Follow the way of the links ... and you'll be taken to the main Earth Wind and Fire page... That's the Way of the Swirl Overall Album Score: 9.3 out of 10 Don't think of this as a soundtrack album. These are all pop songs. I'm sure the film (which I haven't seen) has incidental music done by a professional in that field. But those are not included here. Listening to this album cold turkey, you wouldn't have guessed that it's a soundtrack. Anyway, this is an excellent pop album! This is another case where there's a critical and popular consensus. That's the Way of the World was their best selling album by far (it hit the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Pop and R&B charts), and it's also their first album since their self-titled debut that's totally solid in the artistic sense. Never before have we seen such well-crafted songs all with good melodies. Granted, this isn't artistically innovative as that debut. But, it's certainly TONS more innovative than the average Barry White album. There is so much material in this album! The original pressing of it only contained eight songs. The rest are bonus tracks graciously added on by the studio. One of these bonus tracks is the full pop version of "Shining Star," this group's only No. 1 hit single. Although this song was certainly well received when it was originally released, it also achieved considerable success in the '90s during the '70s revival period. Accoding to wikipedia.org, this song was more popular in the '90s than the '70s. I didn't exist in the '70s and I wasn't paying attention in the '90s, so I don't remember hearing this song at all. I do know, however, that it's an excellent funk tune! It has all the right elements. It has a danceable groove, solid instrument playing, a catchy melody and a memorable chorus. I'm going to be deviant, however, and call "Africano" the best song from the album. (Oooo, I'm naughty.) The song starts out strangely (which I like) but then it turns into an instrumental with a funk groove that's desparately needed-to-be-danced-to. What's more, it is an awesome combination between disco and jazz fusion, which probably doesn't occur too much. The saxophone work is excellent! Another notable track from this album is "That's the Way of the World," because it was the album's second hit. It didn't quite do as well as the other, because it only reach No. 12 on the charts. That said, this was the group's second most successful song at the time. Overall Album Score: 9.3 out of 10 (A classic through and through.) Average Song Score: 9.3 (These are great funk-pop songs. Every single one of 'em.) Album Tilt: 9.5 (Great fun from beginning to end.) Artist Rating: 9.0 (Not so ambitious this time, but they're concentrating more on their melodies, and that's OK by me.) Track Reviews Shining Star The album begins with a one-minute preview of their number one hit single, "Shining Star." Don't worry! We'll get the full song by the ninth track. I'm not scoring this, because it really doesn't seem like enough to score. That's the Way of the World 9.5/10 The mood is utterly bright and it'll definitely put a smile on your face. The melody is catchy and it fits the optimistic tone that they were aiming for with this track. The instrumentation is straight ahead. They don't underdo it nor do they overdo it. There's a very regular, mid-tempoed beat amidst a modest funk riff. The singing is more of an ensemble work (each singer contributing a note almost whenever they feel like it), and they also sound pretty happy! The backdrop noise is also well done. They have a voilin track in the background, but they don't overdo it to the point of cheesiness. So, this is a good, unpretentious piece of music. The drawback is that there's nothing artistically exciting or innovative about this. They do perform the piece very well, but this is very standard stuff. ... Well, that certainly helped this piece become a hit. Happy Feelin' 9/10 This is more of a dance song that would have been appropriate for the disco floor. The beat is nice and quick, and conducive to dancing. The melody is very fun, and it contains some happy falsetto singing from the group. The song even features an excellent sax solo in the instrumental interlude. Maurice White also takes the opportunity to show off that African thumb piano, which he seems to love ever so much. The end of this song is extremely bizarre ... it features someone seemingly press random notes on an electric organ. Whatever. All About Love 8.5/10 In the vein of Barry White, "All About Love" is a romantic ballad. It's starts with a pounding piano as a soulful performance is delivered. A violin track takes over. And then some "ooooh" back-up vocals. The song has a nice crescendo invovling a strangely used harp and a very loud trumpet. This song continuously threatens to turn into cheesy elevator music. But, it never does. Hm. I guess it must be a good song, then. Yearnin' Learnin 9.5/10 Awesome! This is an absolutely *fun* piece of funk music! It's structured in the way a regular funk song would, but there's a touch of alien weirdness that keeps it interesting to me. And, I'm not exactly sure why this song is weird other than a strange warble of a vocal performance. It begins with some fun, accents of a horn section, and then a funky groove takes over. I feel like I can break out and dance to this song and not feel like an idiot!!! This is a real treat. Reasons 9.5/10 This is a strange little song! It starts out to be a regular, straight ahead ballad. And, it works in that sense. It has a very calming, light groove played on the horns. But then, a rather disjointed rhythm starts to take effect. This track is both weird but accessible at the same time. ... That said, the primary purpose of this song is to appeal to the mass populace. But I guess Maurice White won't give into commerciality without a fight! The melody of this song is absolutely heavenly! This is largely an orchestral piece, and that does nothing but lend to the heavenliness of the track. Africano 10/10 This one starts out with a lot of flutes playing around and then that thumb piano playing around. This isn't normal type of music for any album that hit the No. 1 spot on the pop charts, anyway. They don't do this for much longer. A funk song starts to play. Oh, and it's a tight funk song, too! Catch that groove; it's so catchy and danceable! It's not a cheap disco dance song, either. Believe me, if all disco songs were like this, then I would poop on everyone who said "Disco sucks." You almost forget that this song is technically an instrumental, but who needs voices when you're enjoying the groove so much? The sax solo is excellent!!!!!! The best way to describe this song is that it's a disco-version of jazz fusion. See the Light 9/10 The first minute is definitely like a jazz fusion song. The fact that they tried to make a jazz fusion song into a pop song was an interesting idea, and I think it worked very well for them. This is artistically intriguing to me! We get a lot of seemingly disjointed instrumentals here that come together to create something rather bizarre. After that, it stops and we get a much more normal funk ballad. The normal part isn't as interesting to me, but it's still a very well written one with a great, catchy melody. The instrumental interlude, featuring a synthesizer, keeps the jazz fusion feel going. Shining Star (Future Star) 9.5/10 The full version of their hit, and the only version I scored in the track listing! The groove is something that most funk bands only *wish* that they could come up with. The melody is catchy as nothing else, and so is the chorus. The instrumentation is fun and inventive, and I feel like I can dance to this song and enjoy myself. The vocal performances are also fun and indicative that they weren't taking themselves more seriously than necessary. This is a great pop single! BONUS TRACKS All About Love (First Impressions) - Extended Version I thought the original was a bit boring, and the fact that this one is more than six minutes long doesn't help. Nonetheless, it really doesn't seem like it's so overkill. It's a well-written song! Happy' Feelin' (Anatomy of a Groove) It starts out as a lone bass groove and then the drum beat is added to it. This song sounds very stripped down that it reminds me quite a lot of a Talking Heads song! Oh yes, the Talking Heads were born out of funk, after all. This song is great if you want to hear what this band sounds like stripped down. Caribou Chaser (Jazzy Jam) This is the only bonus track that doesn't appear in some form in the album body. It starts out with some studio noise, which suggests to me that this was an impromptu jazz jam that they played when warming up. It's simlar to The Beatles playing "Maggie Mae" on Let it Be. It's a good song that proves how great instrumentalists these guys were, but it's inessential. That's the Way of the World (Latin Expedition) This is the closest thing this album actually gets to elevator music. But it's very well orchestrated elevator music, and it's less than two minutes long in the bonus tracks, so this is mostly harmless anyway. Sing your comments by clicking here.

All reviews are copyrighted by the author, Michael Lawrence. He can sing great in a falsetto voice.