Review: “I Feel For You” by Chaka Khan (CD, 1984)

Today’s Pop Rescue from an uncertain fate, is 1984’s I Feel For You – the fifth album by American singer Chaka Khan. Will this album give you the Feels, or should you ch-ch-ch-chuck it away? Read on…

Chaka Khan - I Feel For You (1984) album — Chaka Khan – I Feel For You (1984) album

This 10 track CD opens with the mysterious and breathy intro of second single This Is My Night. Some lovely synths and drum machines welcome us as we head to Chaka Khan on the mic. The vocals do seem a bit buried in the chorus by the synths unfortunately, and that seems to detract from what might have sounded catchy. Despite this, there’s some fun vocal samples, and it’s musically a nice start to the album but sadly, the track failed to repeat the success of the first single, giving Chaka a moderate UK hit at #14.

Then we’re on to the loved-up mid-tempo track, Stronger Than Before. This track allows us to hear the warmth in Chaka’s voice and harmonies, occasionally throwing her the bigger note to hit. It’s catchier than the previous track and is essentially a nice gentle 80’s pop song, and was written by songwriting royalty Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager. The track was the album’s fifth single in some markets, but not the UK.

That leads on to My Love Is Alive and here we hear loads of vocal samples, and they work a treat, including the opening sequence featuring Chaka’s vocal ‘dah-dah dah-dah daaa-daaa’, which gives the track a playful start. The track bounces along nicely with a simple drum machine, and layers of synths and samples with lots of gaps in between to allow for the various instrument sounds and vocals to shine. Great track that should have been a single!

Next is third UK single Eye To Eye which reached #16 in the chart. This one has some nice bass synths and lead guitars in the intro. Chaka’s vocals are wonderfully rich and soft here.

Then it’s La Flamme, which goes all in on the record scratches, bursts of dramatic synth sounds, and vocal samples. Vocally this is quite fun, and it’s style sits well with the usage of the drama synths. The underlying track seems to bounce along regardless whilst Chaka really goes for it.

Next up is the lead single I Feel For You. This is of course a cover of the 1979 Prince track and it gave Chaka a huge hit, and fused together her sound with the iconic “Ch-ch-ch-chaka-chaka-chaka Khan” vocal line from Grandmaster Melle Mel, which is synonymous with Chaka’s name. The music VIPs don’t end there, and here we also have Stevie Wonder being iconic as usual on the harmonica. This powerful combination of Chaka, the sample and rapping, and Stevie’s flawless harmonica playing ensured that the single hit #1 in the UK, where it stayed for 3 weeks. It’s a brilliantly catchy fusion of sounds. Excellent work!

By contrast that’s followed by Hold Her, which opens with dreamy big vocals of Chaka at the start before switching to synths, drum machines, and repeated vocal samples that are almost used as percussion. Chaka takes the mic for the verse and she’s shining again in this bleeping and gurgling mid-tempo track. A guitar in the background works well as Chaka’s vocals grow, giving it a welcome slightly harder sound.

Next it’s fourth UK single Through The Fire, which takes us to a fairly textbook paint-by-numbers American love ballad – you can imagine the instruments and vocal style. Chaka’s vocals make what seems like light work of this. It does allow us to clearly hear her throw her vocal power and range around. Sadly the track stalled at #77.

Caught In The Act is next, and we’re treated to an almost growling synth, and a sort of synth pad from space. Chaka’s in a reflective mood here, and her voice is lower than usual, giving it a harder and more rock sound to it. She’s joined by a guitar and drums that help to add to this harder edginess.

The album closes with the rapid percussion of Chinatown, and this is loaded with synths and beats. Chaka’s vocals are rapid-fire here, and that makes it a little disorientating at times. The robotic synth is kind of fun, but the rest of it is sort of weird game show music with a dash of chaos.

Chaka Khan’s lead single ‘I Feel For You’ (1984).

Verdict

Over all, this album is a collection of tracks that give a fresh and exciting burst of early 1980’s sounds that punch through with Chaka’s vocal power.

There’s no escaping the iconic 80’s hit and title track I Feel For You as being a highlight of this album, but it’s not alone, as My Love Is Alive and Hold Her are also great tracks too. The album’s weak points are hardly weak at all, but ironically, Stronger Than Before is this, alongside La Flamme and the chaos of Chinatown.

It’s a fun album mostly, and would have sounded incredibly daring in 1984, but it enabled Chaka to have a #1 hit, and despite the rest of the singles failing to get close to that iconic track, it did well enough to keep her in the charts.

Give it a spin if you like your 80’s pop.