Dance music is just music you can dance to, so it means something different to everyone. Do you need singalong pop to dance? Happy hardcore? Infectious funk? Some albums are dreamt up specifically for the dance floor, like Beyoncé’s heady, euphoric Renaissance, while others become dance classics, even if they were intended for the kind of chin-stroking listening you usually do at home.
So, even though it’s near-impossible to narrow down such a wide-ranging genre, we’ll try our best. Here’s 10 of the best dance albums for your nighttime pleasure.
10. Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma (2010)
Let’s kick off with something cerebral. Flying Lotus’ (aka Steven Ellison) third album, Cosmogramma, qualifies as IDM or ‘intelligent dance music’, but really fits into a genre of its own. The experimental electronic album was recorded shortly after Ellison’s mother passed away, and explores grief, lucid dreaming, out-of-body experiences, and daydreams – concepts that are viscerally felt in its multi-layered wonderland of glitchy sounds, erratic beats, and distorted vocals. Best for Berghain not Be At One.
9. Disclosure – Settle (2013)
It might be the go-to for your friends from home still living on Facebook, but Disclosure’s debut, Settle, is an undeniable dancefloor banger from start to finish. “White Noise”? “F for You”? “You & Me”? It’s all there. It’s a high-energy, genre-bending dance record; and a fairly astounding debut featuring big guest stars (Sam Smith, AlunaGeorge, Jessie Ware) and arriving with a sound that felt fully formed. There’s also just nothing like a nostalgic summer album.
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8. Femi Kuti – Shoki Shoki (1998)
Once in the shadow of his father, Fela Kuti, Femi Kuti’s rapturous Shoki Shoki cemented him as an afrobeat legend in his own right. Blending dance, acid jazz, hip-hop, and neo soul, and exploring themes of Black identity and politics, the electrifying album is one continuous burst of energy, with spectacular sax solos, stirring melodies, and deep basslines. It’s impossible to resist dancing to.
7. Underworld – Dubnobasswithmyheadman (1994)
The memorably-titled Dubnobasswithmyheadman marked Underworld’s first release after they transitioned from synth pop to electronic dance music, with the band regarding it as the ‘first’ album of their second phase. The epic, exuberant record blends acid house, techno, and dub, for a hypnotic, layered, innovative sound that’s deemed a rave landmark, and a key release that helped bring EDM into the mainstream.
6. Caribou – Our Love (2015)
Thanks to its lead single, “Can’t Do Without You”, dropping in June, Our Love is also kind of a summer album, even though the rest of it arrived in October. The 2015 record saw Dan Snaith build on the success of his breakthrough album as Caribou, 2010’s Swim, delivering a more intimate, introspective, and complex dance record – and one that blends electronic with R&B and hip-hop with playful curiosity and focus.
5. Deee-Lite – World Clique (1990)
As Deee-Lite warned you on what’s become of the world’s most famous dance tracks, “Groove is in the Heart”, when you listen to their music, you’re “going to dance and have some fun”. Their 1990 album World Clique is a bold and exciting debut that headily blends funk, house, and soul. It’s a club staple, a Karaoke favourite, and an indisputable classic. It’s also the soundtrack of everyone’s favourite cocktail: “girly drinks”.
4. Justice – Cross (2007)
Conceived as an ‘opera-disco’ album, Justice’s Cross (stylised as †) has been described as “bracing as fuck” – which, surprisingly, is a compliment. The French duo’s debut album is loud. It’s an explosive, mind-bending mix of digital distortion, pummelling riffs, and twisted vocals, that embraces house, dance, and electronic pop (the latter most notably on the aptly-titled “D.A.N.C.E”). It’s a harsh brain-melting album that never really lets up, in the best possible way.
3. Beyoncé – Renaissance (2022)
With her phenomenal seventh album, Renaissance – which was dreamed up during the pandemic – Beyoncé wanted to evoke the hedonism and escapism of club culture, which felt otherworldly at the time, as well as celebrate the liberation that dance music has provided throughout history, particularly to marginalised groups. Blending house, disco, pop, R&B, and post-1970s Black dance music, Renaissance did its job and then some. It’s widely regarded as one of her best albums.
2. Chic – C’est Chic (1978)
It’s debatable whether anyone can get a crowd moving quite like disco legend Nile Rodgers – a feat particularly evidenced on C’est Chic, his band Chic’s shimmering, stirring, and superb second album. Yes, it contains “Le Freak” (which reigned as the highest-selling single in Atlantic Records’ history for over a decade), but the rest of the record is also overflowing with flamboyant excess, exhilarating grooves, and unbelievably catchy melodies that will literally force you to dance.
1. Robyn – Body Talk (2010)
Robyn’s Body Talk – undeniably one of the best dance-pop albums ever made – is packed with so many hits that, on its release, critics said it felt like a greatest hits album. The record – whose track list boasts “Dancing On My Own”, “Hang With Me”, and “Call Your Girlfriend”, among so many other smashes – melds euphoric melodies with elements of dancehall, futuristic soundscapes, and biting lyrics about heartbreak. It’s a pulsating, thrilling album; enjoyable while screaming along on the dancefloor or riding the night bus home alone.
