Lousy production works to this LP's detriment -- Maurice White has surprisingly chosen to have the entire album sound "hot." It easily befits such uptempo numbers as "Happy Feelin'" and the popular single "Shining Star," helping them glow with an incendiary charge that once moved record producer Sandy Pearlman to term EW&F "the closest thing to a black heavy-metal band." But numbers like "Reasons," "All about Love" and the title cut -- ballads cut from the Four Tops/Tavares mold -- are allowed no room to develop breadth as subtle, tender passages are both overvolumed and forced to compete with what should by rights be background instrumentation. Great tunes (particularly the dynamic "Africano") and great musicianship are not what this one lacks -- hopefully next time out White will be able to tone things down accordingly in the places where a little understatement is appropriate.

- Gordon Fletcher, Rolling Stone, 7/3/75.

Bonus Reviews!

A very tightly produced and performed package by a group that is coming closer and closer to stardom. EW&F has some of the finest musicians in any band and the compositions are all top-notch. They also have a number of directions to turn from rock to soul to Latin to gospel, because each vocalist is capable of conveying a different kind of music. Many new listeners should be gathered in from this record, especially since it is the soundtrack from the movie of the same title. Best cuts: "Shining Star," "Happy Feelin'," "All About Love," "Yearnin' Learnin'," "Africano."

- Billboard, 1975.

Trailing Parliament-Funkadelic in my personal post-Sly sweepstakes, but ahead of War (bombastic), Kool & the Gang (culturally deprived), and hosts of others, this unit can do so many things it quailfies as the one-man band of black music even though it has nine members. Here ethnomusicology and colloquial homiletics are tacked onto the funk and soul and doowop and jazz, which makes for an instructive contrast -- the taped-in-Africa Matepe Ensemble, whose spontaneous laughter closes out the coda, versus Maurice White, whose humorless platitudes prove there's more to roots than turning a mbira into an ersatz vibraphone.B+

- Robert Christgau, Christgau's Record Guide, 1981.

Among the sleekest seventies funksters, Earth, Wind and Fire created some of the most uplifting and joyous pop music of the decade. Glorious arrangements, crescendos of sound anchored by a tight danceable beat produced truly irresistible musical moments: "That's the Way of the World" and "Shining Star" being the prime examples from this album. The words are empty, but the energy is contagious. The music is a compelling amalgam of jazz, gospel, R&B, and pure pop. The sound is clean, nicely detailed, and punchy, but still compressed. B

- Bill Shapiro, Rock & Roll Review: A Guide to Good Rock on CD, 1991.

Sleekly produced '70s pop/R&B, highlighted by the stirring "Shining Star" and the atmospheric title track. * * * *

- William Ruhlmann, The All-Music Guide to Rock, 1995.

That's the Way of the World boasts the seminal hits "Reasons" and "Shining Star." * * * 1/2

- Steve Holtje, Musichound Rock: The Essential Album Guide, 1996.

A stew of all the best elements that make up the universe, this amazing group is the real deal, delivering seminal galactic funk via a rocking horn section, matched by moving ballads from legendary shining star Philip Bailey. The deep sounds span the test of time -- decades later, today's hip-hop generation is still sampling this fun stuff. * * * * *

- Zagat Survey Music Guide - 1,000 Top Albums of All Time, 2003.

Before he got into African thumb piano and otherworldly philosophizing, founder Maurice White was a session drummer at Chess studios (that's him on Fontella Bass' "Rescue Me"). EWF's seventh album is make-out music of the gods; its title track is one of funk's most gorgeous ballads.

That's the Way of the World was chosen as the 493rd greatest album of all time by the editors of Rolling Stone magazine in Dec. 2003.

- Rolling Stone, 12/11/03.

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