click here to listen to the tracks: http://Stax50.com/ecard/interpretations


Shining Star by Chaka Khan
Be Ever Wonderful by Angie Stone
September by Kirk Franklin
Devotion by Ledesi
Can't Hide Love by The Randy Watson Experience
Love's Holiday by Lalah Hathaway
That's The Way Of The World by Dwele
After The Love Is Gone by Mint Condition
Reasons by Musiq Soulchild
Fantasy by Meshell Ndgeocello

Chaka's version of "Shining Star" kicks ass!! It sounds like her Rufus-era material...gritty and funky.Her remake is the highlight of this project.I'm not surprised.Chaka is "old school".She gets it....the whole vibe of EW&F.She could teach these newcomers a thing or two about REAL FUNK.

I'm not sure who the Randy Watson Experience is,but their version of "Can't Hide Love" is nice.

Kirk Franklin needs his ass kicked for destroying "September"


At first,I wasn't gonna buy this CD (I'm tired of covers albums!) but there are enough cool moments here to make me buy it after all.

The video for the first single "September" by Kirk Franklin:

http://www.youtube.com/wa...USIFOXA6pM

Some of the renditions are real nice....Ledisi does a good job with Devotion, I like Angie on Be Ever Wonderful, Cant Hide Love is great.....Interesting take on Loves Holiday...not bad...not bad...

Not sure what to make of Fantasy...that will have to grow on me.....

Folk need to leave Reasons alone...unless they are gonna do an instrumental take on it.....leave all of the singing to Phillip Bailey.....they just cant quite get up to him.....and TTWOTW, well, certain CLASSIC songs need to be left alone.....they just cannot be improved....and certainly this one ranks up there in that category...

Allnall said:

"Fantasy" is really out there,isn't it? Not sure what to make of it,either.Meshell Ndgeocello certainly gives it a unique makeover,that's for sure!!

I expected to dislike "Reasons" since I don't like Musiq (his voice is too whiny,imo) but surprisingly,I like what he did to the song.


Would have been nice to hear more Old School artists tackle these songs.Chaka does an amazing job with "Shining Star".
[Edited 3/19/07 5:47am]

the making of the album (interview with Maurice White and others):

http://www.youtube.com/wa...QxXy5XSGHc

an exclusive HoneySoul interview with Maurice White:

http://www.honeysoul.com/wp/?p=720

Okay here's Missfee's personal review:

Kirk Franklin's cover of "September" is irritating. I'd go with the original and would most likely skip this track if I bought the cd. P.S. Is it me or is he looking more and more feminine these days?

Anyway, Ledisi's version of "Devotion" is really classy. I wouldn't say it's better than the original, but it's a great attempt.

Musiq, Musiq, Musiq. Well I like music, and I really want to like his version of "Reasons", but it just sounds watered down.

The Randy Watson Experience feat. Bilal doing "Can't Hide Love" is mello. I like it, as I love Bilal anyway. I like how he stuck to his interpretation of the song instead of trying to sing it exactly like Maurice did on the original. The best cover i've heard so far on this album.

Angie Stone's version of "Be Ever Wonderful" doesn't quite capture the soul of Maurice's original, but I imagine if a person hadn't heard the original before, they would probably like Angie's version. I prefer the original.

Lalah Hathaway singing "Love's Holiday" is acceptable. I definitely find myself singing along to her version.

The Mint with "After the Love Has Gone", is pretty good. I wish Stokely would have let loose on it like I know he can. I keep expecting him to hit some high notes, but he doesn't do it. Makes me a bit frustrated.

Dwele’s version of “That’s the Way of the World” is actually pretty good to me. I like it. I’m lovin’ the hornes.

Chaka is funky!! This version of “Shining Star” is funky funky!!!

Meshell’s “Fantasy” sounds like..hmm I don’t know. It’s sort of weird…and I don’t care for it much.

Overall, it’s probably a decent cd, but if I had to choose between a greatest hits cd with the original versions or this one, I’d do the greatest hits in a heartbeat. There are some songs on here that have some feel good aura’s to it, but I give it two stars. If I were to buy this cd, I just find myself skipping all over the place.

I still love Maurice though, he's the greatest

SoulAlive said:

What's really annoying about Kirk Franklin's "September" is...he is sampling the music from the original!! He butchered this song the same way he butchered Patrice Rushen's "Haven't You Heard".All he does is take a sample and throw new vocals on top of it.As far as I can tell,no other artist on this project did that.Everyone else remade the songs completely,with new music and new arrangements.Why does Kirk have to be so lazy?


