Out from under the wings of Stevie Wonder, Rufus now features Chaka Khan's sexy persona as its selling point. Her logo lips and Hiawatha leather outfits may seem inviting on the album's cover, but between the grooves she's thin.

Khan dominates the album, and though her histrionic vocals have calmed down recently, there is very little emotion in her voice to replace her wailing screams. The material...

Rags to Rufus, the second LP from the pop group turned soul band, is most notable for lead singer Chaka Khan's inspired performances. The album's two hit singles, Stevie Wonder's sexy "Tell Me Something Good" and Khan's "You Got the Love" derive both their tension and charm from her tough, sexy vocals. She consistently transcends the limited group-written material and the competent but thin...

With time and experience, Chaka Khan has broken away from her screeching Aretha Franklin imitations and found her own voice in both the musical and poetic senses of the term. Working with her own group rather than studio musicians may well have facilitated the process.

Even on AM hits like "You Got the Love," Khan displayed an oddly somber sensibility for the get-up-and-boogie material. She always...

It's hard to say whether Street Player is intended to show off the versatility of Rufus or prepare listeners for the presumed departure of Chaka Khan. In the past, Rufus has been little more than Khan's backup band, a situation akin to that which Janis Joplin shared with Big Brother and the Holding Company. Street Player seems to be an attempt at establishing these neglected musicians as a varied,...

Quincy Jones' crisp, elegant production is as flattering to Rufus and Chaka on Masterjam as it was to Michael Jackson on Off the Wall, though the raw material is, of course, very different. Jackson is an ever-improving pop-soul stylist, while Rufus is essentially a commercial funk band that plays party music.

It would be unfair to say that Rufus is nothing without singer Chaka Khan–they share...