Chic

Not as elegant conceptually as Risque, but a better party record for sure--in a music of six-minute cuts (actually, only three run over 4:42) a group this good has no trouble putting together a quality best-of after two years and three albums. Greil Marcus describes The Motown Story as "the history of James Jamerson's bass playing, on fifty-eight hits." This is the future of Bernard Edwards's on seven. And guess where Edwards learned his sh*t. (Grade: A-)