Stevie Wonder album reviews

 

A Time 2 Love [7/10]

3 Reviews
MIKE PATTENDEN A decade between albums suggests a creative log-jam, but while plenty of producers would love to work with one of Motown’s originals, it is to Wonder’s credit that he has resisted any temptation to hand the reins to the likes of R Kelly.

This summer’s punchy single, So What the Fuss, with Prince on guitar and En Vogue providing back-up, demonstrates what Wonder is still capable of. However, while A Time to Love opens with the shuffling, gospel- heavy If Your Love Cannot Be Moved and the silky bossa of Sweetest Somebody I Know, the tempo soon winds down as Wonder settles into a succession of tinkling supper club numbers with sentimental titles such as My Love is on Fire. That said, he can still fashion a lovely ballad — the jazzy Moon Blue being the prime example — and he eventually rouses himself again with Positivity and the intense title track.

A Time to Love does get bogged down in places, but the world feels a better place for having Wonder back.

6/10 [published 10/15/2005 1:08:00 PM]
MickG It's been a while since Stevie Wonder mattered to anyone. Three decades, to be precise, when Innervisions, Talking Book and Songs In The Key Of Life altered irrevocably the nature of soul music. Thereafter Stevie, slowly, went into decline.

A Time 2 Love, his first album in 10 years, isn't in the same league as the aforesaid sets, though neither is it the embarrassment that it could have been. Of the 14 tracks there's an unhealthy helping of sentimental dross (From The Bottom Of My Heart, for one, is unspeakable), but if Your Love Cannot Be Moved, Positivity and the title track swing in a way that Stevie hasn't done for years. The latter in particular suggests that the great man is, if no longer touched with genius, still equipped to write a song that tugs at your heartstrings.

If, at 55, this proves to be his final studio album, it is a decent way to end a staggering career. The album also features performances by Paul McCartney, Bonnie Rait, Prince and Stevie's daughter Aisha Morris who previously provided the inspiration and baby crying for an old classic, Isn't She Lovely.

8/10 [published 10/20/2005 10:36:00 AM]
Martin Dorman This is the first SW album I have bought in a long time. I listened to this album twice before realising that this is great music from a musical genius. I mean how you gonna write superstition at 55 years old, come on people get real, how many of you could say that life holds the same newness at 30, 40, 50 as it did when you was just coming up in the world? If you took all the instruments used on Songs in the key of life, you know Fender Rhodes, phat horn sections and such, this album would sound similar, not as big in vision but as rich in sound...that's what Stevie does he fills you world with sound you can see. Buy this album and witness an artist who continues to grow and evolve I bet if you could read reviews of Talking book and Innervisions at their release you'd have some fool talking bout how Stevie don't makes music like he used to. Don't matter what he do he gonna sound like Stevie, maybe we heard them Stevie Wonder chord changes to much now and thats why we keep on comparing his music today to when we heard them the first time back in the 70's. Stevie they ain't gonna know how great u is till your gone son!!. but until then keep on keeping on.

8/10 [published 11/1/2005 12:55:00 PM]

Songs in the Key of Life [9/10]

7 Reviews
billboard The phrase "long-awaited album" might well have been coined for this one, Wonder's first LP in 26 months. It is a phenomenal undertaking, two disks and a four-song EP bonus record, a 24-page booklet of lyrics and Wondermessages. But what of the music itself? The songs, all 22 of them, are as warm and sunny as a beautiful dawn in some unspoiled forest. The album is a gorgeous communication from a genius soul at peace with itself. This is Wonder at his smoothest and most romantic, with excitingly pounding multi-keyboard solos that give way to sky-soaring melodies and the most expressive singing ever put on record by Wonder. Best cuts: "I Am Singing," "Isn't She Lovely," "Love Is In Need Of Love Today," "Sir Duke," "I Wish," "Black Man," "Ebony Eyes," "Another Star."

10/10 [published 7/29/2004 2:08:00 PM]
rolling stone Making this record, Wonder would often stay in the studio forty-eight hours straight, not eating or sleeping, while everyone around him struggled to keep up. "If my flow is goin', I keep on until I peak," he said. The flow went so well, Wonder released twenty-one songs, packaged as a double album and a bonus EP. The highlights are the joyful "Isn't She Lovely" and "Sir Duke," but Wonder also displays his effortless mastery of funk, jazz, balladry, Afrobeat and even a string-quartet minuet. Nineteen years later, Coolio turned the haunting groove of the quiet "Pastime Paradise" into the Number One single "Gangster's Paradise."

