Consumer Guide Album

Chic: Believer [Atlantic, 1983]
Although you'd figure the collaboration would suffer after both Nile and Nard started coming up with good albums of their own, the damage is amazingly slight. The title track, a true song of faith ("Stand back-to-back, believer/Meet head-to-head/Fight toe-to-toe, believer/Dance cheek-to-cheek"), achieves the rough-minded positivity the rest of the album aims for. The true song of praise that comes next is every bit as believable. And the rest is blessing enough in this negative time. B+