LP Review: Head to the Sky
Released: 1973
LP Charts: #2 R&B (3 weeks), #27 pop
With more polish and more catchiness, Earth, Wind & Fire delivered Head to the Sky—their first good album AND their first hit album. Released just a mere six months after Last Days and Time (C+), this LP rose to #2 on the R&B albums chart despite not having a smash single and was eventually certified platinum.
Despite the success and legitimate improvements, the band still has some kinks to work out as you’ll see.
One track that has no kinks at all is “Evil” (#25 R&B, #50 pop), which mixes bossa nova with funk for an enjoyably mellow time. The lyrical content, as the title suggests, isn’t exactly bubbling over with joy. Written by Maurice White and Philip Bailey, “Evil” laments how humanity’s blood stream and brain waves are coursed with evil. The only way to to purge the bad vibes and deeds is to embrace love and piety. A nice, if corny message.
Frankly, I don’t really pay attention to the lyrics all that much when the song is piercing the air. The kalimba playing by White is really where the action is. Also just notice all the percussion!
Right on the heels of the somewhat pessimistic “Evil” is “Keep Your Head to the Sky” (#23 R&B, #52 pop). This song is even more obvious in its intent. You’ll be free and fulfilled, if you look toward God to solve your problems. Whether you agree with the message, the song is still pretty good, especially the acapella ending where Bailey and Jessica Cleaves harmonize to insanely high falsetto levels.
I don’t really know what the hell EWF is singing about on “Build Your Nest”, but it has a funky groove, so you don’t need to heed the lyrics. “The World’s A Masquerade” is a somewhat plodding meditation on plastic people written by Skip Scarborough. Ole Skip would provide a much better song for EWF in the future. JUST YOU WAIT!
“Clover” has some hippie love lyrics. Total bullshit. But it has a funky groove, so who needs coherent lyrics? During the first half of the song, Andrew Woolfolk’s flute does a lot of heavy lifting. Then on the backend we get prominent electric guitar as the song gets a little tougher in the funk.
The album-closer is “Zanzibar”, which I like, but don’t love. And if “Zanzibar” is gonna run for nearly 14 minutes, I would really like to love it. Despite merely liking it, the instrumental does keep my interest all the way through. It never gets stale.
ALBUM GRADE: B
Not as wildly vacillating as their previous album, but EWF still needed a swift kick in the ass to tighten up its ship. That swift kick would come in the form of arranger/producer Charles Stepney on the next album. Things would drastically improve yet again as EWF continued to up their game.
Song Scores
Evil: 8/10
Keep Your Head to the Sky: 7.5/10
Build Your Nest: 7/10
The World’s A Masquerade: 6.5/10
Clover: 6.5/10
Zanzibar: 7/10