10/10 [published 7/29/2004 2:08:00 PM]
starling The key to judging double albums - particularly double albums that are nearly two hours in length -- is the answer to the question: How much dross to filter out? Amazingly, there's very little to toss out -- some of the songs go on a bit too long, but mostly the lengths are justified, and while several of these songs are a bit lackluster, you'll barely notice the filler when surrounded by mountains of brilliant gem after gem. This is Wonder's tour de force -- find me one album which has as many great songs as this one. Well, theWhite Album, of course, which is a convenient parallel -- this as close as anyone has ever come to an R & B version of the Beatles' masterpiece, and what's more, it's the product of one individual's talent. With so many brilliant performances, the only problem is absorbing it all. There are the uptempo hits: "Sir Duke," an ode to the giants of black music; "Isn't She Lovely," an ode to something else entirely, a baby. "Saturn" improbably remains stirring despite the goofy naive science-fiction utopianism; "Village Ghetto Land," is an even better address on society's ills in the Wonder's politicized mode. "Have A Talk With God," recommends spirituality as an answer to the world's problems, while the instrumental "Contusion," sounds like a Steely Dan tribute. And then there's the song you all know, the chilling "Pastime Paradise," which Coolio used as the basis (hell, it's practically a cover) for his "Gangster's Paradise". I'd trim the lengthy didactic coda of "Black Man," but I'm hard pressed to figure out what else I would -- of the 21 songs and two hours of music on these two discs, a shocking amount are excellent-to-brilliant.

10/10 [published 7/29/2004 2:08:00 PM]
pop matters I sat in my living room for three nights after September 11th, transfixed by the horrific images that played out before me on the television again and again but sadly unable to tear myself away. My wife, her eyes still red and raw from crying, had pulled herself away two days prior and gently asked me to do the same as she shuffled from one end of our little apartment to the other in an effort to keep herself occupied. Finally, after 72 hours filled with the painful reminders of our fallen world I reached for the remote control and turned the television off.As a musician, critic, and avid collector, I turned to my CDs and tried to find solace in the reverent poetic tones of Joni Mitchell, the joyously youthful optimism of the Beatles, and the brotherly matter-of-factness of Bob Dylan. While my dear friends gave it their best, comfort was hard to come by. I didn't want escape; I craved release.After a week I was drawn back to the television for what was perhaps one of the most poignant moments of remembrance in those delicate days after the 11th. Flipping on our television, my wife and I were greeted by the image of Stevie Wonder seated at a keyboard and flanked by the members of Take 6. "When you say that you kill in the name of God or in the name of Allah, you are truly cursing God, for that is not of God," he quietly stated. "When you say that you hate in the name of God or Allah, you are lying to God, for that is not of our Father. Let us pray that we see the light. God's Will is to give the world love." And then came the opening lines of "Love's in Need of Love Today".Good morn or evening friendsHere's your friendly announcerI have serious news to pass on to everybodyWhat I'm about to sayCould mean the world's disasterCould change your joy and laughter to tears and painIt's that love's in need of love todayDon't delay send yours in right awayHate's goin' round breaking many heartsStop it please before it's gone too farThere they were, the words I had been looking for and somehow had passed over countless times in that week. I rediscoveredSongs in the Key of Lifethat night, an album that up to that evening had occupied a quiet corner in my collection.Released almost exactly 25 years prior,Songsdidn't win the critical and commercial praise of its predecessorsTalking BookandInnervisions. A double LP release never ceases to raise the eyebrow of a critic, often begging questions of artistic indulgence and pretentiousness. Even the Beatles couldn't escape that one with their eponymous "White Album" and neither could Stevie Wonder.The album moves in acts, following thematic lines that often tenuously connect on the whims of its creator. Wonder boldly shares his adamant sense of faith and spiritual devotion with the album's opening one-two punch of "Love's in Need of Love Today" and "Have a Talk of God". The gentle intensity of these tracks offers a sharp contrast to the harsher realities of life depicted in "Village Ghetto Land" and "Pastime Paradise". But this first act ends on a jubilant note of love's first blush with the bouncy shuffle of "Ebony Eyes".The second act ofSongsopens with a renewed sense of optimism found in the cries and laughs of Wonder's baby daughter on "Isn't She Lovely" and in the lyrics of "Joy Inside My Tears". It seems that innocence -- and the promise of the future it carries with it -- is the antidote for the perils of modernity. With this promise, however, also comes the responsibility of history, as depicted in multi-ethnic history lesson of "Black Man". And as the centerpiece of this second act (and as the album as a whole), "As" is Wonder's bold declaration of the endless nature of true love.The majority of the tracks onSongs in the Key of Lifeare expansive and lushly layered affairs, carefully crafted around Wonder's lyrics. He is unafraid to carry out the occasional gospel-like refrain to boundless ends while the listener can't help but be swept up in these moments. Meanwhile, Wonder's voice is as powerful as his instrumental prowess, moving from a shout to a whisper with authority and ease, capturing raw emotion and framing gentle subtleties in ways that many artists have attempted to emulate but have never quite captured.In the end,Songs in the Key of Lifeis the sprawling vision of a man whose sight has been rendered infinite by the power of love and faith. Sculpted from Wonder's unique amalgam of jazz, pop and R&B, it is a bold effort that flirts with genius. In terms of Wonder's career, it stands as the pinnacle of his prolific output. And, as the cliché goes, it was afflicted with the curse of being decades before its time. Yet like any true work of art its value and impact transcends the circumstances of its own creation and the intent of its creator to be blessed with an ability to find a constant tenor in any given time of need.

