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Illumination | 
| Artist: Earth Wind & Fire
Label: Sanctuary Urban
Category: Music
List Price: $18.98
Buy New: $0.79
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Rating:  76 reviews
Sales Rank: 58143
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
UPC: 060768754126
EAN: 0060768754126
ASIN: B000B5QWK6
Release Date: September 20, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Lovely People feat. Will-I-Am of the Black Eyed Peas | | • | Pure Gold | | • | A Talking Voice Interlude | | • | Love's Dance | | • | Show Me the Way feat. Raphael Saadiq | | • | This Is How I Feel feat. Big Boi, Kelly Rowland and Sleepy Brown | | • | Work it Out | | • | Pass You By | | • | The One | | • | Elevated feat. Floetry | | • | Liberation | | • | To You feat. Brian McKnight | | • | Bonus Track: The Way You Move feat. Kenny G |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
On Illumination, Earth, Wind & Fire take a hip-hop strategy and turn it on its head, working rhymes and beats into their still pudding-smooth harmonies and sun-warmed, ethereal soul. For other bands, it would have never worked, but Earth, Wind & Fire have always been masters at sophisticated genre-piling. If anyone has earned the right, it's frontmen Philip Bailey and Maurice White and the rest of the gang. Few other 35-year-old, eight-time Grammy-winning bands can claim as many followers or liberally-borrowing samplers. Where other old-timers might have let the young'uns--in this case Big Boi, Will.I.Am, and Kelly Rowland, among others--scribble their ultra-mod, find-it-here brand of cool all over the record, Earth, Wind & Fire are able to maintain their elemental excellence in the midst of the hip-hop boogie shuffle. Hear it on "The One," as well as the white-hot spectacle "This Is How I Feel" and the Raphael Saadiq smoothie "Show Me the Way." The Rolling Stones aren't the only Rock and Roll Hall of Famers to score an incredible new disc in 2005. --Tammy La Gorce
Album Description
On Illumination, the 23rd record of their extraordinary career, Earth, Wind & Fire collaborate with generations of appreciative artists that have gleaned profound inspiration from their work. The influence is crystal-clear when Black Eyed Peas leader Will. I. Am shouts "Jump up, freak or hustle/Do what you want, just move every muscle," then mimics EWF's peppery horn and kalimba lines on his rousing "Lovely People." The reverence is sun-gold in crooner Brian McKnight's fusion of key elements from EWF's ballads "You," "Love's Holiday," and "After the Love is Gone" to create his own epic, "To You." And the quality is as strong as ever, proven by the album's first single "Show Me the Way," which earned a 2004 Grammy nomination.For Illumination's star-studded new single, EWF bounces to the ATL for the hip hop-laced party joint "This Is How I Feel," produced by Organized Noize, featuring rapper Big Boi of OutKast and singers Sleepy Brown and Kelly Rowland of Destiny's Child in a duet with EWF lead singer Philip Bailey. Elsewhere, super producers Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, former members of the band the Time, tip their trademark hats in tribute to the horn-laced ensemble sound of the Fire with the gently uplifting "Pure Gold" plus the sexy flirtation "Love Dance." Acclaimed female poetry/soul duo Floetry bring their conscience cleansing balm to the soothing motivator "Elevated." R&B futurist Vikter Duplaix laces the joyously tropical instrumental "Liberation," which features tantalizing bursts of EWF's wondrous wordless vocal melodies. As a bonus, the pied piper of soprano sax Kenny G guests on a cover of OutKast's infectious, instant club classic, "The Way You Move." Finally, Raphael Saadiq, the producer/songwriter who is also the leader of Tony Toni Tone and Lucy Pearl, produced four songs on Illumination, including "Show Me the Way"--a duet he sings with EWF leader Maurice White. He also contributes the samba-rooted "Work it Out," a lovely showcase for Philip's falsetto titled "Pass You By," and the vibrant opening track "Love Together".The seeds of Illumination's origin sprang from an idea Philip Bailey had of collaborating with a new generation of soul artists for his next solo album. However, reflecting on the success Santana had in collaborating with today's artists on his award-winning Supernatural album, it became clear that this was a golden opportunity to fortify Earth Wind & Fire's position in today's marketplace. "I was 22 when I joined Earth Wind & Fire in 1973," Philip shares. "I'm 53 now. It's the 22 year-olds' time now...Usher's time! What Santana did was a masterpiece, but it would not have gotten played the way it did without the guest artists that he had. Superstars are coupling with other artists because the playing field is so competitive now. Earth Wind & Fire collaborating with the new soul movement made sense because the thrust of their music is still about playing instruments and utilizing vintage sounds, only in today's setting."
