With each new album, Earth, Wind and Fire remain relatively true to their original sound: elaborate, neatly orchestral funk, influenced equally by American and African sources. But the band also keeps its ear to the radio. Accordingly, Raise! reflects the current wave of street-gritty black pop, from Lakeside to Rick James. Most of the tracks crank up the bass and feature rattling percussion that scrapes against the beat.

In such songs as the hit single "Let's Groove" and the fast, cutting "Lady Sun," the horn section screams like a car running a red light. This is city music, a welcome departure from the somewhere-over-the-galaxy mooniness that group leader Maurice White has too often succumbed to in the past. On Raise!, White's romanticism is slinkier, more seductive. The lyrics of "My Love" may prattle, but the guitars that frame the tune are light and sexy. Even at his dizziest — e.g., "Evolution Orange," a variation on seeing the world in a piece of fruit — White roots his music in the earth.

“Oh Sherrie”

Steve Perry's girlfriend Sherrie Swafford was actually in the studio when Perry began writing this song--his lone Top Ten hit as a solo act--with two co-writers. The trio began at midnight one night with just "Oh, Sherrie!" and "hold on, hold on." Three hours later, they had a complete song. Swafford, however, had to wait until the next day to hear it. "Sherrie actually got tired and went to bed," Perry said. She also appeared in the video, but their relationship did not hold on for long.