| The first track off Chaka Khan's first album since 2004's Classikhan unspools the vibe she's going for instantly--in the space of a single boing-y guitar lick--and a little deeper in, the lyrics seal the deal: "Those very sounds floating in and out of my head/Created the magic that sealed my fate," she hollers in the don't-hold-back style that's made her an icon. We get the picture--Funk This is Chaka reflecting on three decades of full-bodied, fevered-up soul music and examining how it is she got to be so funkalicious in the first place. Where a lot of legends retrace their backstories and end up with albums that sound warmed over, though, Chaka forges forward (and back) with fresh and fiery swagger; you wouldn't want to handle any of these 13 songs without an oven mitt. That's not to say they aren't familiar. In addition to several just-written songs (the pretty, provocative "Angel," the heartfelt "One for All Times," and the pointedly honest "Will You Love Me"), Chaka covers Prince's "Sign o' the Times," Joni Mitchell's "Ladies Man," and Jimi Hendrix's "Castles Made of Sand," and she also twists a couple of songs she originally recorded with Rufus, "Pack'd My Bags" and "You Got the Love," into a juiced-up medley. Carly Simon's "You Belong to Me" gets the cover treatment in a likable duet with Michael McDonald, but it's another duet that earns this disc five stars for sizzle: "Disrespectful," written by Mary J. Blige and sung with her, busts out glorious grit and gut-level soul, the kind that'll leave listeners quoting Chaka in her "I'm Every Woman" phase: "Whoa, whoa, whoa-oh." --Tammy La Gorce |
