Chicago-born producer and DJ Honey Dijon has spent her life immersed in house music, beginning with teenage club nights during the genre’s early heyday. Since then, she’s catapulted to superstar DJ status, a role that includes her own Comme Des Garçons line, a long-deserved entry in the DJ-Kicks mix series and two productions on Beyoncé’s RENAISSANCE. On Dijon’s third album, The Nightlife, she expands upon her vision of the dance floor as a place for decadence and release, but also community-building. Like her last album, 2022’s Black Girl Magic, it’s a family affair, with a deep roster of collaborators that includes Bree Runway, Rochelle Jordan, Madison McFerrin and long-time collaborator Luke Solomon, who co-founded the Classic dance label in the ’90s. “Just Friends”, a disco-house anthem on the subject of the friend zone, features gospel harmonies from Adi Oasis and Danielle Ponder and a rap verse from Atlanta’s Suni MF, while “The Nightlife” recruits Chloe Bailey for an ode to club catharsis: “I take the pain and I burn it/I break the chains, I earned it/I turn around and I work it.”