9/10 [published 7/29/2004 2:08:00 PM]
warr Sure, the minor material here is weaker than anything onInnervisions, say. But there's more first-rate music here than on any other album I can think of. Many of the longer compositions fully justify their playing time, either by radically transforming themselves ("Ordinary Pain"), featuring solos from a galaxy of guest stars ("Another Star") or both ("As"). You've probably heard Stevie's solo on "Isn't She Lovely," but you may not be familiar with my favorite Wonder composition of all, "Knocks Me Off My Feet," which combines a simple theme with flights of incredibly harmonic sophistication, firmly anchored on Earth by a solid drum hook on the chorus. "Summersoft" is perhaps the best in a long line of gentle, mostly acoustic numbers with deceptively complex changes (like "Golden Lady" and "With Each Beat Of My Heart"). Not to mention "Ebony Eyes," "Pasttime Paradise" (the basis for Coolio's recent "Gangsta Paradise"), "Village Ghettoland," "Joy Inside My Tears." Possibly the single most influential album of the entire decade. (DBW)

9/10 [published 7/29/2004 2:08:00 PM]
all music guide Songs in the Key of Life was Stevie Wonder's longest, most ambitious collection of songs, a two-LP (plus accompanying EP) set that — just as the title promised — touched on nearly every issue under the sun, and did it all with ambitious (even for him), wide-ranging arrangements and some of the best performances of Wonder's career. The opening "Love's in Need of Love Today" and "Have a Talk With God" are curiously subdued, but Stevie soon kicks into gear with "Village Ghetto Land," a fierce exposé of ghetto neglect set to a satirical baroque synthesizer. Hot on its heels comes the torrid fusion jam "Contusion," a big, brassy hit tribute to the recently departed Duke Ellington in "Sir Duke," and (another hit, this one a Grammy winner as well) the bumping poem to his childhood, "I Wish." Though they didn't necessarily appear in order, Songs in the Key of Life contains nearly a full album on love and relationships, along with another full album on issues social and spiritual. Fans of the love album Talking Book can marvel that he sets the bar even higher here, with brilliant material like the tenderly cathartic and gloriously redemptive "Joy Inside My Tears," the two-part, smooth-and-rough "Ordinary Pain," the bitterly ironic "All Day Sucker," or another classic heartbreaker, "Summer Soft." Those inclined toward Stevie Wonder the social-issues artist had quite a few songs to focus on as well: "Black Man" was a Bicentennial school lesson on remembering the vastly different people who helped build America; "Pastime Paradise" examined the plight of those living in the past with little hope for the future; "Village Ghetto Land" brought listeners to a nightmare of urban wasteland; and "Saturn" found Stevie questioning his kinship with the rest of humanity and amusingly imagining paradise as a residency on a distant planet. If all this sounds overwhelming, it is; Stevie Wonder had talent to spare during the mid-'70s, and instead of letting the reserve trickle out during the rest of the decade, he let it all go with one massive burst. (The similarly gargantuan but largely instrumental soundtrack Secret Life of Plants was his only subsequent record until 1980.)

8/10 [published 7/29/2004 2:08:00 PM]
Lee Alexander Songs In the Key of Life,
This album has been my favorite album of all times since it release back in 1976.
When I enlisted in the Army back in 1979, I report to duty with two albums in my luggage. One was Songs and the other one was Rapper Delight by Sugar Hill and the Gang. I reported to Fort Hucahcua, AZ and everyone want to listed to these two albums. At that time Songs In the Key of Life was 3 years old and still selling. I am from the Detroit area and this is before the bootleg days of music. Every family I knew own at least one copy of this album. I couldn't believe how long it took Billboard magazine to label this album plantinum status. Two years ago they gave it 10 times plantium, which means over 10 millions sells. I challenged anyone and that includes Mr Stevie Wonder the "Master Blaster" himself to come out with a better album. I don't thing it will be done in our life times.
Good Luck
Stay Gold.

10/10 [published 8/13/2007 7:42:00 PM]
 
 
 
 

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