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Almighty Fire

Almighty Fire is the twenty-fourth studio album by American singer Aretha Franklin, released on April 13, 1978, by Atlantic Records. By the time of the album's release, Franklin was going through a commercial slump.

Almighty Fire
Studio album by
Aretha Franklin
ReleasedApril 13, 1978
RecordedJanuary–March 1978
StudioCurtom Studios (Chicago, IL); ABC Recording Studios (Los Angeles, CA); Whitney Recording Studios (Glendale, CA).
GenreSoul, R&B
Length34:42
LabelAtlantic (#19161)
ProducerCurtis Mayfield
Aretha Franklin chronology
Sweet Passion
(1977) 		Almighty Fire
(1978) 		La Diva
(1979)
Singles from Almighty Fire
  1. "Almighty Fire (Woman of the Future)"
    Released: April 1978
  2. "More Than a Joy"
    Released: July 1978

Franklin was reunited with Curtis Mayfield – who produced the album and composed all the tracks –after their earlier success together with the Sparkle soundtrack.

The title single reached at No. 12 on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart and the follow-up single, "More Than Just a Joy", peaked at No. 51. The album earned a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female at the 1979 Grammy Awards.

Critical reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic     [1]
Christgau's Record GuideC+[2]
MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide     [3]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide     [4]
The Virgin Encyclopedia of R&B and Soul     [5]

The New York Times panned Mayfield's work as "tuneless, fussily arranged songs", but praised Franklin and Turman's "I'm Your Speed" for the space it creates for her to "breathe real fire into the music."[6]

Rolling Stone praised "I'm Your Speed" at length, calling it the album's "one moment of pop music transcendence." It called "No Matter Who You Love" as a standout, but considered the album's arrangements "unglamorous and cheesy," and chastised the music Mayfield brought to the table as "stifling," while comparing it to the excitement of the previous Franklin-Mayfield pairing, 1976's Sparkle.[7]

Track listing

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All tracks composed by Curtis Mayfield, except where noted.

Side one

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  1. "Almighty Fire (Woman of the Future)" – 4:36
  2. "Lady, Lady" – 2:45
  3. "More Than Just a Joy" – 3:03
  4. "Keep On Loving You" – 3:12
  5. "I Needed You Baby" – 4:38

Side two

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  1. "Close to You" – 4:22
  2. "No Matter Who You Love" – 4:01
  3. "This You Can Believe" – 4:46
  4. "I'm Your Speed" (Aretha Franklin, Glynn Turman) – 3:40

Personnel

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  • Aretha Franklin – vocals
  • Curtis Mayfield – guitar
  • Gary Thompson – guitar
  • Joseph "Lucky" Scott – bass guitar
  • Donnell Hagan – drums
  • Henry Gibson – congas
  • Rich Tufo – keyboards, arrangements
  • Lenard Druss – horns contractor
  • Sol Bobrov – strings contractor
  • Alfonzo Surrett – background vocals
  • Mattie Butler – background vocals
  • Ricki Linton – background vocals
  • Denese Heard and the Jones Girls – background vocals

Production

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  • Producer – Curtis Mayfield
  • Engineers – Roger Anfinsen and Fred Breitberg
  • Remix – Roger Anfinsen
  • Mastered by Dennis King at Atlantic Studios (New York City).
  • Album cover concept – Aretha Franklin

References

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  1. ^ Almighty Fire at AllMusic
  2. ^ Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: F". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 089919026X. Retrieved February 24, 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.
  3. ^ MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Visible Ink Press. 1996. p. 272.
  4. ^ The Rolling Stone Album Guide. Random House. 1992. p. 262.
  5. ^ Larkin, Colin (1998). The Virgin Encyclopedia of R&B and Soul. Virgin. p. 128.
  6. ^ Rockwell, John (April 21, 1978). "The Pop Life". The New York Times. p. C22. Retrieved 14 October 2024.
  7. ^ McEwan, Joe (June 29, 1978). "Almighty Fire". Rolling Stone. No. 268. p. 56.
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