I'm thinking that this will be a fun "family gathering" CD to play.It'll be a hit at family reunions this summer,lol.

Harlepolis said:

come on....you don't like Chaka's version??

SoulAlive said:

Leave it to my dumb ass high expectations to ruin the mood

Maybe it will grow on me later.

Harlepolis said:

keep listening,it will grow on you


TheAudience told me about it weeks ago and he was raving about it.

Chaka does let loose.....which is great, but I guess I am so used to the smooth interplay of Maurice and Phil on the chorus, that I just cant get over her version and how it sounds just a little too rough...but I see what you mean...

Missfee....I have to agree with everything you have said.....point by point.....I never noticed it but you are right....Kirk Franklin is the only one who actually does not redo the music on his song....he basically sings over the track....it isnt bad, but i guess the reason I like it is because I love the fact that Maurice is in the video....looking as good as he can dealing with his Parkinsons....

He really is the greatest...cant find a bad thing to say about him.....

But..as I have said before EWF are one of those rare artists that it is extremely difficult to improve on the original recordings.....they are as close to perfect as any song ever made.....instrumentals may work, but once you add the vocals, it is near impossible to compete with the original.....Maurice made sure of that...

SoulAlive said:

Thanks for the link. I'll have to give it a serious listen when I get to work.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

SoulAlive said:

Kirk Franklin is like the P. Diddy of gospel music. the mashing of beats and tracks from secular music and then adding "God" and "Jesus" to it makes it gospel??? it really doesn't sit too well with me.

A few seconds of samples and I'm bored out of my mind.

SoulAlive said:

wha? as much as i can't stand "september" (i got radio to thank for that, since they've driven it into the ground...same with "boogie wonderland", "fantasy", "singasong" and the other usual stuff), it's blasphemy that he screwed it up.

dunno if i should give these samples a listen or not...

I dig the tracks except 4 K. Franklin. They could have left that one on the cutting/editing room floor. They picked a nice variety of people 2 cover their songs. Anything with Mint Condition gets a THUMB up from me.

missfee said:

I see where u are coming from. I am not the biggest Kirk fan, but his albums tend to be different than the stuff that is released to radio. Songs like "Looking for You" and "Stomp" are designed to get the urban and young audiences to buy the cds, but his albums are comprised of mostly original material. I think he is pretty talented...especially in bridging the gap between traditional and contemporary gospel. To me, he is doing the same thing that James Cleveland did in the 70s and 80s. The only difference is Kirk has a more mass appeal compared to Cleveland.

Graycap23 said:

this is true, i agree.

I got to listen to this

thanxs for the link

I don't like what this Kirk guy did with September.
I don't know him,so I was just waiting until he would start singing or rapping

Is he a star in the US??

Paisley4u said:

He is very big in the gospel music industry. As a matter of fact, you could say the biggest thing in gospel music. He did the track "Stomp" about 10 years ago under the group name God's Property. Go to http://www.kirkfranklin.us/ to check him out. Some don't like him (as you can see), but a LOT love his stuff.

theAudience said:

I'd be interested in seeing your review of this

Great news! There's gonna be another Devoted Spirits CD this year.For those who don't know,Devoted Spirits is a trio consisting of former EW&F members Larry Dunn,Sheldon Reyonlds and Morris Pleasure.In 2004,they released a promising debut album featuring EW&F covers and a few new tracks.They sound like classic Earth Wind and Fire.Their music has a genuine EW&F/spiritual vibe.The new CD is titled 'The Answer':



The first single "This Generation" has already been released on iTunes:



Paligap and TA...I have a feeling that you guys would really like Devoted Spirits.

missfee said:

I know what you mean That guy really annoys me.The messages in his songs are good,but I just can't get into a song when it's just a bunch of hectic vocals on top of a well-known sample.That's artistic laziness.

daPrettyman said:

I don't see why it's so hard for him to simply get a real band and come up with real music for his songs.I don't listen to alot of gospel but I rarely ever hear samples in this music.It's usually real instruments and real bands.

SoulAlive said:

Yall hit the nail on the head. I like musiq because he is vocally talented and
has an old school soul about him but all of his uptempo songs are familiar because he has hacked samples from older music like buddy but he is nowhere nearly annoying as p diddy and kirk franklin.

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I give most of it the thumbs up--I even appreciate Meshell's take on "Fantasy" -----But Kirk Franklin? Nahhhh, buddy!!!




BTW, thanx for the info on the new Devoted Spirits!!




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