World Clique

Deee lete

A Scooby Doo episode in which Fred, Velma and Daphne follow a trail of day-glo, pheremones and good beats, only to find it's led them to each other and their coming of age in the post-disco era. They then Scooby Screw each other with reckless abandon and dance their way through the emotions they don't yet understand, gabbing on the way home about the power of love and the groove in their hearts. Zoo-zoo-wah, indeed!

This turned from 4 to 5 stars when the "I'd probably put it on again" criteria I use for a 4 rating turned into "I actually put it on again more than once later in the week." It's jam. It's a vibe. And I'm into it.

I was so deee-lited today! (Yeah, I said it.) Smooth and funky love.

Groove is truly in the heart. My heart.

In the late 80s, most folks my age looked with horror at the psychedelic looks and sounds of the late sixties and early seventies. Tangerine, avocado, lemon, tomato: these colors (not foods) filled thrift stores because no one wanted them. Most of my peers were in Goth Black or Eco Earth Tones. Gloomy Grunge was fighting its way into the mainstream. Austin Powers and the Brady Bunch movie were some years away. "Groove is in the Heart" hit me like a truck. It was so fun and so groovy (and we weren't allowed to say groovy anymore), and when I saw the video I swooned. These weren't things we heard and saw. Sampling and mixing sounds at a level such as this was brand new, and on top of that it was catchy and made you want to move! And then the video! Glorious color and movement! Finally something made for me! It would be hard to judge how creative and innovative this album was at the time just listening to it today. This was one of the first CDs I bought when I finally got a player. I may have overplayed it in the 90s, so that I didn't really revisit it after that. It was really fun to listen to the whole thing again for the first time in a couple of decades. Sure, there's a nostalgia element to my rating, but that's one of the reasons I'm here.

2.9 - "Groove is in the Heart", the rest is in the bin.

This thing is so vibrant, artists spend years chasing the highs of “groove”

The question foremost in my mind going into this album was “Is there more to it than ‘Groove Is in the Heart’?” And the answer is a resounding no. That track is the sole bright spot on this album - a funky throwback that sounds like nothing else on this record and was a huge hit around the globe (the fact that it had an eye popping, candy colored music video probably didn’t hurt). The rest of the album unfortunately sounds like bog standard late 80’s/early 90’s electronic/dance music with the occasional strangeness (“Who Was That?” being a prime example of the latter) thrown in. I am someone who tries to find the silver lining in things however - and I’ve got to hand it to “1,001 Albums You Must Listen to Before You Die” for this - the preponderance of electronic/dance albums I’ve gotten so far has moved me from someone who thought it wasn’t a genre for them to someone who knows that it isn’t a genre for them.

One of the top public reviews states that this is Daphne, Velma and Fred from Scooby Doo and their coming of age. You're so wrong, it's Shaggy!! #JusticeForShaggy Really enjoyed this album, very groovy indeed!! Saved tracks: Good Beat, E.S.P., Groove Is In The Heart, Deep Ending

Sweetly optimistic 90's. Refreshing, from having been raised on '00s cynicism.

I JUST WANNA HEAR A GOOD BEAT 10/10

World Clique grew on me in a shocking way - shocking because it didn't break 90's-dance-album form. Instead, it revealed itself as a better and better project over the runtime. My only theoretical explanation is how well sound-designed the tunes are. The samples move through space in a way that most produced pop does not. This is extra-impressive since the songs are house-minimal. And beyond the theoretical I can only say that I bounced more and more as I listened.

amazing, what is love is a brilliant song, and all of it is a super fun listen

All-time favorite. This album raised me in a couple ways, probably. Lady Miss Kier an all-time legend. All three Deee-Lite albums rock

A fun and funky blast from my past. It's been a while since I listened to this album but it is still very enjoyable.

Of course I’m very familiar with “Groove is in the Heart”, but I was surprised to see that this album was already in my music library. So apparently I have listened to this some time ago. It’s hard to believe this is from 1990. The album is a lot of fun with groovy music to match the groovy cover. Great listen!

What a surprise. I knew the hit but didn't expect the album to be so good

When I bought this album as a 26 year old I was more than half convinced that guitar based pop was all but dead. The charts were filled (aside from the usual dross) with thinly-disguised, floor-filling paeans to hedonism and disco biscuits and any references to "love" we're usually code for getting twatted with a load of gurning strangers in a field just outside the M25. It didn't really work out that way, I suppose, which is probably for the best. Anyway, it's an absolute age since I've played this record and I'm surprised at how housey it is. Sure enough, as well as locating precisely where groove is, it also defines "love" as a neo-hippyish shared, no doubt chemically-induced, experience. I'd have had no problem with that back in the day but I find it slightly irritating and dated these days. I know, I know... I'm getting old. To be fair, I enjoyed it a lot more than I've let on so far. Aside from the housey piano riffs and hedonistic pseudo-philosophising, there's also plenty of playful and inventive use of break beats and samples and Lady Miss Kier radiates star quality - it's just that I'm not 26 any more and I don't care about this sort of music half as much as I used to.

