''Electric Universe'' is the thirteenth studio album by American band

Earth, Wind & Fire Earth, Wind & Fire (EW&F or EWF) is an American band whose music spans the genres of jazz, R&B, soul, funk, disco, pop, big band, Latin, and Afro pop. They are among the best-selling bands of all time, with sales of over 90 million re ...

, released in November 1983 on

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

. The album rose to No. 8 on the US

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Top Soul Albums chart and No. 40 on the US

Billboard 200 The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine and is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of art ...

chart. Electric Universe also reached No. 17 on the Swedish Pop Albums chart, No. 18 on the UK

Blues & Soul ''Blues & Soul'' is a British music magazine, established in 1967 by John Abbey. ''The Independent'' has noted ''Blues & Soul'' as being the equal of magazines such as ''NME'' and '' Q''. ''Billboard'' magazine has called ''Blues & Soul'' "a r ...

Top British Soul Albums chart, No. 20 on the Japanese Pop Albums chart and No. 22 on both the Dutch Pop Albums and Swiss Pop Albums charts.

Overview

''Electric Universe'' was produced by

Maurice White Maurice White (December 19, 1941 – February 4, 2016) was an American singer, musician, songwriter, and record producer. He was best known as the founder, leader, main songwriter, and producer of the band Earth, Wind & Fire, and served as the ...

for Kalimba Productions. With the album came a unique new wave and

synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...

sound for the band. Artists such as

David Foster David Walter Foster (born November 1, 1949) is a Canadian musician, composer, arranger, record producer and music executive who chaired Verve Records from 2012 to 2016. He has won 16 Grammy Awards from 47 nominations. His music career spans mor ...

Martin Page Martin George Page (born 23 September 1959) is an English singer-songwriter and bassist. Page has collaborated with artists such as Paul Young, Starship (band), Starship, Robbie Robertson, Earth, Wind & Fire, Heart (band), Heart, Robbie William ...

Michel Colombier Michel Colombier (23 May 1939 – 14 November 2004) was a French composer, arranger, and conductor. Career Colombier wrote the scores of several motion pictures and TV productions. He also wrote chamber music and ballets. With composer Pierre H ...

and Pamela Hutchinson and Wanda Vaughn of

The Emotions ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

featured upon the album. The album was also reissued in 2015 with six

bonus tracks An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records coll ...

and two

demos Demos may refer to: Computing * DEMOS, a Soviet Unix-like operating system * DEMOS (ISP), the first internet service provider in the USSR * Demos Commander, an Orthodox File Manager for Unix-like systems * plural for Demo (computer programming) ...

. As well, ''Electric Universe'' was featured in an August 2016 episode of Mass Appeal's

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

series Rhythm Roulette.

Singles

The lead single, "

Magnetic Magnetism is the class of physical attributes that are mediated by a magnetic field, which refers to the capacity to induce attractive and repulsive phenomena in other entities. Electric currents and the magnetic moments of elementary particle ...

" peaked at No. 10 on the ''

Hot R&B Singles The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...

chart and No. 36 on the ''

Hot Dance Club Play Dance Club Songs is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. It is a national look over of club disc jockeys to determine the most popular songs being played in nightclubs across the country. It was launched as t ...

chart. "

Touch In physiology, the somatosensory system is the network of neural structures in the brain and body that produce the perception of touch (haptic perception), as well as temperature (thermoception), body position (proprioception), and pain. It is ...

" reached No. 23 on the ''

chart and No. 36 on the ''

Adult Contemporary Songs The Adult Contemporary chart is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine and lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary radio stations in the United States. The chart is compiled based on airplay data submitted to ''Billboard'' by sta ...

chart.

Critical reception

Gary Graff Gary Graff (born 1960) is an American music journalist and author. Biography Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Graff attended Taylor Allderdice High School where he wrote for school newspaper ''The Taylor Allderdice Foreword''. He receiv ...

of the

Detroit Free Press The ''Detroit Free Press'' is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, US. The Sunday edition is titled the ''Sunday Free Press''. It is sometimes referred to as the Freep (reflected in the paper's web address, www.freep.com). It primari ...

exclaimed "Plug in the planets! This is the best disc this outfit has put together in quite some time." Lennox Samuels of the

Dallas Morning News ''The Dallas Morning News'' is a daily newspaper serving the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas, with an average print circulation of 65,369. It was founded on October 1, 1885 by Alfred Horatio Belo as a satellite publication of the ''Galvesto ...

declared that "Electric Universe (Columbia) shows the bands resilience. Unlike the previous offering

Powerlight ''Powerlight'' is the twelfth studio album by American band Earth, Wind & Fire, released in February 1983 by Columbia Records. The album rose to No. 4 on the ''Billboard'' Top R&B Albums chart and No. 12 on the Billboard 200 chart. ''Powerlight' ...

this LP should please fans." Samuels added "Although most of the cuts here are characterized by mellow overtures, midway through the disc, colourful kalimba choruses and airy harmonies capture the high spirits of this nine member aggregation". Although calling it a "letdown"

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

of the

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the creat ...

gave the album a B grade. Roger Catlin of the

Omaha World Herald The ''Omaha World-Herald'' is a daily newspaper in the midwestern United States, the primary newspaper of the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area. It was locally owned from its founding in 1885 until 2020, when it was sold to the newspaper ch ...

gave the album a four out of five star rating and declared EWF "seems to be trying to continue to branch out under leader Maurice White. Catlin also stated "he's testing out yet another theory for worldwide unity too, on Electric Universe in which electricity or magnetism plays a big role in getting everybody together - perhaps through static cling". With a three out of five stars review Matty Karas of

