Customer Reviews

Powerlight

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Powerlight is one of their best albums ever. I would rate this on a par with Faces and Raise as being an album where each track is superbly produced and different from the other tracks. The 2 choruses on Heart to Heart are subtley different from each other and this point exemplifies the musical subtlties that are present across the album. Even after 16 years, I still get a lift from hearing the tracks. Miracles is so powerful, and Maurice's voice consistent and clear. Fall in Love With Me is so simply catchy and the chord changes during the intro are spine tingling. Unfortunately, they went downhill from here,but it would be nice to see this line up return to the studio again!

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.

As might be indicated by the cover depiction of celestial bodies, this sounds like music one might hear on some future journey to another planet. POWERLIGHT is probably the first EWF album where electronics & synthesizers almost completely overpower the more traditional instruments --which was an all-too-common phenomenon around 1982. (Check out CHICAGO 16, released the same year, and you wonder if David Foster didn't learn production from Maurice White?) One thing that hadn't changed was the band's wonderful & inspiring songs (all but one co-written by Maurice). "Fall In Love With Me" & "Side By Side" were pulled as singles, and rightly so! This is actually far from my fave EWF album-- but their "so-so" is better than most other's "best-ever". (And hey, wouldn't "Spread Your Love" qualify as a disco tune-- if it had come out 5 years earlier?)

The first time I heard this album was when I was about the age of 4, so i'll try not to let my nostolgia skew my review too much. I get the idea that to some fans and critics, this album may not be considered so much of a classic...but it certainly is my personal favorite...and for the exception of that last minute of the track "Miracles" it's nearly flawless.

I think this album may sound a bit dated to some, due to the production work, it doesn't have the "timeless" feel on many of EWF's earlier releases...but there is something unique about "Powerlight' and that is the consistency of the rhythm along with the uplifing/light in the dark/glowing theme...almost a bit visual.

In my mind the sound of "Powerlight" is EWF catching up or reacting to the cold, electronic sound of the early eighties...but they create it such a subtle way, without losing the soul and their roots. A few of the uptempo tracks (Fall In Love With Me, Spread Your Love, Hearts To Heart) despite the synthesizers, (and I believe a drum machine was used) have big productions in the typical EWF style, but a little different this time...I can only describe it as sounding a bit more like Quincy Jones meets Juan Atkins, or Herbie Hancock.

Unfortunetly, the next release of the same year (Electric Universe) went further into the fads and trends of '82, '83...which saw Maurice White losing his steam...the EWF's lineup changed, which may have effected the focus later on...but i feel "Powerlight" doesn't in (any way) show that...to me this was their last great consistant album, and pretty much marks a line between the old EWF and what came after...ironically, kinda reminds me of what happened with Prince in the late 1980s after the release of "Lovesexy", before his lineup changed again...but that album ended up being one of his best recordings ever.

The standout tracks are the catchy but complex "Fall In Love With Me", the midtempo "Side By Side", and your good 'ol EWF ballad "Miracles"...My guilty pleasure is "Hearts to Heart" I love hearing the 2 choruses go back and fourth organic-like, it closes the album in the most perfect way.

I wouldn't reccomend "Powerlight" for anyone who may wanna make this their first EWF purchase, although it wouldn't be a bad start...but I think this album would sit better with the people who are already fans of EWF...there are some strange moments...but nothing that ruins it.

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.

1984's "Powerlight" album was probably EWF's last great, great album. "Fall in love", "Side by side", "the speed of love", "Miracles", or "Something Special" a track that Will Smith marvelously sampled on the title track of his "Big Willie Style" CD. Most of the tracks were given decent airplay on black radio stations so all of us who love this CD as much as we do have our own personal favorites(mine are "Side by side", "The Speed of Love", "Something Special" and "Miracles". This CD bleeds of the positive message that EWF has put down on all of their albums but what singles EWF out from other groups, is that they give you funky, funky, funky music to go with the message and don't drown you in JUST the message!

Maurice White himself once claimed the reason for this albums lack of success compared to earlier EWF offerings has to do with it "not being promoted properly". That plus the fact that the band were also starting to tire out from so many years of non stop recording and touring. All the same this album possessed all the ingredients that made EWF one of the biggest acts of the 70's and if properly promoted as indicated likely would've been a huge album on a part with all of it's predecessors. And they did this not by doing the same thing again and again but rather by adding some expanding on many of the modern elements the band had already dealt with beforehand. And there were other elements that the band actually baught back to the forefront as well.

Starting with the lead off song and the albums main hit "Fall In Love With Me" it's easy to differenciate this album from the previous release Raise. Whereas that album was very sleek,fast paced and new wave inflected this album is possesed of songs with a slower,bumping groove-full of bass synthesizer,even punchier horns than their usual style and some edgier guitar riffs on jams such as "Spread Your Love","Heart To Heart","Speed Of Love" and the politically charged "Freedom Of Choice". Of course there are some somewhat sleeker urban type material here such as "Side By Side","Something Special" and "Straight From The Heart",all of which feature some of these same harder edged elements as well. The album concludes on a more standard EWF type note with the dynamic pop/R&B ballad "Miracles" which is the one song that owes more to the bands mid/late 70's style.

Considering that this is 1983 and the unusual state of affairs with R&B,funk and soul during that time this album has an unusually edgy and funky sound showing that Maurice White and company not only had their classic sound very much intact but also keeping a strong eye to the harder electro-dance flavors of the time as well. Coming out earlier in the same year as the uneven and electro crazy Electric Universe this album best represents the conclusion of EWF's original run of albums that started back with Open Our Eyes back in 1974 and,despite numerous comebacks later on would never again quite realize itself. So those who aren't sure of this album because it doesn't contain any of the bands more familiar hits would be well advised to take a listen to this because creatively it definately has it's place as one of the bands stronger overall releases.

I enjoy this music immensely! None of the songs are that popular, but the style of the music is wonderful!

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.

This is not a bad album by any means. It's not essential, but has its good points. "Fall In Love With Me (my favorite on the album), "Side By Side", "Something Special", and "Miracles" are the songs that definitely carry this album. Not bad from a group that was falling apart. Like I said, not essential, but worth checking out.