LP Review: Come 2 My House and ClassiKhan
Come 2 My House
Released: 1998
LP Charts: #49 R&B
Taking one look at the album title Come 2 My House and you can best believe this is a Prince production. Khan does get co-producer credit as she and his Purpleness co-wrote most of the tracks together.
Overall this is an okay album. I’ve seen some reviews rave about this, but I can’t understand loving the music here that much. Of course, I’m a cold-hearted bastard when it comes to music post-1983. I also think in the late 1990s that Prince was putting out waaaaay too much music. The man rarely made a bad song, but given that the TRIPLE CD Emancipation had been released in late 1996, I’m gonna say Prince didn’t have an album’s worth of great ideas to share with Chaka.
There are some some decent ones, though.
The title song, “Come 2 My House”, is jazzy and slightly pornographic with Khan imitating some of Prince’s freakiness from the album Come.
“Betcha I” is a funky good time with some fuzzed wah wah guitar. “Spoon” is also funkily good and has whizzing synth reminiscent of Parliament’s Bernie Worrell.
Prince dug into his vault to deliver “Journey 2 the Center of Your Heart”. It reminds me of a slowed down, ballad version of “Play in the Sunshine”. “Democrazy” sounds like it could have fell out of the Batman soundtrack Prince recorded a decade earlier. Chaka does a cover of Larry Graham’s “Hair” that is understated yet funky. I prefer the original’s spectacular focus on the over-the-top bass, however.
Anyways, I wish I could be more excited about a Prince and Chaka collaboration, but most of this music comes across as well-done, but not enthralling.
Go all in on that “Betcha I”, though.
ALBUM GRADE: C
Song Scores
Come 2 My House: 6/10
This Crazy Life of Mine: 6/10
Betcha I: 7.5/10
Spoon: 6.5/10
Pop My Clutch: 5/10
Journey 2 the Center of Your Heart: 7.5/10
I’ll Never B Another Fool: 5.5/10
Democrazy: 7/10
I Remember U: 6/10
Reconsider (U Betta): 6/10
Don’t Talk To Strangers: 5.5/10
The Drama: 5.5/10
Hair: 6/10
ClassiKhan
Released: 2004
LP Charts: #42 R&B
After Dare You to Love Me was unceremoniously shelved by Warner music in 1995/96 and Come 2 My House bombed commercially in 1998, Chaka Khan officially became an oldies act. Released in 2004, ClassiKhan was her first album of “new” material since ‘98. I use “new” in quotes because every song but one here is a cover. Only the finale,“I Believe”, is an original tune.
As an oldies act, Khan also ditched any pretense of staying contemporary or even funky as this CD was chock full of jazz-styled playing (generally on the big band side of things) plus the addition of the London Symphony Orchestra. I won’t bother scoring every song, cuz they all fall somewhere between a 5 and a 7, meaning they’re nice to listen to, but won’t really impress you.
I will say that I’m delighted that in the CD age, Chaka made the wise decision to cap this album at about 50 minutes and no song runs more than 4:30. Even then you can feel some tracks going for too long, but overall the CD, especially its first half, has a nice balance, brevity, and briskness.
A couple songs that had me feeling bouncy in the moment were “Hazel’s Hips”, “The Best Is Yet to Come”, and even a cover of Patsy Cline’s “Crazy”.
Despite my earlier statement about no single song impressing you, this album is alright for what it is. There are really no missteps because there’s no adventurism, but every performance is professional. I guess one can say the adventurism was in some of the song choices like the James Bond tracks (“Diamonds are Forever”, “Goldfinger”).