World Clique (1990)

World Clique is the debut album by American dance music band Deee-Lite, which was released in 1990. The album's first single, "Groove Is in the Heart", was a top-five success on both the US Billboard Hot 100 and UK Singles Chart as well as a No. 1 hit on the US Hot Dance Club Play chart. Three subsequent singles also hit the top ten on the US dance chart, including "Power of Love/Build That Bridge", which also hit No. 1, and "Good Beat".

Guest artists on the album include Bootsy Collins, Q-Tip, Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker. When World Clique was released on compact disc, two bonus tracks were added to the album: "Deee-Lite Theme" and "Build the Bridge".

"E.S.P." contains a sample of actor Bela Lugosi from the 1934 film The Black Cat.

Critical reception

In Spin, Steven Daly hailed World Clique as "the debut album of the year" and "an eloquent tableau of '90s possibilities", finding that Deee-Lite "keep the affair on a human scale" and distinguish themselves from other "digital Robin Hoods" by writing their own hooks and refraining from excessive sampling. "While their command of technology is determinedly progressive," wrote Don McLeese of the Chicago Sun-Times, "they use sampling for more than the usual recycling and bring a playfulness beyond the bloodless perfection that has come to characterize computer music." Entertainment Weekly critic Greg Sandow said that Deee-Lite "make dance music that's unpredictable and steadily delirious" and imbue World Clique with "an ironic edge" and their own lyrical and musical "quirks". Record Mirror's Richie Blackmore complimented the group's "refreshing ability to master different dance styles", while Richard Norris commented in Select that the album "sounds like the most fun you've ever had, a fittingly wordly mix of chunky funk, house and soul topped with some of the finest wiggly noises you'll have heard for a while." Helen Mead of NME lauded World Clique as "one of the most varied and inspirational club crossover records ever."

Dennis Hunt of the Los Angeles Times was less impressed, writing that World Clique is "littered with distracting touches and tries too hard to be innovative". Rolling Stone reviewer Arion Berger felt that it features "formulaic well-chosen beats and not-quite-powerful vocals" and comes across as "a selective history of pop culture played as house music and compressed into easily swallowable three-minute bites." The Village Voice's Robert Christgau identified "Good Beat" as the album's sole "choice cut".

Two years after the album's release, Billboard called World Clique an "innovative, media-saturated debut". In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Ned Raggett wrote that frontwoman Lady Miss Kier "has not merely the pipes but the personality to carry something on her own", while producers DJ Dmitry and Towa Tei "come up with a seamless, adept flow throughout, merrily raiding whatever they so choose in the past for their own purposes."

In 2003, Slant Magazine included World Clique in its list, Vital Pop: 50 Essential Pop Albums. Charles Pitter for Zouch notes that album track and single "Groove Is in the Heart" is a "dance classic".

Commercial performance

The album's initial success occurred in the UK, where it peaked at No. 14 on the UK Albums Chart in September 1990. Simultaneously, the album entered the Billboard 200 at No. 180 for the week of September 15 in the US. Fueled by the success of "Groove Is in the Heart", World Clique continued to climb the chart for several weeks, peaking at No. 20 for the week of November 24.

The success of subsequent singles "Power of Love", "Good Beat", and "E.S.P." helped the album to sustain steady sales throughout the following months, with the album achieving RIAA Gold certification in December 1990 and remaining on the Billboard 200 for a total of 41 weeks before falling off the chart in June 1991, following its final chart position at No. 199.

World Clique is Deee-Lite's most successful album, outlasting Infinity Within (1992) and Dewdrops in the Garden (1994) on the Billboard 200 chart and outperforming its successors in terms of highest peak position and mainstream exposure and sales.