Customer Reviews

Essential Earth Wind & Fire

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

...but the sound quality of this collection...well, doesn't make this so "essential." Prior reviews had emphasized this Columbia set not being culled from the original tapes, but I wanted to find out for myself. It turns out they were right.

The sound is anemic at best. This collection, though not in chronological order, contains timeless EW&F tracks, but with a compressed feel to them. Hence, a great injustice was done to one of the finest recorded bands in the last forty years, because their music wasn't given top treatment here. Maurice White may very well have been involved with the selection of the tracks, but he apparently had little input on HOW the tracks were mastered and from which SOURCE they were culled.

If you want an EW&F collection that truly obliterates the likes of this one, go with "The Eternal Dance." It may cost more, but you get a whopping 55 tracks on three discs (including some rarities) and a cool booklet with rare photos and informative band bios. But more importantly, you get a pristine sound quality, with all the tracks being digitally remastered from the original source tapes.

As for Columbia's "essential" collection, they probably could've done worse. But believe me, they also could've done a helluva lot better. Pass.

This is what I hate about R&B music of today. How do we come from such greatness as Earth, Wind,& Fire to horrible [junk] like B2K? The funny thing is most of the music from this collection is at least 20 years old, however it sounds better and fresher than what is on the radio today. All the classics and my favorites are here September, Serpentine Fire, Fantasy, I'll Write A Song For You, Let's Groove, Fall In Love With Me and Boogie Wonderland (With The Emotions). Maurice Starr is a true genuis who combined pride in Africa, funk, latin, jazz, R&B and rock to create this magical collections of songs. Also lets not forget P.Bailey has one of the greatest voice in R&B/pop history. Man, they don't make them like this anymore and its ashame!!

As the latest 2CD budget priced item in Columbia's Essential series this is a good compilation on EWF. If you're looking for liner notes on this great band's history, you won't find much here. Just a few paragraphs. Which is why the Greatest Hits CD from 1998 is still their best compilation. It has liner notes and all their hits stuffed onto 1 CD. This is a good followup, though. It has all the hits plus some album cuts like "All About Love" and "Drum Song". The 34 songs were co-compiled by Maurice White and who knows the history of EWF better than him? As a fan I can think of some songs that should've been included. Album tracks like "Love's Holiday" and "Be Ever Wonderful". Also it would've been nice had they slotted EWF's last #1 R&B hit from 1987, "System of Survival." The latter you can find on the Eternal Dance box set. And the 2 previous album cuts can be had on 1996's Elements of Love ballad collection. The song info on this collection includes album and chart peak info. For the EWF newbie, either this CD or Greatest Hits are your best bets.

Back in the latter 1970's, when I was in my early 20's, traveling 8 states, and fronting this natural foods concern a group of us had, I'd tune my radio dial to all these soul stations dotted all over the south. Soul and R & B was definitely the best thing about that time period. Now some 25-years later, after I've gone through my punk phase, new wave, acid-house, tech-house, ambient chillout, down tempo, funk jazz, alt-country, I've arrived dead center back where this drive started. Thanks in part to Maurice White who lovingly compiled The Essential two discs set from the Earth, Wind & Fire catalog, gathered from over a ten-year period. He got it right. I know. I owned all these albums on vinyl at one time. The lot has been remastered to sound like the very first time. Their sense of timing, soaring vocals, interlocking melodies and basic African rhythms always threw me off into some ethereal cosmic place. I always felt better after listening to one of their songs. Just like I do now. Before I get all drippy on you, I'll say the only thing missing is "Sun Goddess". Otherwise this collection is superb, it's all here, and that's coming from a white dude.

5 stars for the collection of songs and disc 2 is absolutely superb.However as an audiophile iam appalled at the sound quality of especially disc 1..no wonder Sony is loosing money these days..This is NOT 24 bit remastering this is NOT DSD mastering that Sony is famous for..instead this is cheap outdated 20 bit SBM(super bit mapping) of the early 90's.I WILL STILL RECOMMEND THIS COLLECTION,BUT DON'T PAY FULL PRICE.

After several years of waiting, Sony finally put out a great selection of EW&F songs in one package while utilizing a 24 Bit Mastering system. That's Good, but judging from the sound quality it was clear to me that the original master tapes were NOT used! They were so close to getting it right and they blew it! I have no choice but to give this inadequate sounding album 1 star!

This is a superb collection of an amazingly talented and diverse band. EWF deserve bonus kudos for never selling out by playing disco when almost every other African-American musician did back in the late `70's. Unfortunately there are no liner notes to speak of, just 34 songs that you can play from beginning to end without getting burned out.

What I really loved about this CD is the 34 songs. Prior to purchasing this CD, there were many songs that EWF performed that I never knew were EWF just from listening to the radio.

With that said, there were many "Oh, they sang that song too?" moments, which was a real treat and made this CD a lot of fun to listen to in its entirity. It's great for long trips in the car or just puttering around the house.

Shortly after I purchased this CD, I got invited to a concert which featured, Chicago and EWF. I must say that EWF stole the show! Phillip Bailey's voice is CRAZY! I was knocked out of my chair with the notes he was hitting in a live concert setting. Many artists record songs in the highest key possible and then bring the key down for live performances to preserve their voices. There was none of this hapenning with EWF, I can assure.

So, in short, 2 things:
1. Buy this CD and give it a listen-through. It's a great way to get all of EWF's hits for a great price
2. If you get the chance to see EWF live in concert, GO! You wil not be disappointed.

Soul, r&b, jazz, funk, it's all in the music of Earth Wind and Fire. This is one of the premiere soul funk bands that has managed to last for more than thirty years and with good reason. With few exceptions, their music has always been balanced and focused, their beginning sounds having a very African oriented tinge. Essential Earth has all their sounds on it, and remastered version are always excellent.

Back in the 1970's, when I was in my early 20's, traveling 8 states, and fronting this natural foods concern a group of us had, I'd tune my radio dial to all these soul stations dotted all over the south. Soul and R & B was definitely the best thing about that time period. Now some 25-years later, after I've gone through my punk phase, new wave, acid-house, tech-house, ambient chillout, down tempo, funk jazz, alt-country, I've arrived dead center back where this drive started. Thanks in part to Maurice White who lovingly compiled The Essential two discs set from the Earth, Wind & Fire catalog, gathered from over a ten-year period. He got it right. I know. I owned all these albums on vinyl at one time. The lot has been remastered to sound like the very first time. Their sense of timing, vocals, melodies and basic rhythms always threw me off into some ethereal cosmic place. They knew how to tug those heartstrings pretty darn tight. Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, perhaps both, I always felt better after listening to one of their songs. Just like I do now. Before I get all drippy on you, I'll say the only thing missing is "Sun Goddess". Otherwise, this collection is superb, it's all here, it's good to be alive, and that's coming from a white dude.