Touch the World Review

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(More customer reviews)When life deals you lemons, you make lemonade. After the tremendous failure of The Fire's 1983 cosmic voyage, Electric Universe, the legendary band came crashing down to Earth. After a four-year hiatus and a few solo efforts, a reformed EW&F picked up the pieces and released Touch The World, which I consider to be their "down to Earth" album.
Just the fact that the group was willing to come back was enough to make me smile, but how is the album??? Well, I know you want to hear that all the original members came back with their instruments cocked and ready, and just blew the roof off the joint, but let's be real. Those Phenix Horns don't work cheap, and hey, wouldn't a drum machine be more economically sound than dragging Ralph Johnson back into the studio? No, the synthetics that dominated the last album are still there, but wait a minute. This actually sounds like R&B! Also, the album has a much more street feel than ever before, with much attitude and plenty of "boom-bap" in almost every cut. The joints to cue up here are "System Of Survival", which challenges everyday stress with dance; "Evil Roy", for those cats that stay doin' nuthin'; "Thinking Of You", another slick R&B cut; and "Touch The World", which features the Hawkins Family and is the first gospel joint from this group since "In The Stone" off their '79 album, I Am. This album stands out because of its era-appropriateness at the time of release.
No song on this album is truly wack, but the album does have its faults. One being the lost chemistry between Maurice and Phillip, possibly due to the already seasoned solo career of Phillip Bailey. Another being that there are virtually NO live instruments outside of synthesizers. Andrew Woolfolk saxes it up on "New Horizons", but then he's ghost. The group did an excellent job in redefining themselves, but even with only 5 members, you know there is just too much talent there for this to be the best they can offer. These negatives are, however, outweighed by many positives: Not only did this album put EW&F back on the map to gold status, but it also brought them back to their core R&B audience, and most importantly, Earthly subject matter. Overall, this is a trump tight budget album that brought a glimmer of hope to Earth Wind's future and truly touched the world.


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Earth Wind & Fire - Live in Japan Review

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(More customer reviews)For the last two decades Earth, Wind & Fire has continued to tour regularly, though they have not come up with much in the way of memorable fresh material to add to a legacy that provided many timeless performances from roughly 1973-1981. As such, on this 1994 Japan concert video -- one of Maurice White's last before illness took him off the stage -- all but a couple of tunes are from the above-mentioned era. However, the performances have too much vitality and freshness for one to think this is just another oldies act going through the motions. Accordingly, this DVD is a good option for those wanting to get a taste of the group near if not quite at the peak of their performing powers. By the way, note that there is also a 1990 Live In Japan DVD, just in case anyone is confused about which tour this video represents.
Although I miss the extended jams (e.g., "Africano") , EWF does offer strong, concise versions of mostly their greatest hits, covering the seventeen tunes in the DVD's one-hour running time (note that several songs are brief interludes), and performed with a full band including a horn section and two female dancers. The between-song moments are edited down, so you get wall-to-wall music which mostly replicates the sound of the original recordings. In general both White and particularly Philip Bailey are in top form vocally, and in-step with the choreographed moments. Still, although his performance doesn't suffer it is a little disconcerting to see White have this "far-away-look" in his eyes at times, leaving one to wonder if this is a sign of things to come (to be fair, it may be unrelated). Nevertheless, I find his presence to be crucial in making this video recommended over any of the post-White EWF DVDs in circulation.

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Shot during the Heritage tour in 1990 at the Tokyo dome in Tokyo, Japan. Delivering a live celebration that represents their integrity and perfection, the critics and fans continue to rave about this band. Songs include: System Of Survival, Get Away, September, Fantasy, Shining Star, Kalimba Tree, After The Love Is Gone, For The Love Of You, Reasons, Brazilian Rhyme, Let's Groove, and That's The Way Of The World.

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Earth, Wind & Fire: Live in Tokyo (1994) Review

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(More customer reviews)This is the same concert as: Earth Wind & Fire - Live
The video in this version is "widescreen", but really it's distorted, compressing the image down as it widens it out. The result: Maurice White looks short and fat; not likely.
The concert itself, while only an hour long is, I think, the best sonically available on DVD, and there is a contagious spirit in the performance. It's only an hour long, and sure, some songs are missed, but it's deeply satisfying...if you get the one with the better (non-widescreen) video.

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