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| Customer Reviews: Read 71 more reviews...
 "Show Me The Way" and much more; EWF still has it in 2005 October 5, 2005
J. Highsmith (Mitchellville, Maryland United States)
21 out of 25 found this review helpful
As I was growing up, I wasn't introduced to Earth, Wind & Fire like most people were. My uncle was a DJ so he always had alot of old school LPs. One day he played "Let's Groove" and "Boogie Wonderland" for me and I was hooked. However, I was still listening to Boogie Down Productions, EPMD and others so I wasn't really listening to too much old school r&b at the time. One day I was over my friends house playing video games and he played this slow jam mix that he had recorded on a cassette. I heard "After The Love Is Gone" and that was one of the first reasons why I started listening to old school r&b and shortly my Smooth Grooves and old school r&b collection was started. The majority of my Earth, Wind & Fire collection includes greatest hits CDs but I had to purchase "Open Our Eyes" becasuse it had my jam "Feelin' Blue" on there and unless you buy the "Eternal Dance" greatest hits CD then that track is hard to find otherwise. My favorite Earth, Wind & Fire songs of all time include "After The Love Is Gone", "Can't Hide Love", "That's The Way Of The World", "Fantasy", "Reasons",
"Feelin' Blue", "Love's Holiday", "All About Love", "September" and "Devotion".
Around March of 2005, my old roomate downloaded some music for me and one of the tracks was a song with Earth, Wind & Fire and Raphael Saadiq. Instantly, the song became a favorite song of mine and went searching on amazon to see when Earth, Wind & Fire would release another CD. I soon learned that "Illumination" would be coming soon. Although, the release date was changed often, the CD finally came out a couple of weeks ago. Now, I understand if diehard Earth, Wind & Fire fans may not enjoy the entire CD. Earth, Wind & Fore definitely made an effore with the guest appearances by Will I Am, Big Boi, Kelly Rowland, Floetry and Brian McKnight to make a CD that younger listeners would be able to relate to. However, when I listen to my "Illumination" CD, I hear a sound that compares to the Earth, Wind & Fire sound that I have come to enjoy over the years.
The CD starts off right with Will I Am from the Black Eye Peas producing and featuring on "Lovely People". Now I will admit that I am not a big Black Eye Peas fan but Will I Am produces a nice funky jam to please Earth, Wind & Fire fans. It's just nice to hear Maurice White get back to the swing of things after everything that he has been through. "Pure Gold" is vintage Earth, Wind & Fire as the combination of Maurice White and Phillip Bailey on the vocals still sounds as strong as when they originally started. This song has a very positive vibe and Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis and the other prodcers should be commended for a job well done. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis also produce "Love's Dance" which still stays true to their original sound. The difference in my opinion is that everything matches up to a current sound. You hear the references of old Earth, Wind & Fire with the producers and the sound of r&b currently. This is clearly evident on "This Is How I Feel". You have Earth, Wind & Fire matched up with Big Boi from Outkast, Kelly Rowland from Destiny's Child and Sleepy Brown. Now when I first heard this song on the Hitch soundtrack, I wasn't clearly convinced until I gave the song a couple of listens. A song will not "hit" you everytime the first time you listen to it. After a couple of listens, I found myself liking the song. Big Boi starts off the track with a nice verse, Earth, Wind & Fire keep the party going on the verses and Kelly Rowland and Sleepy Brown assist on the chorus and on the bridge.
