The Singles Jukebox

In which we don’t all love Chaka like we should…

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[5.29]

Alfred Soto: One of the least celebrated of R&B dance artists still sounds rarin’ to go, but when I braced myself for a famous octave leap I got a comatose rap interlude and a synth over the chorus that squeaks like a bicycle brake. Memo to her agent: if we’re giving Chaka a one shot, “contemporizing” her makes her desperate. 
[6]

Brad Shoup: Spotify: get the rights to 1982’s Chaka Khan! I don’t want the Shocklee/Sadler mix of “Slow Dancin'”. I want the original. Anyway, this is the first gospel song we’ve had in ages, which is neat! Khan’s phrasing is unique; you can hear her dropping syllables and words as the track gears up for the EDM-lite-lite chorus. Her theology is pretty toothless — standard for crossover moves — but Lecrae chips in enough pulpit-worthy buzzwords in his cameo to compensate. The track refuses full ecstasy… whether that’s due to Khan’s vocal limits or the limit of the producer’s imagination, I can’t say. The remix goes full EDM, for what it’s worth; if the song hits radio, that’ll be the way.
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Will Adams: “It” being “cheap house anthems that can barely lift themselves off the floor.” I think that bassline might suffer from depression.
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Josh Langhoff: “It’s Not Over” opens and closes with handclaps and cries of “Why?” echoing in what sounds like a cave. These echoes call forth my mental “lost in a cave” associations (mostly Tom Sawyer and the Great Brain) and depict utter emotional darkness in a very visceral way; they’re clever audio metaphors. Once Chaka Khan lights her candle and the strings come in, Neff-U’s production goes cave in a different way: all its different parts are similar but never the same, no matter where you look. Along with the rhythm section I count three different string patterns, a couple Edge-y guitar riffs, whooshes, a didgeridoo(?), and an underused Lecrae. Synth-bass BRWWAAAs prove to be more sympathetic duet partners, except for Khan herself; her vocal arrangement is something else, morphing and swooping like a colony of bats against the sky, if that’s how bats fly. Of course, that metaphor situates us outside the cave while the final bar begs to differ, so maybe it was all a dream…
[8]

Anthony Easton: I am never really inspired by this kind of rhetoric, and the more power and skill that the attempt has, the less I’m convinced. Which is a shame because I do admire Ms. Khan. 
[7]

Scott Mildenhall: Were this genuinely uplifting though self-consciously Relevant To Our Times song not worship music it could easily be a hit for a more contemporary artist. What would be good, at the very least, would be if it was remixed by some enterprising Source-esque producer — on one occasion the start of the line “you got some living to do” massively echoes Candi Staton’s delivery of “You Got The Love”‘s title. Also, is that Anastacia singing “can’t stop now”? Maybe she and Chaka have remained friends from that time they did that tour together. Lulu is conspicuous by her absence.
[7]

Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: Chaka going the soft-ass Cher-doing-electronic-twiddle twaddle route, I see. Lecrae (the church-friendly J. Cole) has about four bars before he returns to his home planet, where charisma seemingly doesn’t exist. I miss Melle Mel. We all miss Melle Mel.
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