Since Chaka Khan first dropped her flavor in the early Seventies, her influence has spread exponentially, affecting singers who don't even know they're biting her style. Her voice is an instrument of knowingness, carnality, spirituality and intellect. On Come 2 My House, co-written and co-produced with the Artist for his NPG label, the voice is better than ever. If melted caramel had a sound, this would be it: rich, thick, warm and enveloping.

The disc's problems lie in the production; Like the Artist's own recent releases, My House has a veneer that's often straight out of the Eighties. That means ballads like "Journey 2 the Center of Your Heart" and the otherwise lovely "Don't Talk 2 Strangers" (about a mother forced by circumstance to part with her child) are marred by tacky, timeworn arrangements – especially frustrating on "Don't Talk 2 Strangers," where Khan's high-in-the-mix, unadorned vocals are riveting. The solid tracks narrowly edge out the flawed: "Hair" is a deep funk, a tongue-in-cheek but serious rumination on the politics of the hair weave ("People ask me everywhere/Is that really all your hair?!"). "Democrazy," with its stripped-down, jazzy-house groove, conjures the memories and energy of Controversy-era Prince, while "Spoon" serves up pure, simmering sex. And the rock-tinged "I'll Never B Another Fool" is the raucous declaration of a woman who's been burned but not broken: "I'll never open my legs again to a man who's insecure." But it's the autobiographical "This Crazy Life of Mine" ("I used to sing for mama's company/I guess that was the start of the woman who came to be") that provides the album's heart. It only underscores the fact that, had a freshblooded visionary co-helmed with the diva, Come 2 My House coulda been a classic. (RS 795)

ERNEST HARDY