Disco de Earth, Wind & Fire: “Powerlight”

Just about everytime EW&F broke new ground in the mainstream from any album, their follow-up release would attempt to pull back in an effort to recapture some of the group's true essence. Spirit, Faces and this album are all perfect examples. Powerlight is the successor to 1981's Raise!, which was a commercial comeback album of sorts for EW&F. The incredibly glossy acoustics, futuristic sound effects and formulaic rhythms that made Raise! a success were combined with the meatier instrumental and vocal contributions that Raise! was missing, laying an intriguing framework that I'm sure the "shiny suit men" thought couldn't miss...

"Fall In Love With Me", the lead-off single, while dance-floor ready, immediately sets a laid-back tone and clarifies EW&F's direction for this album as R&B, one of their many mastered genres. Unfortunately for the pop fans gained from Raise!, this cut would be the closest EW&F would come to sticking their necks out for them on Powerlight. Hey, sucks to be them! Because in terms of R&B/dance cuts, this album is brimming over with jewels like the hard-driving, vocoder-assisted "Spread Your Love", the breezy "The Speed Of Love", and the funked up "Hearts To Heart". The ballads are near-mint, with the gorgeous "Side By Side", "Straight From The Heart" which at first sounds like a re-re-hashing of "After The Love..." but finds its own identity, and the lullaby-like "Miracles". Yes, those kids sound real, real bad at the end, but if they just stopped the music beforehand, it might not have been taken so seriously.

Personally, I love this album, even as underrated and un-classic as it may be. The beefed up bass and high-impact vocals actually helped this album achieve a harder edge than the immediately preceding albums, without having to move 100 miles an hour or having to reinvent the wheel creatively, as was done on Raise! This album is very much EW&F, but the following changes led them in the wrong direction:

- Starting with Raise!, The Emotions became mainstays in the band, guest starring more often and contributing background vocals more frequently. On Powerlight, you can hear them on just about every song. By the next album, Wanda & Co. would take over the background and actual group member background vocals would be all but absent.

- The computer effects, in addition to stagnating musical creativity, were also being used to distort live vocal and instrumental performance on Powerlight, which should not have to be done with this group, which is known for its skills in both areas.

Anyway, you do not need to be a hardcore fan to appreciate this tight package. Powerlight takes EW&F's nuances of the '80s and offers them in rare form back to their core audience. If you already own this album and don't see its value, give EW&F's following release a listen, then clutch your shining Powerlight just a little bit tighter.

POWERLIGHT is a truly gorgeous album that was the last from what I would consider their classical period, 1973 to 1983, with the members who would make the band, it's music and message historic and beloved to millions of fans around the world. This is an album that, as Maurice would later state, was not properly promoted and part of the problem is that the band was worn out by the constant and non stop recording, touring and pressures they had experienced throughout the 10 year period that brought them fame and exhaustion.

I believe 1980's FACES and this album suffered the most from the tensions that were arising. The didn't even tour to promote FACES which cost them some in sales and promotion by Columbia Records. Their tours were world renown and was greatly anticipated, however, the grind had finally cost them as their legendary guitarist, Al McKay, had had enough and left the band following the release of the album. The record company pressured them for another album and although they did deliver another masterpiece, 1981's RAISE!, their interest in keeping the band together began to wane.

Verdine White previously stated that the exhaustion and tensions within the band had been growing and they should have actually stopped and broken up after the I AM album while they were at the peak of their musical powers and on top of the music world. And although Maurice felt that FACES was their most complete album, it suffered for the reason already outlined. In the midst of this turmoil, they brought back Roland Bautista, their guitarist on the LAST DAYS AND TIMES album, and recorded RAISE! & POWERLIGHT.

The fact that they release 2 albums of the magnitude of those albums speaks to the genius of this band. I have a special place for both for that very fact. POWERLIGHT is an album with great songwriting and truly spectacular vocal harmonies by Maurice and Philip Bailey. And of course, their trademark musicianship and other worldly horn arrangements. The second side of the album especially has some of the most incredible harmonies they ever did and that's saying something.

This is very much an album about one of their universal themes, Love and it's power to change attitudes, perceptions and bring people to a great understanding of one another. Songs like "Fall In Love With Me"; "Spread Your Love"; "Side By Side"; "The Speed Of Love" and "Something Special" all have dual meanings if one listens to the lyrics with understanding. It's not just physical or mental but also spiritual love for both oneself and others. The crown jewel of this theme and the album, in my humble opinion, is "Miracles." A gorgeous song about life, love, hope, dreams and has the single most gorgeous vocal arrangements you'll ever hear.

This album was the last of an era, they would never sound like this again as the next album they would release, ELECTRIC UNIVERSE, was an "electronic" album that I could just never get into. No Phenix Horns, no trademark musicianship and the band just fed up completely at that point. Even though I loved their first 3 albums to begin the 1980's,FACES, RAISE! and this LP, Maurice had begun a pattern of inviting more and more outside collaborators to help him with writing the songs.

This, according to him, was to help the band and their sound stay fresh with the coming changes in the 80's music scene. I felt, as did other members of the band, that this was the greatest source of the tension in the band during their final days. This is a band that would eventually have 5, count them, FIVE members voted into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame for the music they composed during their heyday, in particular the 1970's. Earth, Wind and Fire WERE the trend setters in music for an entire decade and it brought them worldwide, Hall Of Fame credibilty as one of, if not, in many people's eyes, mine included, the greatest band of all time.

This is were I believe they missed the influence and guidance of their late, great producer and mentor, Charles Stepney the most. He,as Maurice stated, was the coach of their entire musical existence. That means he wasn't just involved with arranging, producing and writing songs, he also guided them down certain paths and steered them away from certain others. I believe Maurice felt the pressures of handling everything by himself and lost his way, thus making decisions he would not have had Stepney been alive to help guide him.

The course they began with FACES had already cost them dearly, Al McKay would leave the band right after it's release and by the time POWERLIGHT came along, you started to see more of a shift of allowing others, in particular, Wayne & Wanda Vaughn, to take more of an active role in the songwriting and where the band was headed. This caused friction that would eventually lead to a breaking point which was the next album, after which, they broke up and went their seperate ways never again to have the full membership record together again.

This was/is truly the swan song for the band as we had all come to know and love it. And for that main reason, I have enjoyed, thoroughly, this album over the years since it's release. And you will too.

This is a good album, but you can tell the group is struggling a bit to reconcile the classic EW&F sound with the sound of the time. The best songs on the album are "Fall in Love With Me" and "Side By Side," but there are some other good tracks too - "Speed of Love" and "Something Special" in particular.

No this is not "All 'N All",or even "Raise!" but Earth,Wind & Fire ar growing up.New guitarist Roland Bautista adds a rockier

guitar muscle to the bands framework and there is a modern techno

influence here but the songs,especially the fast ones are classics."Fall In Love With Me","Spread Your Love",with it's

lovely steel drum work and "Speed Of Love" all work but most

impressive is the Phillip Baily vocal "Freedom Of Choice",an

unusual political-orientated jam that might not sit well with

some 80's fans and in my opinion a good reason why the album wasn't as successful as some others."Elesewhere "Something Special" is an attempt to rewrite "Wanna Be With You" and

"Heart To Heart" is a successful funk-rocker.More beat and dance

heavy yes,harder edged in spots also but unfortunately the last consistant album Earth,Wind & Fire has delivered thus far.

All the songs on this album are strong. I think it's one of the best EWF albums. The only flaw I see is the awful singing by children at the end of Miracles. If they had sang on key, it may have been acceptable. But, this is just at the very end of the song, so I don't let it bother me too much.