From Chic’s late-70s imperial phase through to his key role on Daft Punk’s ubiquitous 2013 hit Get Lucky, via career-shaping production work with Bowie, Madonna and Diana Ross, it’s hard to overstate Nile Rodgers’s impact on the evolution of dance music. The first Chic album in 26 years,and the first since the death of Rodgers’s musical foil, Bernard Edwards, It’s About Time is a masterly collection of relentlessly upbeat floor-fillers, even if the song titles – Boogie All Night, Dance With Me, Do You Wanna Party? – occasionally verge on self-parody.
Given Rodgers’s cultural importance, it’s no surprise that A-list guests abound, but it’s Stefflon Don who provides the standout cameo, her more abrasive style the ideal complement to the slickness of Craig David on Sober. Equally impressive is the dazzling jazz-funk instrumental State of Mine, which reunites Rodgers with keyboard virtuoso Philippe Saisse, his sometime collaborator in Outloud.
There are just two missteps: despite a bit of freestyle yelling, Lady Gaga adds nothing of value to the pointless 2015 remake of unimprovable 1979 hit I Want Your Love, arguably Chic’s most sublime moment first time around. The overegged ballad Queen, meanwhile, inspired by Diana Ross and featuring the talents of Emeli Sandé and Elton John, ladles on the schmaltz. Otherwise, this is as good an invitation to dance, dance, dance as you’ll get all year.
