Kind of an interesting back story to this album. Philip Bailey started his solo career when Earth, Wind & Fire suddenly took a break in 1984. Some of Earth, Wind & Fire’s previous albums had lyrics that definitely did not jive with him being a Christian artist. This was of course because Maurice White (Lead band member) was not a Christian and had some questionable beliefs. Suddenly the band wants to make a return in 1987 but Philip was a full Christian artist at this point so how do they make a comeback? Voila a Christian album from Earth, Wind & Fire, problem solved. Personally I don’t care but it’s all very humorous. Anyway lets get into the most over produced album in the history of music. This album had 6 producers and 12 engineers. I discovered this as I listened to the album and became alarmed at the production so I checked the credits. Suddenly it all made sense. Now I just want to say that my favorite track on the album, “Money Tight”, is because of this overproduction. It has some great sampling and production which proves that overproduction is not always a bad thing. Most people and reviewers actually appeared to enjoy the production and I’m probably in the minority on this one. I’ve been a bit hard on the album but I actually quite liked it. The talent is there and the song writing is fantastic. But I think it would have been even better if it was a little more raw.
Tracklist
1 – System Of Survival – 4:59
2 – Evil Roy – 4:51
3 – Thinking Of You – 4:41
4 – You And I – 4:03
5 – New Horizons (Interlude) – 2:01
6 – Money Tight – 4:36
7 – Every Now And Then – 4:21
8 – Touch The World – 5:15
9 – Here Today And Gone Tomorrow – 3:59
10 – Victim Of The Modern Heart – 3:48
Credits
Band
Philip Bailey – lead vocals, backing vocals, synthesizer arrangements
Maurice White – lead vocals, backing vocals, vocoder, arrangements
Sheldon Reynolds – guitars, lead guitar
Andrew Woolfolk – saxophone solo
Additional musicians
Skylark – synthesizers, drum programming, backing vocals
Preston Glass – synthesizers, electric guitars, additional drum programming
Rhett Lawrence – Fairlight programming, drum programming, sequencing, Fairlight synthesizer, synthesizer programming, Moog bass, additional drums
Wayne Vaughn – sequencing
Bill Meyers – acoustic piano, arrangements, keyboards, synthesizer programming, drums
Larry Williams – additional keyboard programming, additional programming
Dan De Souza – keyboards, synthesizer programming, drums
Steve Lindsey – keyboards
Danny Sembello – synthesizer programming, drum programming
George Duke – acoustic piano, rhythm arrangements
Ian Prince – synthesizer programming, drums, arrangements
Attala Zane Giles – additional guitars, synth bass, percussion programming, additional backing vocals, arrangements
Ray Fuller – guitars
Paul Jackson Jr. – guitars
Nathan East – bass
Jeff Porcaro – drums
Ricky Lawson – drum overdubs, drums
Marc Russo – horns
Wayne Wallace – horns
Gary Grant – horns
Jerry Hey – horns, horn arrangements
Dan Higgins – horns
Bill Reichenbach Jr. – horns
Rev. Oliver Wells – arrangements, synthesizer arrangements
Wanda Vaughn – backing vocals
Jeanette Williams – backing vocals
The Hawkins Family – backing vocals
Walter Hawkins, Edwin Hawkins and Lynette Hawkins Stephens – additional lead vocals
Production
Maurice White – producer
Preston Glass – producer
Philip Bailey – co-producer
Attala Zane Giles – additional production
Wayne Vaughn – co-producer
Bill Meyers – producer
Acar Key – engineer
Tom Lord-Alge – engineer, mixing
Dave Rideau – engineer, mixing
Paul Brown – engineer
Red Davidson – additional assistant engineer
Jeff Lorenzen – assistant engineer
Jim “Watts” Vereecke – assistant engineer
Les Cooper – assistant engineer
Mitch Zelezny – assistant engineer
Liz Cluse – assistant engineer
Jeff Woodruff – assistant engineer
Mark Slagle – assistant engineer
Sterling Sound (New York City, New York) – mastering location
Tony Lane – art direction
Nancy Donald – art direction
Max Aguilera Hellweg – photography
Companies, etc.
Phonographic Copyright ℗ – CBS Inc.
Copyright © – CBS Inc.
Made By – DADC Austria
Distributed By – CBS Records
Distributed By – CBS Disques S.A.
Recorded At – Studio Ultimo
Recorded At – Studio D, Sausalito, CA
Recorded At – Different Fur Studios
Mixed At – Larrabee Sound Studios
Mixed At – Lighthouse Studios
Produced For – Kalimba Productions