Sounds like Americans trying to do Madchester. Not a bad facsimile, but still not the same.

This a dubious inclusion on this list. I would characterize this band as more of a one hit wonder, rather than one that put out an album that one must listen to before they die.

cool

A Favorite!

Surprisingly good fun. Wishing the ratings were out of 10 as this is a 3.5/5

I liked this album, nice listening to something different that I like! 4 stars

This cheap cake filled with repetitive lyrics and terrible puns is surprisingly enjoyable. It's fun, the beats and the hooks are nice, and it's very '90s.

Very average album with a very average hit, that doesn't even feel like it belongs. Very specific style, that probably worked in quirky 90s, but is rather boring nowadays. Not much to say about this album.

Is there a name for that particular sort of piano playing style that 90’s Dance music used so often? The plinky plonky stuff that sounds a little like rag time? Cos it’s all over this album, and I’ve always thought it sounded cool. Although a lot of the album blended into the background a bit, it was never boring or unpleasant, and I could understand why it was possibly influential, although I don’t know if it was for certain. But Groove Is In The Heart is a classic, and the rest of the album was fine

I quite enjoyed this actually, although besides 'Groove is in the heart' there aren't really (m)any other memorable songs.

De la house ma foi sympatoche même si carrément pas terrible en fait.

En ce mardi matin de defaite footballistique, mon humeur etait des plus deplorables. Néammoins, le generateur me fasait une belle promesse en me servant sur un plateau le groupe Deee-Light, aux lettres non sans rappeler les plus belles heures de la voix de nez. Quelle ne fut pas ma deception à l'écoute de cet album, ou les principes fondamentaux de la voix de nez ne sont absolument pas respectés. Deee-Light fait honte a toute une frange de l'industrie musicale, choisissant volontairement un nom de scène faisant référence à l'univers de la nasalité, sans pour autant proposer une performance en adéquation avec les attentes. La quantité d'air insuflée entre les parois nasales de la chanteuse principale est grandement insuffisante, Dee-Light n'est tout simplement pas digne de son nom.

Sounds pretty dated and i can't say i love just sitting down and listening to a whole album of dance music. these tracks are all pretty goofy, but i can tell that a lot of them would be really fun to dance to. last song with the animal noises is pretty annoying.

By 1990, the excess of the 1980s had reached critical mass.  With apex-excess achieved, nearly everyone wore garish fluorescent or neon colored clothing, and if you were particularly cool, you had fluorescent colored clothes that changed color as your body heated up or when someone placed their hand upon your shirt. We were no longer content with only using laces to tighten the shoes around our feet. Our shoes had inflatable plastic reservoirs built into them which we would fill with air by way of pumping a rubber ball on the tongue of the shoe, all in the quest to achieve maximum podiatric comfort.   It was a simpler time…a time when Parker Lewis couldn’t lose, when the C&C corporation unveiled their cutting edge Music Factory, and the mere act of barfing on the Prime Minister of Japan could ruin your chances at presidential reelection.  Our dance music was funky and repetitive with one word vocal samples that echoed throughout dance halls across the nation… It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times.  

really only worth it for the one big hit single huh? maybe the second track too. but, otherwise, pretty unimpressive.

More like Deee-test.

The Beatles broke up in disgrace after hearing this album

Nice!

So many listens, back in the day. I still know it by heart. It’s lost a tiny bit of its charm but it’s still a fiver.

Had no idea this album was as much fun as it is otherwise I would have had it listened to years ago

I had never listened to this album before and I LOVED IT!

You can't help but love those vocals and house piano chords.

Tons of groove on this album. Not my normal listen but this was thoroughly enjoyable.

Brilliant album.

That was so good, cool beats all the way through!

A forgotten gem from my childhood. I had this album on CD and would use it to fall asleep at night. The songs can be a bit repetitive in nature but they are such bangers that it just doesn’t matter. “Groove is in the heart” is the best and most 90s song in creation. Absolutely adore this album. 10/10

Normal pants are not an option

House. Me ha gustado bastante. Venga, un 5.