Raphael Saadiq, known from Tony Toni Tone, Lucy Pearl and his two solo CDs, the stellar "Instant Vintage" and "Ray Ray", which also was pretty good, clearly composes one of the best songs that I have ever heard in "Show Me The Way". The song takes you back to the age when Earth, Wind & Fire was performing songs like "After The Love Is Gone", "Can't Hide Love" and "Reasons" and puts you to how in the year 2005, Earth, Wind & Fire can still hang with the groups of today. This song is clearly the best song on the CD. Maurice White and Raphael Saadiq trade vocals on the verses and as always Phillip Bailey does his thing with the adlibs. "Show Me The Way" and "Pure Gold" alone gives this CD atleast a 3 star rating. On "Work It Out", Raphael Saadiq speeds things up some as Earth, Wind & Fire make one of their feel good songs just like they did with "Shining Star" in the past. "Pass You By" is a nice midtempo song that Raphael Saadiq produced as well. Phillip Bailey clearly shows that he can carry a song by himself just as he did on "songs like "Reasons" and "I'll Write A Song For You" in the past. Floetry shows up on "Elevated".
The combination of the two groups works well together even with the rap verses of the song. It will be hard for core Earth, Wind & Fire fans to relate to the hip hop verses and the fact that it seems that Earth, Wind & Fire are trying to match their sound with the sounds of hip hop and r&b artists of today but as long as the quality of the songs are there, that's all that matters in my opinion. Organized Noize, who worked with Outkast during their earlier days and even sometimes now produced "This Is How I Feel" and they also do a good job on "The One". Maurice White is still able to belt the vocals over the uptempo jam. This is another classic motivational song from Earth, Wind & Fire. "To You" features Brian Mcknight on vocals and he also co-produced the song. "To You" matches classic Earth, Wind & Fire sounds to compose a pretty good slow jam. The only problem that people will have with this song is that too many of the sounds remind you of "After The Love Is Gone" and other slow jams that they have had instead of having better originality on the track. "Liberation" is a nice,uptempo instrumental jam and "The Way You Move" has Kenny G belting the Big Boi jam and Earth, Wind & fire singing just the chorus and the bridge of the song.
Overall, I think Earth, Wind & Fire did a good job on "Illumination". It is hard for well respected groups of the past to try and make a CD in 2005 and still have everything sound good. Although Beyonce's dad Matthew Knowles could use some help in the marketing department, Earth, Wind & Fire's "Illumination, The O' Jays "Imagination" and Jon B's "Stronger Everyday" were all CDs that I enjoyed and they were all on the Sanctuary Urban label. If you are a fan of Earth, Wind & Fire you should be able to enjoy this CD if you can deal with them using influnces and artists from the hip hop and r&b scene of today.
James' Top 5
1) Show Me The Way w/Raphael Saadiq
2) Pure Gold
3) Pass You By
4) Elevated w/Floetry
5) This Is How I Feel w/Big Boi, Kelly Rowland & Sleepy Brown
The Elements Are Indeed 'Illuminated' October 1, 2005
chakasworld (Atlanta, GA United States)
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
EWF's new 'Illumination' is a nice CD for avid fans & new ones alike. The group updated their sound with contemporary elements, and while I also enjoyed the previous CD ('The Promise', which featured The Emotions & Angie Stone in 2003), 'Illumination' features guests who also seem to complement Maurice White's vision for the legendary band. This approach works well for the most part in that EWF doesn't sacrifice musicianship for an attempt at sales (like the 1990 EWF dud titled 'Heritage'!!).
'Illumination' has several quality tracks which 'got me' at first play including 'Love's Dance', 'Pure Gold', 'Show Me The Way' (ft.Raphael Saadiq), 'This Is How I Feel', 'To You'(ft.Brian McKnight), and the awesome 'Liberation', which is a tight instrumental showcase for Verdine White's skills on Bass. 'The Way You Move' is merely so-so, but I can't really accept this 2 year old song as a true bonus track (and then there's the issue of Kenny G..yuck!). Jimmy Jam / Terry Lewis, Raphael Saadiq, Brian McKnight, and the great Maurice White did an outstanding job with production. It's always special having Maurice White conribute as active member, and he sounds great considering his condition.
In closing, there are probably other editions of 'Illumination', but getting the original 13 track edition is fine for starters. HOWEVER, if you're a serious EWF fan, consider adding 5 BONUS TRACKS to create an EXPANDED EDITION of 'Illumination'.
Here's the tracklisting for my own special CD...
