Search - Average White Band :: Shine

Time Has Come For AWB

Andre S. Grindle | Brewer Maine | 12/17/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Like Earth Wind & Fire did a year earlier with their I Am this album finds AWB hooking up with David Foster. This truly should've represented a new beginning for the band as they add a heavy modern production gloss and strong songcraft to their already established heavy funk sound. Every song on this album is extremly strong and with some good promotion could've been enormous pop hits even stateside-uptempo tunes such as "Our Time Has Come","Let's Go Around Again","Help Is On The Way",the title track and the original version of "Whatcha Gonna Do For Me",made famous a year later in a brilliant version by Chaka Khan from her album of the same name,also worth getting. Being the kind of musicians that they are AWB cannot help but throw down at least one funky instrumental in the personification of "Into The Night",marrying the bands chunky,rhythmic groove with Foster's production sheen. This is also home to two of the best ballads the group ever made in "For You,For Love" and "If Love Only Lasts For One Night". Now there's a double album version of this that contains bonus tracks,all five of which are as great as the rest of the album. A like minded cover of Boz Scagg's classic "Miss Sun" is great of course as is the more electo-funk minded dance cut "Kiss Me". There's also another great ballad in "Growing Pains" and the peppy "Love Gives,Love Takes Away". Another successful marrying of the bands natural grooves with Fosters style comes along in the chunky and catchy "Love Won't Get In The Way" followed by a smoking long version of "Let's Go Round Again". Overall "Shine" finds AWB successfully modernization their classic sound without sacrificing what made them so great in the past and the lead and backround vocals certainly have a power and soul that were only hinted at on earlier recordings. Steve Ferrone really streches out on some incredibly funky drumming here. This is definately a pop-funk materpiece of the 1979-1980 era of the genre and is yet another in a long list of lost true classics."