When I was 11, VH1 counted down the top 100 one-hit wonders, and listed "Groove is in the Heart" at #14. They mentioned Bootsy Collins’ participation, who I recognized from the Beginner's Bass book I had gotten that Christmas. I also really liked the snippet they played a lot. So, even though I pretty much only listened to pop-punk at the time, during my next trip to Strawberries Records, I picked up the full CD. My mind was instantly blown. As silly as it sounds, World Clique was my gateway into dance music. (I enjoyed it so much, in fact, that it also inspired me to dig more into the full CDs of other one-hit wonders, which served as my own personal music history education throughout my teens.) While I’ve always loved this album, the older I got, the more it rose in my personal Top 100. By the time I was in college, it was solidly in my Top 10 favorite albums ever, and it’s remained there to this day. It’s bubbly and fun to dance to, but it’s also layered and has all these unique textures that you can unravel if you listen closely. It’s also deeply aware of its lineage, and I think that helps solidify it as a classic, because it’s reverent without feeling academic. This is really what I want most out of music – on the surface, pure fun, and if you want more, you can dig into it, but you can always just enjoy it on that surface level, too. It’s camp and inclusive and cute and catchy and feels communal. I love it so much, it’s flawless through and through.

Playful and very fun. So riffy and funky, makes me wish I was older in the late 80s/ early 90s so I could enjoy the queer dances that were most likely happening to this album. Surprise 5 stars for me

So good. The whole album is great groovy dance music. 5 stars.

Someone took a bath, Mr. Bubble Middle name, must be trouble Bootsy, Qtip, Maceo, great album, fun af! Saw Deee-Lite early 90's WOW, holy psilocybin

Easy 5 I love this album so much and I believe in the power of love. And also groove IS in the heart

Classic for period. Tracks include several major artists, such as Maceo Parker, Fred Wesley, Bootsy Collins, and Q-tip.

I really enjoyed it :) at least 50% of this enjoyment was possibly due to how fun I think the album cover is but that's because it's Very Fun. I feel like it's been too long since I gave out a 5 so I'm giving it to this album even though arguably it's possibly not worth it. So yes 5/5 for the silly little guy on the album cover

Fun Fun Fun album. I knew a few songs from back in the day, but...now that I was able to listen to the whole album, I can say, if I ever feel like putting on my dancing shoes, I have an album to throw on and dance to.

i like it out of all the albums ive listened so far this one fits my music taste more LOL reminds me of animal jam osts

Bangah

I thoroughly enjoyed this album. More than I thought I would. I knew Groove is in the Heart before but it’s a solid album all the way through

A pure delight. Funky house might have existed before Deee-Lite, but Deee-Lite picked it up and ran with it.

Relentlessly cheery, great stuff

This is incredibly fun and exciting

This is great! Groovy

I went in with the most skepticism possible, thinking it would just be mediocre electronic 90s music, a 3 at best, and...… It's fantastic. It has this funky, unique, unbridled sense of energy to it. Production is unbelievably clean without giving the sense of being overly-polished. Bass lines are groovy to the highest degree. Now for the negatives. First off, the cover. Not much to say besides it sucks, but I suppose it also somewhat encapsulates the energy of the record, so I can forgive it. Second, the pianos. I hate midi pianos with a burning passion. So lifeless and overly-bright and uncanny. If they had been more prominent in the record, it may have significantly detracted from the experience, but they are somewhat ignorable in the grand scheme of the album. Another thought: The original vinyl pressing did not contain the first or last tracks, and I think omitting them might have led to a better experience, especially the intro track, Dee-lite Theme. Overall, not flawless, but 4 stars just seems inadequate. It's full of character and life, and leaves you wondering what will be around the corner next.

My second favorite Deee-Lite album, close behind Dewdrops in the Garden. I give this one an absolute 5/5, mostly because it grew on me every time I listened to it, and I realized pretty much every song is a BANGER. "Power of Love" is definitely the best track on here, although I think it needs a glow-up in terms of production. The album overall is pretty quiet and compressed-sounding. But otherwise it's immensely enjoyable! I especially love the techno/electronic dance elements.

Bit sickly sweet but not as bad as LL Cool J. Fkn great example of my favourite bell sound in Smile On. WOAH alright came out of nowhere with the verging on 90s trance break, me likey. Ooft coming in real nice with Groove is in the Heart - one of the ultimate Rics tunes. Hard not to give it a five just because of that. Never fully appreciated Q Tip in it either, possibly a perfectly constructed song. Alright this went from what I thought was going to be all sickly sweet to deep, dark, dirty and weird ver quickly and I loved it. Build the Bridge is some real out there shit.

Every morning I check the genre of the album of the day to see if it’s a workout album or a “dishes and laundry” album. This is a fantastic workout album and a great way to start the day. Nothing but great beats, catchy hooks and positive energy. You could put it on at a party and listen to it front to back. Definitely putting this one in high rotation.

Do I want to hear a whole album by the "Groove Is in the Heart" people? I mean sure, that's a great song. And ... yep, a fun listen. Surprisingly good (and goofy) throughout.

Wow. An album I disliked to start and it grew on me . Upbeat and quirky. I loved it

A piece of my childhood

o bootsy collins era fã seloco difícil não dar 5 estrelas

Groove is in da hart

House. Me ha gustado bastante. Venga, un 5.

groove is in the heart

4.4

Not my kind of music, but music is fun and groovy.

