Light of Worlds is the fifth studio album, and seventh album of new material by the American R&B group Kool & the Gang. Released in 1974, it was later remastered by Polygram and was a second success for the band, reaching number 16 in the R&B Charts and number 63 in the Pop Charts. It was a landmark in the funk/jazz fusion genre of the 1970s.
Light of Worlds is regarded as Kool & the Gang's most spiritual and sophisticated work, produced in the wake of the success of their previous album, Wild and Peaceful. While it was their seventh album of original material, the band considered Light of the Worlds their ninth LP (counting two compilations), and therefore consciously chose nine songs for the album to represent the then nine planets in the solar system. The album contains rock-inspired funk set to jazz-informed playing with afrobeat influences and a tinge of analogue synthesizing.
"Summer Madness" is considered[according to whom?] to be the album's highlight, incorporating smooth melodies and a synthesizer. It was later released as a single, with a follow-up titled "Winter Sadness" in Kool & the Gang's Spirit of the Boogie a year later.
A remake of "Summer Madness" was released on their 1993 album Unite titled "WKOOL/Summer".
In 1991, the Hip-Hop duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince sampled elements of "Summer Madness" for their song "Summertime".
Cleveland Brown. Light of Worlds liner notes. PolyGram Records, Inc.
Nathan Brackett, Christian Hoard (2004). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. Completely Revised and Updated 4th Edition. Simon and Schuster. ISBN0-7432-0169-8.
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