal hitting scorching heights while a fascinating Jimi Hendrix original "Castles Made Of Sand" is an engrossing rocker then hold on for the Grammy winning duet with Chaka & Mary J. in awesome from making "Disrespectful" the greatest DIVA DUAL in many years while in better musical times than this current musical drought, "Sign'O'The Times" penned by Prince would have been a huge #1 Blockbuster Hit like "I Feel For You"...magnificent in every way, this funky anthem will grow on anyone who loves a brilliant magical musical ride after a just a few spins...awesome arrangement and Chaka hits incredible vocal heights!
By now it is clear the amazing team of Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis are the perfect match made in musical heaven for Chaka Khan as every song is unique and brilliant with totally inspired musicians giving it all they've got!!! Let's wish & hope this wondrous team goes in to the studio to produce another stunning musical masterpiece as this feel good music for the soul is as good as it gets!
Bravo Chaka & Co...you guys really rock and did it all this time!!!!!
|
|
|
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
WHOA!, November 22, 2007
CHAKA BRING THE HEAT, BACK! My wife knows what kind of music I love and this is one of them, Funk This is AMAZINGLY FUNKY! I am soooooo glad that artist from the 70's are bringing the MUSIC back. I DO love some Hip Hop and Metal music (you'll see my reviews) but FUNK is it for me. James Brown, Parliment Funkadelic, The Chambers Brothers, Slapbak, (Early) Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tower of Power, Fishbone, Weapon of Choice, etc. When Chaka sings, she does not have to struggle with hitting high notes because she's a master of it. Now all we need is for MORE 70's artist to come strong: like Tavares, Sly and the Family Stone, Rare Earth. Chaka's Back!
BROOKLYN S T A N D U P!
Cooper Park, Baby
50 Debevoise Ave
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
Interact With Your Music: Discover, listen to, and buy new music, all from the pages of SPIN's digital edition, free to Amazon customers.
~ Angie Stone
~ Jill Scott
~ Queen Latifah
~ Rahsaan Patterson
~ Will Downing
- the new music site from IMDb and Amazon.
