Follow the way of the links ... and you'll be taken to the main Earth Wind and Fire page... Open Our Pies Overall Album Score: 8.7 out of 10 Perhaps what's most interesting about Earth, Wind & Fire in the historical sense is that, although they acheived popularity in their day, they were far more popular by the time of the '70s pop culture revival of the '90s (much more compared to their counterparts). This suggests, to me, one extremely important quality of Earth, Wind & Fire: Their music is much more timeless than their contemporaries. And, it's true. They're also much more artistically daring and innovative than most others in the funk genre. It's interesting to note that it's obvious this group desires commercial success, but at this point anyway, they ademently refuse to release 100 percent normal songs. Sure, there's the funk song "Mighty Mighty" that sounds bred for the radio and a few straight-ahead ballads "Devotion" and "Open Our Eyes." But they also insert some more weirdo songs. "Fair But So Uncool" has a distinctly original groove. "The Drum Song," one of the album's best in my opinion, features an African xylophone, which bandleader Maurice White has used in all of his albums this far in the discography. It's like his signature! "Spasmodic Movements" is a jazz fusion instrumental and "Caribou" is a choral work that sounds like it was destined to be released in 1964 in the post-jazz era except it was done with a weird twist. One thing you cannot accuse this album of being is non-diverse! Although some of these songs don't sound as fresh, exciting or tuneful as I would have liked from a pop album, they don't repeat themselves much. This is a quality of an album that I'm always happy to see! They don't want to pigeonhole themselves so much in one type of genre, and this means the album isn't so boring. That said, most styles attempted in this album are also attempted in prevous Earth, Wind & Fire albums, and it sounded fresher in those albums. Overall Album Score: 8.7 out of 10 (I'm glad they're giving me reasons to give them such high scores all the time. This is interesting and entertaining.) Average Song Score: 8.6 (They're not perfect, but there's quite a bit of good songs on here and interesting ideas.) Album Tilt: 8.5 (Some of this isn't too special, but this is another good album from these guys.) Artist Rating: 9.0 (Raised because they're far more interesting than the average funk-band.) Track Reviews Mighty Mighty 10/10 The album begins with the straight-ahead funk-pop song "Mighty Mighty," which features everything a great funk song needs. A strong beat you can tap your foot to, a solid horn section and fun vocal performances. This is a well-written song and it deserves its little place in funk history. Devotion 8/10 It is considerably slower, and less exciting. The song is well written even though the melody is nothing to get excited about. The vocal performances are nice and soulful, and they sound quite a lot like they're emulating the Four Tops. That's not a bad idea, but also not one that intrigues me. This song is moderately good. Fair But So Uncool 8.5/10 This is a modest funk song with some excellent rhythm. This is a pretty creative song in its presentation, also, because I can't say that I've heard a groove like this before. Hey, I've never been one to talk badly about this group's ability to innovate! Have you heard their debut? It's frikin' sweet. This song isn't quite so striking, but it's still great. Feelin' Blue 9/10 This is more of a straight-ahead ballad. Leave it to this band to follow up "Fair But so Uncool" with an exceedingly normal song. It's a moderately paced number with a nice flow and good, carefree vocal melody. The instrument playing features perfect arrangements with a jazz guitar that's almost playing light fusion. It's not such a memorable product, but it's a distinguishable one. Kalimba Story 8.5/10 "Kalimba Story" brings the funk back to the foreground and not a moment too soon! The song starts with a rock solid beat and, pretty quickly, funk guitars start playing their hearts out in accompaniment. The song isn's too fast paced, but it does have a lot of soul. After awhile, it becomes apparent why this song is called "Kalimba Story." As the song progresses, it gains more inertia and Maurice White sloyly brings in that African xylophone he's so fond of. (This particular instrument shows up in a lot of early albums of this band.) The drawback to this song is that when it's all over, it seems like it repeated too much. Drum Song 9.5/10 And that xylophone is given star treatment with "Drum Song," which turns out to be one of the better songs in the album. The xylphone begins with a solo and a nice, African beat chimes in to give the song some rhythm. They don't forget to include a nice, steady funk bass guitar! Tee Nine Chee Bit 8/10 This is another mid-tempoed funk song that starts with some humorous dialogue, and the rest of the song continues to have a sense of humor. It's good that such a band doesn't take themselves more seriously than necessary! Serious composers also usually mean they're boring. Spasmodic Movements 8/10 This is a highly enjoyable jazz fusion band. After all, Maurice White assembled a band of excellent instrument players, and it's certainly high time he got to show them off! There's no singing; just straight ahead jazz playing. Caribou 8.5/10 Scat singing that was popular of choral work in the early-to-mid '60s characterizes "Caribou," which seems an interesting decision, because I would have thought this kind of stuff was taboo in 1974 (just because things tend to go out of style 10 years after they're popular ... but what do I really know?) This is another song that's gives this album its extremely diverse flavor. Open Our Eyes 8/10 This is the final song, and it's more of a straight ahead ballad. It's solid and well played, but they repeat the same chords too much at the end of the song. This is kind of a disappointing ending for me, but this is certainly a solid song. End your fiery comments here.

All reviews are copyrighted by the author, Michael Lawrence. He can break wind on the earth.