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3.0 out of 5 stars
Ahhhhh......Sweet Chic!, 11 Oct 2011
I bought this album on its first release in 1992, not expecting much, and loved it - at least the first half.
It fires from the off with the double-barrelled segue of Chic Mystique/Your Love and then has trouble sustaining the energy (it doesn't). Jusagroove and Something You Can Feel (marred by a terrible, dated rap by Princesa) keep things bubbling with New Jack Swing beats, but by the time we get to the anodyne ballad One And Only One it definitely feels like the balloon is deflating. The fabulous Doin' That Thing To Me raises the temperature, but the monotonous rap of the title track and a succession of treacly ballads and anonymous funk workouts pretty much kills it stone dead.
With only 13 tracks but a runtime of more than an hour Chic-ism seems a lot longer, probably because many of the tracks outstay their welcome. The whole production is a lot more beat-heavy and vocal (there is definitely too much histrionic shrieking) than previous Chic albums, and its attempts to be contemporary only make it sound even more dated, but the truth is that this album is completely out of step with the music of its time.
Even so, the first few tracks are treasures and worthy of inclusion in the Chic Canon.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
PURE MODERN FUNK!, 2 Feb 2010
This review is from: Chicism (Audio CD)
Modern funk, imagine a cross between the disco era Chic and New Jack Swing /Bobby Brown et al that was popular in the mid-nineties. Obviously, David Bowie agreed with me, as he used some of Nile Rodger's band on his 'Black Tie White Noise' album. Anyone who likes the aformentioned will enjoy. And I thought the singing was really good, especially on 'One And Only One'!
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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
not quite classic chic, 3 April 2009
This review is from: Chicism (Audio CD)
Just when i thought 'Believer' had risen as the ghost of Chic, I found Chic-ism. I quite liked this album at first, but it now seems so dated, and so early 90's. Some songs sound like copies of a few of the greats, such as 'I want your love' from c'est chic but this album tries to copy the great period of 'Chic/C'est Chic/Risque/Real People/Take it off', but this album is ten years too late, and instead sounds like a tired-funked up-remix of hits released years earlier. This really was the 'last' Chic album. Alfa and Lucy had gone, and replaced by two screechy unknowns. Nile was still experimental, but better employed producing his much loved pop records. Bernard, I suspect, tried to hang on to the Chic formula. It makes me sigh when i pick up the album, and long for the old magical, sparkling-diamond-days of classic Chic.This album is better than 'believer' & possibly 'Tongue in chic', but a reminder of just how great Chic really were in the late 70s and early 80's, and how much they dived there-after.
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