By this time Third World had been around ten years and,since they started off their career with a cover of a Gamble & Huff song, it made sense that Kenny and Leon would wind up the producer/writers of half of this album. Even with the band producing their own half this album doesn’t have the same high energy electro funk flavors of the excellent previous album Sense of Purpose and instead this is music that relies more on atmosphere and texture than on rhythms and grooves. “The Spirit Live”,”Hold Onto Love” and “Simplicity” all have elaborate arrangements than even typical pop-reggae.
There’s also Christian/gospel messages underlying these tunes which actually work in an interesting way with the bands Rastafarian back round surprisingly. As for the other two Gamble & Huff tracks here there’s the hardcore funk/reggae jam in “Corruption” which conjures up images of a Jamaican version of the O’Jays making music in the mid 80’s. “Manners” is a great uptempo Philly jam as only Gamble & Huff could deliver it that show that,no matter what your beliefs are treating other people right is always the way to go and it was a great plea for humanism in the “me” generation.
Of the songs Third World provided themselves, they bring the Minneapolis connection back into their sound (in the most lean possible way) on “We Could Be Jammin’ Reggae”. This groove is also home to some amazing jazzy Latin chords too. “Get Outta Town” and “Reggae Radio Station” are the more reggae oriented of the songs here. And again showcase subtlety over showmanship. From the sound and lyric of “Pyramid” there’s no doubt that it comes from a similar musical environment as Michael Jackson’s “Liberian Girl” from his album Bad which by sheer coincidence was released the same year.
The album ends again on a somewhat gospel/Rastafarian combination (only this time from the bands own pens) on “Peace Flags”. Third World were always a reggae band who worked with American soul/funk artists such as Stevie Wonder, members of Kool & The Gang and on this album Gamble & Huff. Even still, this album shifts Third World’s focus on melodic harmonics over rhythmic music/vocal approaches. It’s a different kind of Third World and at the very least it was a good example of a band progressing as opposed to remaining in the same place just to keep an audience.
Andresmusictalk 