#493: That’s The Way Of The World- Earth, Wind, & Fire

Mike Natale:

Listened to: MP3

Oh, how I wish I could listen to “Shining Star” without thinking of Austin Powers: Goldmember. I could focus on the killer funky beat, the incredibly kickass guitar solo, or the terrific overall feel of the song, but no, all I see is Mike Myers dancing. But it’s the ability to transition from that real disco/funk opener into a Marvin Gaye-esque soul track like “That’s The Way Of The World” that makes this album, Earth, Wind & Fire’s best, really impressive. This song could either be a ballad or a slow dance, and that kind of versatile songwriting should be impressive in anyone’s book, even if you don’t like either form of music. Though, starting with “That’s The Way Of The World”, the album begins it’s display of “Songs that are really good but could be a hell of a lot shorter”. Look again at Shining Star. There’s a great song, great riff, etc. But they knew when to say when. Go over to “Happy Feelings”, and it’s like “Cool, this is a nice, smooth track” and then time goes by, and you start going “O…k. Can we get to the next cool track?” Seriously, I literally finished a crossword puzzle and read an article on the iPad before this track ended. It’s a great track, but it didn’t need to be 7 minutes long. “All About Love” becomes such ambient noise because of it’s length that I didn’t even realize the tracks had changed. It’s so frustrating, because these are great tracks that get lost in their own magnitude. It’s only that odd sound in the last minute of “All About Love” which sort of explains the length, and breaks the overall white noise that these overlong tracks become. Finally, “Yearnin’ Learnin’”, one of the funkiest track son the album, knows how long it should be. It may not be as musically satisfying as “Shining Star”, but at least it doesn’t get tediously long. “Reasons” is another track that makes me think of a movie, but this time there’s no laughter. This song is featured in Charles Burnett’s deeply moving Killer Of Sheep, and maybe it’s because of that fact, how well it works in the film, that I don’t terribly mind the 5 minute length. But the fact is, I have to set that aside. All these tracks are the soundtrack to a movie, specifically the album’s namesake. Within the film I’m sure they all work fine, but as a stand alone album, all the tracks except “Shining Star”, “Yearnin’ Learnin’” and the instrumental “Africano” are far too long.

This is not knock that songs themselves. Every track on this album is great, but they just need to be shortened. Look, in film school you learn that everybody needs and editor. James Cameron’s films are always way too long, and sometimes it would help if he were willing to lose a bit here or there, otherwise he risks losing some of the point of his films (albeit, those pointless films, like Avatar and Titanic, end up making more money than I will ever see). So, the songs could have benefited from trimming. It would have made them sharper and more vibrant. But this is still a great album, highly worth the attention.

-Mike

Well, see you guys late tomorrow (9 am class) for #361: Substance by New Order.