Pretty pleasant listen so far! Fun and infectious. Really liked her energy in particular. Not an everyday listen but definitely an enjoyable time. 4

This is definitely an album that helped house music reach a broader and more accessible audience. It’s one of those albums where you really had to be there at the time to fully appreciate the impact it made. Without that context, it might just come across as run of the mill pop and dance music from the early 90s.

Mit Kopfhörern anhören ist "World Clique" ein Hochgenuss. Stereo wird hier voll ausgereizt. Es sind viele Instrumentalteile zu hören und mit Stimmen versehen. Es gibt auch Gesang. Sehr abwechslungsreich.

85% Best: Power of Love; Try Me On...I'm Very You; Smile On; Groove Is in the Heart; Who Was That? Must-Hear? Sure

4.0

Wow, feel like this album takes some big swings. When it does hit the ball....it sure does fly out of the park but there are some complete misses there too. There were even times listening to one song had both 5* and 1* moments. "Groove Is In Your Heart" is a song I have loved for years and it still is absolutely amazing to me. I think with that alone I have to give it at least a 3, but there is enough in there that genuinely was good that I think this merits a 4*

This one has guilty pleasure written all over it. I can't in good conscience give such a ridiculous album 5 stars but it's definitely earned 4 by being so fun. 'Groove is in the Heart' is obviously familiar and by far the best track but the rest is better than expected. The clashing color scheme and charmingly obnoxious fashion sense give some hint of what you're about to hear. Some absurdity and avant garde filled the void of the music scene as the 80s turned into the 90s. Deee-Lite couldn't have emerged at any other time but it's a fun reminder of that brief era. If you're not having fun with this one, you may be taking things too seriously.

Really great album! May have vaguely heard this name before but didn't know what to expect, some really great electronic/dance stuff here, at times felt some early hip hop bounce in here too. Keeping quite a few from this one, really glad to have heard it. Favorite tracks: Good Beat, Try Me On, What Is Love, ESP, Who Was That, Build That Bridge. Album art: Funky shot of three funky people with a starry backdrop. Very hip, very vibrant. Fitting. 4/5

Love this album. It brings back so many memory. And it still holds up

Loved this!

Groove is in the heart es famosa. Está chulo, es muy rollo tienda de ropa

I mean they had one song I guess?

So exuberant and fun

Actually gas

Fun disco album. Groove is in the Heart might be my favorite track. Definitely good energy that makes you want to dance.

Fun 90s dance party.

Clinton, retro, upbeat

I mean, it’s goofy and all sorts of cheesy, but it’s FUN. It’s funky throughout and absurdly danceable. It reminds me of recent albums from The Go! Team and Jessie Ware. Groove Is In The Heart is the highlight and one of those songs that a lot of people will be like “oh yeah I know this one” when they hear it. 7 years from now this question will probably be on a music trivia game I’m playing and I’ll forget it’s Deee-Lite unless it’s multiple choice.

I like this. These beats are firmly planted in the late 1980s/early 1990s. But the sampling and the aesthetic go back much further, more reminiscent of the 1960s. It definitely sounds like it was built for a party in the club. Lots of fun from start to finish.

The track Who Was That was sampled in Fergie's Clumsy 2006. This was a good listen and definitely a different sound for the 90s

I miss club dancing

I think a lot of people question why this is on the list, but I question why the list isn’t more like this instead of being full of the entire discographies of any Britpop band with a single domestic violence charge between them.

I kinda sorta really fw this - I guess I’ve always had an affinity for fun goofy stuff like this. It’s kinda hard to gauge exactly what genre this album falls under - at times it sounds like the strange love child between electronic, hip-hop, and RNB, (especially vocally). Spacey - out of this world vibe, especially on the fuzzy sequenced synths comprising the song 'What is Love?'. Many tracks here are built off a large variety of samples, like the landmark track ‘Groove is in the Heart’ that features from Funkadelic affiliates Bootsy and Maceo, and of course Q-tip. It also has my favourite Lady Miss Kier vocal performance here alongside ‘Good Beat’. Such a fun son. I mean overall it’s just such a chill and fun experience - providing a means to space out and breath.

This often sounds like a precursor to the dance music of the 2000s and beyond. The staccato rhythmic piano chords are foundational to modern house music. The drum machines and heavy kick drums so come to mind. A major difference however is how rough around the edges and deconstructed this record feels. It’s quirky and industrial feeling. It also wears it’s major influences on its sleeve: soul, funk, and disco. What surprises me is the hip hop influence. A lot of the beats at the core of the less dancy songs sound very hip hop to me especially the intro song. Super interesting listen. 4.0

I loved all the layers of music, funk, disco and early hip hop.