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

described Electric Universe as being full of "sensuous, and at times, rock oriented dance material". Pam Lambert of ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' exclaimed "after more than a decade together, Earth, Wind & Fire continue to chart new ground; their current album, "Electric Universe" (Columbia), deserves to win this black supergroup even more of a crossover audience than it has enjoyed in the past." Phyl Garland of

Stereo Review ''Sound & Vision'' is an American magazine, purchased by AVTech Media Ltd. (UK) in March 2018, covering home theater, audio, video and multimedia consumer products. Before 2000, it had been published for most of its history as ''Stereo Review''. ...

wrote "Although 'Electric Universe' does not scintillate with Earth, Wind & Fire's usual brilliance, it's skilfully crafted and worth a listen". Garland noted that EW&F's performance was "not among their best" but called the album a "very good recording". Rick Shefchik of

Knight Ridder Knight Ridder was an American media company, specializing in newspaper and Internet publishing. Until it was bought by McClatchy on June 27, 2006, it was the second largest newspaper publisher in the United States, with 32 daily newspaper brand ...

gave the album a 7/10 rating stating "Fearing more of Maurice White's cosmic pablum, I was glad to notice the shift to concrete r&b on Side One, while the band retains its breathy mix of horns and voices". Shefchik added "White relinquished his songwriting role on the first three songs, and even the ones he did write seem to benefit from a less starry-eyed perspective. Unless, of course, you count Electric Nation and Spirit of a New World." Prentis Rogers of the

Atlanta Journal-Constitution ''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the only major daily newspaper in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the result of the merger between ...

wrote "In fact, the entire album holds up well lyrically and musically with a noticeable but not overpowering rock flavour. It may not signal a return to the group's standard of staying a note or two ahead of its contemporaries, but this is EWF's best album in recent years." Robert Palmer of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' proclaimed that "the rich vocal harmonies and lapidary pop craftsmanship listeners have learned to expect from Earth, Wind & Fire are still in evidence, but the group's instrumental sound has been radically stripped down and rethought." Don McLeese of

The Chicago Sun Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide v ...

also gave Electric Universe an honourable mention in his list of the top ten albums of 1983.

Track listing

Credits

*Backing vocals - Beloyd Taylor, Pamela Hutchinson & Wanda Vaughn *Bass Guitar -

Verdine White Verdine Adams White (born July 25, 1951) is an American musician, best known as a founding member and bassist for the band Earth, Wind & Fire. White was placed at No. 19 on Rolling Stone's list of The 50 Greatest Bassists of All Time. Early lif ...

*Drums, percussion - Fred White *Engineer ssistant– Barbara Rooney, Murray Dvorkin *Engineer, Mixed By – Mick Guzauski *Rhythm Guitar -

Roland Bautista Roland Bautista (May 30, 1951 – February 29, 2012) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. Bautista was best known for his work with Earth, Wind & Fire. He also worked with such artists as Ronnie Laws, The Crusaders, George Duke and ...

*Keyboards - Brian Fairweather,

Larry Dunn Larry is a masculine given name in English, derived from Lawrence or Laurence. It can be a shortened form of those names. Larry may refer to the following: People Arts and entertainment * Larry D. Alexander, American artist/writer *Larry Boone ...

Robbie Buchanan Robbie or Robby is a surname. It is usually encountered as a nickname or a shortened form of Robert, Rob or Robin. The name experienced a significant rise in popularity in Northern Ireland in 2003. People Given name Robbie *Robbie Amell (born 1 ...

Wayne Vaughn Wayne Lee Vaughn is an American producer, keyboardist and arranger best known for his work with the band Earth, Wind & Fire. Vaughn has also worked with other preeminent artists such as The Brothers Johnson, Patti LaBelle, Jennifer Holliday, Troo ...

*Lead & backing vocals -

Philip Bailey Philip James Bailey (born May 8, 1951) is an American R&B, soul, gospel and funk singer, songwriter and percussionist, best known as an early member and one of the two lead singers (along with group founder Maurice White) of the band Earth, Wi ...

*Lead & backing vocals, drums, kalimba -

*Mastered By –

Bernie Grundman Bernie Grundman is an American audio engineer. He is most known for his mastering work and his studio, Bernie Grundman Mastering, which he opened in 1984 in Hollywood. The studio, which includes engineers Chris Bellman, Patricia Sullivan, and Mi ...

*Mixed By –

George Massenburg George Y. Massenburg (born Baltimore, Maryland c. 1947) is a Grammy award-winning recording engineer and inventor. Working principally in Baltimore, Los Angeles, Nashville, and Macon, Georgia, Massenburg is widely known for submitting a paper to ...

*Percussion - Ralph Johnson *Piano -

*Saxophone -

Andrew Woolfolk Andrew Paul Woolfolk II (October 11, 1950 – April 24, 2022) was an American saxophonist. Woolfolk was a longtime member of the band Earth, Wind & Fire from 1973 to 1985, and from 1987 to 1993. He also collaborated with artists such as Deniece ...

* Simmons drums - John Gilston

Reissue

*Coordinator rtist/Musician Interview– Randy Mahon *Coordinator eissue– Jeff James *Coordinator elease– Craig Turnbull *Design ackage Design– Roger Williams *Liner Notes, Research – Alex Henderson *Mastered By – Sean Brennan *Production Manager eissue– Matt Murphy Reissue Producer – Tony Culvert

Charts

Sales

References

{{Authority control 1983 albums Earth, Wind & Fire albums Albums produced by Maurice White New wave albums by American artists Synth-pop albums by American artists Columbia Records albums