486: Earth, Wind & Fire — That’s The Way Of The World (Columbia, 1975)

Overall rating: 4

Level of prior familiarity: 3

How I listened: Spotify, once on headphones on an airplane, and once on my Echo at home while making/eating breakfast

The problem with funky bands is that when they slow down to play ballads it comes out as pure cheese. I blame 70s porn soundtracks and 35 years of smooth jazz radio for this. Because some of those slow jams are truly genius, impeccable displays of musicianship shrouded in sexy, groovy rhythms.

Earth, Wind & Fire are an amalgam, blending funk, disco, R&B, jazz, rock and roll, soul, and blues. And what comes out is, I believe, one of the defining sounds of American music, a literal melting pot of sounds that could only be born here. It’s not quite Sly & The Family Stone — dare I say it sounds much more like Chicago than anything else? — but when it hits, it hits hard, and I dare you not to dance to it. Fast or slow, this band is as tight as any that have ever played. And the songs are pretty silly sometimes, but you’d never know (or never care) because Maurice White is just so sincere about it.

There’s nothing offensive here, and I wouldn’t ever call it groundbreaking either. There isn’t even anything, well, unique (Sly was unique, James Brown was unique, even War was sometimes unique). It’s just really, really good.