Chic and Chicago

 ... all of which in no way begs the question, is there such a thing as good and/or bad Disco? Possibly, let's find out. 

Strangest thing, i came across Chicago 13 and Chic's Risque shrink wrapped together for no obvious reason. They do have something in common though, they were released a month apart, Risque is commonly cited as the definitive Disco album par excellence, and Chicago 13 is generally regarded as the worst Chicago album because they have no business playing Disco. Seems like that would imply it's terrible Disco. Worse than Three Dog Night, even. 

I don't know though, is it actually a bad album? Is it bad Disco? Is it Disco at all? What the hell even is Disco? I think it's just uptempo funk with big orchestral arrangements and synth melodies, but let's listen to Chic's Risqué and find out from whence it came. 

Holy crap, yeah this is fantastic. It's way slower than you might expect, but my goodness is it fun. And it's supposed to be. Right here in the club, on the dance floor, these are the good times. Ignore how horrible the world actually is and go dancing every night at a quarter to 10. 

But wait a minute, isn't Industrial Dance just kind of the flip side of the coin? I mean they're both bass driven dance grooves. Industrial uses loops instead of jams, samples and noise in place of Disco's orchestra. Seriously, Industrial Dance is just the Punk version of Disco. In all actuality Punk and Disco weren't antagonistic at all, they were just two sides of the same coin; ignore it or confront it head on. Sure, Disco eventually succumbed to the same kind of decadence and frivolity that Punk was criticizing, but so did Punk/New Wave; where do you think Hardcore came from. Neither was ever intended to be a commercial mainstream commodity. 

And that's how we'll approach Chicago 13. Is it an "ignore the terrible world for a while" kind of album, or is it just trend hopping for lack of anything better to produce? 

Ok, seriously, this just sounds like a Chicago album. 13 is their 11th because they numbered non-studio albums. They also went through a real contentious back and forth over Roman vs Arabic numerals after the tragic (and if we're being brutally honest, stupid) accidental self-inflicted death of Terry Kath. Still unmistakeably Chicago. Granted it's unfair and i don't have the ability to differentiate any of their albums from each other, but outside the Transit Authority, i'd kinda rather listen to BS&T. My point is, Disco is not exactly outside Chicago's wheelhouse, hell even the Beegees had to be prodded to "disco up" the music they had already recorded so it could be the soundtrack for Saturday Night Fever. Travolta said he was dancing to Boz Scaggs, and the band playing Lowdown is basically Toto. 

I think at the end of the day when i say Disco you're probably thinking of Funkytown and Kung Fu Fighting and Donna Summers, so of course Chic and Chicago are gonna come out on top. And again with the brutal honesty, hating Disco was mostly an obnoxious publicity stunt devised by racist/misogynist Rock DJs that caused the White Sox to forfeit the second game of a double header. 

Both these albums are great. Probably not things you or i want to regularly listen to, but they're quite good for what they are and they totally deserve a spin now and again. Sometimes escapism is just what the doctor ordered. Don't worry, tomorrow we'll sift through what appears to be the contents of the evidence locker in an arson trial, but for now just enjoy the good times.