Earth Wind and Fire: Faces

ANY GROUP can only pack so much stuff. The stuff that oils and inspires their moves, greases songs, a magic stuff that flows through a succession of one group's recordings, making the parts gell into hot pop music, leaving you a (reluctant) admirer (the fan), baffled and intrigued as to how much longer they can stretch the stuff – each release bringing them closer to that edge when it all collapses and they stand blandly exposed as the fools you deep down always knew they would become. That's the way it goes – the pinnacle and the pits follow each other like day and night.