‘My therapist, my friends / They say I got a lot going on / They tell me that I’m a curious subject,’ sings Chaka Khan on the opening lines of ‘Curious Subject’, the third single to be lifted from ‘Chakzilla’. The latest album from the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, heralded as the Queen of Funk, is a collaboration with Australian chart-topper Sia and songwriter/producer Greg Kurstin, and sees the artist explore the ideas of “being human, feelin’ good, and stepping into our power”.
If there’s one thing certain it’s Khan’s enduring power; vocally she’s retained the strength, charisma and personality that helped her shine with Rufus across hits such as ‘Tell Me Something Good’, ‘Ain’t Nobody’ and ‘Do You Love What You Feel’, and subsequent solo smashes like ‘What Cha’ Gonna Do for Me’, ‘This Is My Night’ and ‘Through The Fire’.
It’s something she owns on the album’s title song, on which she draws direct parallels to the giant fictional monster ‘Godzilla’ while using her status to lift others: ‘I’m a giant, so come up.’
‘I Know You Can’ bears similar sentiments, as she encourages ‘I know you can do it / Yes, I’ll help you get through it’, while ‘Now and Forever’ sees Khan take on a lifetime of lessons, touching upon the highs and lows of her seven decades and how they ultimately shaped her into the woman she is today: ‘I’m alive tonight / Raising my head high / After such a fight / I can do it all.’
Sonically, the album leans into a modern disco soundscape; something that, on paper, should work for Khan, whose 1978 solo debut ‘I’m Every Woman’ bridged R&B, funk and the era’s classic club sound to become a defining hit of the disco movement. But production-wise, there’s something notably sanitised about the tracks on ‘Chakzilla’, with Khan’s vocal performances injecting much-needed life into several of the tracks. It’s a juxtaposition that worked on her 2019 mini-album ‘Hello Happiness’, where her personality-heavy vocals lifted the slick electronic instrumentation, whereas here they often highlight what’s lacking.
That’s not to say ‘Chakzilla’ is a bad effort, not by a long shot; the joyous ‘Boogie’s in My Soul’, with an ‘I Feel For You’-esque rap opening from Snoop Dogg, builds with plenty of infectious back-and-forth from the pair, while the Lenny Kravitz-featuring ‘Bring The Party’ more than lives up to its promise.
Overall, the quality of material on ‘Chakzilla’ justifies the seven year wait between projects and, production gripes aside, there’s plenty worth revisiting that makes Khan’s latest work a strong addition to an already exemplary catalogue.