1. Love Together (ft.Roots Manuva & Raphael Saadiq)*
2. Lovely People (ft.Will.i.am)
3. Pure Gold
4. A Talking Voice - Interlude
5. Love's Dance
6. Show Me The Way (ft.Raphael Saadiq)
7. Autumn (ft.Musiq Soulchild)*
8. Let Me Love You (ft.Floetry)*
9. This Is How I Feel (ft.Big Boi,
Kelly Rowland, and Sleepy Brown)
10. Work It Out
11. Pass You By
12. The One
13. Elevated (ft.Floetry)
14. Liberation - Instrumental
15. To You (ft.Brian McKnight)
16. The Way You Move (Kenny G ft.EWF)
17. Love Together (Aletrnate Mix 2005)*
18. Gather Round*
This is MUCH BETTER than ANY Japanese Import Edition (sorry, I refuse to pay for those overpriced CDs...W.T.F.!!).
My actual rating for the USA edition of 'Illumination' is 4.5 (round it off to 5!!) stars...failure to include the bonus tracks cost it a star.
Peace, SD
(of Chakas World)
The Best Album for 2005 and 2006 January 17, 2006
L. J. Kay
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is one of the best albums for the year period hands down. They have so many wonderful songs on the CD that reminds me how they made music back in the day. I knew this was gonna be a great CD when I heard "Pure Gold" I could tell EW&F was back and real strong with the music. You will be delighted wholeheartily with this purchase. I listen to it just about every single day. They're music has always been uplifting to the Spirit. All I can say is right out EW&F and keep bringing us the good music!
4-1/2 stars -- The elements of great music January 12, 2006
Anthony Rupert (Milwaukee, WI)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I have to admit; when I looked at the track listing for Earth, Wind & Fire's latest album Illumination and found that the guest roster includes the likes of Kelly Rowland and will.i.am, I was a little skeptical. I was even more worried when I noticed that the lyrics to the first song, "Lovely People", begin with: "Party people/Let's get together/Have a party". But this album turned out to be great and then some.
Before I go any further, though, I'd like to say something about the negative reviews for this album. I understand that everyone has a right to his/her own opinion, but I noticed that the one and two-star reviews don't really go into detail; they don't say WHY the album is bad. At the same time, though, I don't know if it would be fair to compare the songs on this album to smashes like "After the Love Is Gone" and "Devotion". (But if you want to hear some songs with that `70s feel, try "Work It Out" and "Pass You By" on for size.)
In contrast to how this formula usually works, the songs featuring the artists of the moment are actually the better songs, like Floetry on "Elevated" and will.i.am on the aforementioned "Party People". And while some people may think the cover of OutKast's "The Way You Move" (albeit with different lyrics) is unnecessary, I think it's good. Although Big Boi and Sleepy Brown aren't included on this version, they do appear on another highlight, "This Is How I Feel" (Philip Bailey and Sleepy Brown singing together? That even looks good on paper!).
The only song I really have a problem with is the Raphael Saadiq-assisted "Show Me the Way". Don't get me wrong; it's not that it isn't a great song, but it just drags on too much. I know that Raphael has a habit of making long songs sometimes, but after eight minutes, I kind of got the point. Still, Philip, Maurice and the rest of the crew did a wonderful job with this album because it illuminates just fine.
Anthony Rupert
Traditional! November 27, 2005
CJS (Southeast, USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
If you've been listening to EWF for your entire life the way I have, you'll enjoy this CD because it sounds like the EWF that most of us fell in love with during the seventies, when they first made it big. Although they employ current vocalists on this disk, probably in order to sound up-to-date and current (like Brian McKnight, Floetry, and Big Boi of Outkast), it still has the traditional, old-school Earth, Wind, and Fire vibe that we all know and love. Standouts are "Show me the Way," a classic ballad in the style of EWF--and Tony Toni Tone, "Pure Gold," which sounds like 100% classic EWF, "Liberation," an overwhelmingly instrumental (and very cheerful) track with a little Afro-Latin flavor, and "Pass You By," a lovely, soft ballad. Earth, Wind, and Fire has put out a LOT of music over the past thirty years, and along the way they have gained MANY fans. Those who were listening from the very beginning--even those like me, who first heard the music being played by our parents, for I'm only 29--will be pleased to know that this is the sound they fell in love with back in the day--only it's updated. This gets five stars; it's hot.
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