Stevie Wonder — The Minor Second

Stevie Wonder Albums

1969

My Cherie Amour – 79%

-reviews for early Stevie pending…

1972 (march)

Music of my Mind - 77%

So as much as the world loved Stevie Wonder, this album was a large departure than what came before. Released in March of 1972, Wonder is so influenced by the funk music around him and wants to participate in something that sounds more like Curtis Mayfield and Parliament / Funkadelic, but also unique and Stevie of old. “Love Having You Around” is an insane album opener, something that uses dissonance to great effect: the is a fire behind Stevie Wonder that wasn’t there before. “Girl Blue” continues this sounds, having Jimi Hendrix style phaser vocals and a drummer that seems to jazz it up out of control.

“Keep on Running” has a kind of pulsating to it that really makes it fun, even though its over six minutes long, where as the ballad “Superwoman” takes his old balladry to another level. “Evil” which closes the album , is Stevie’s ultimate meditation on the nature of evil itself and it’s one of his most interesting tunes. However, this is not the most consistent record, with the end of side one having “Sweet Little Girl” and “Happier than the Morning Sun” and then the eerie “Seems So Long” doesn’t do much I like, however this album might be slightly transitional and leading up to the other Stevie Wonder masterwork of 1972, coming only six months later…

1972

Talking Book - 92%

Something definitely changed with this album within Stevie, opening with “You Are the Sunshine of My Life” basically reinventing his sound and creating one of the most original takes on Soul music to date. The song features a male and female intro, and it is such a charming tune that could go on for days. The other classic, mind-blowing single on the record is “Superstition” a blast of hot funk music that has one of the most insatiable grooves of all time on it. These two songs alone would be worth the price of admission, but I believe this is actually Wonder’s first great album and much of the rest of it follows the strength of those two side one tracks. “You and I” is a heart-breaking ballad, using piano and theremin to devastating effects and lyrics that could be sang at a wedding. “Blame it on the Sun” could be a mantra for depression, or coming out of depression, sort of a take on a torch ballad Elton John or his contemporary Todd Rundgren would make.

Speaking of Rundgren, Wonder had an obsession with the man and changed a lot of his rules for songwriting form being a solely Motown or genre experience and surprised the world with all the songs on here. He also took more of a role in production, working with the great members of Tonto’s Expanding Head Band (best band name ever) to craft music that while based in R&B was also from another dimension. The noises on “Tuesday Heartbreak” were mainly new to soul music, and never quite used in that way. The long, repetitions of “Maybe Your Baby” (which also serves as the albums best song, sing it if you know it “I’M A LITTLE BOY!”) add a pitch shifting, psychedelic quality to Wonder’s music; its super emotional, super heart breaking, and totally unique in his discography thus far. Wonder also maintains many of his charmful ballads that prove he hasn’t quite moved off the planet yet, “You’ve Got It Bad Girl” and “I Believe” which serves as a amazing album closer. In all, Talking Book summons up the spiritual power of his faith but also the cosmic power of many forward thinking 70’s artists, and makers a true start to some amazing earth-shattering Soul Music to follow. A Landmark record.

1973

Innervisions - 85%

Innervisions is a topical album, mainly about how Stevie Wonder sees the world around him and how to deal with and forge a future for his people. Opener “Too High” is a peering into this reality, albeit with a sort of odd background vocal chattering and an off-key sort of melody, but it’s a fascinating new sort of song. I would say the songs have a jazz influence, its more like a new age influence? Everything feels very floaty, see songs like “Visions” or “Golden Lady” that are like floating on top of a lava lamp or something. But the real heart of the record is in its powerful epics, beginning with “Living for the City” his longest song to date (I think) at seven and half minutes and quite the excursion into emotional storytelling basically screaming toward the end of the track. There is also the power jamming of “Higher Ground”, possibly the song he will go down for writing over any others; it’s message of world unity and piece is pretty awe-inspiring.

The last half of the record also has plenty to love, with “All in Love is Fair” being one of his best brooders, “Jesus Children of America” is similar to the theme of the record of using God to help families and children out of debt and poverty, all in using a timeless melody. “He’s a Misstra Know it All” sums everything up with a more friendly sound that is sung like a nursery Rhyme (with an impressive minute long fade out!). I can see how this is many people definitive Wonder record; it has a certain vibe about it that is so hopeful and forward thinking and lyrically it may be his best. It’s pretty impressive just how different this is than the preceding Talking Book, Wonder is becoming a stylistic revolutionary, beyond the realm of Soul music.

1974

Fulfillingness’ First Finale - 75%

FFF opens with a trio of songs that don’t strike me as Stevie’s best, really the album doesn’t get going to me until “Boogie on Reggae Woman”, which features catchy melody with a funky instrumental back ground. It’s the first song I feel Stevie really Feels on this album, which again is full of great songs as it goes. “Creepin” is another homage to Todd Rundgren, with the same moody background as most of the Something / Anything album. While “You Haven’t done Nothin’” is the closest thing to a hit we got and it’s a clear stand out of the type of song he would soon perfect on the next record. There are some interesting moments more than interesting songs, “They Won’t Go When I Leave” piano playing is very different, honestly the whole record has a sort of “hung over” feel that to me, drags it down- I could see how others may see this as fascinating look into Stevie’s personal frustrations around this time. But the music on most songs doesn’t measure up to much, and if there is not a funk backbeat like on “Bird of Beauty” or a sign of optimism on “Please Don’t Go”, it’s hard for me to get with it; I do love the weird atmosphere present on the songs though, don’t get me wrong. FFF is not nearly as good as the albums that preceded it or came after, but it’s a nice little addition to his 70’s streak of entertaining listens.

1976

Songs in the Key of Life - 96%

It's hard to overstate what a life-affirming album this is. Wonder had made many great records before this, see Innervisions and Talking Book especially, but there is something about the double length and perfection of this 1976 album that speaks to me and many other people. From the hits like "Isn't She Lovely" (with a part that opens with a baby crying that I had never heard before, it’s kind of unintentionally funny), the awe-inspiring "As" that is about seven minutes long but never gets old; its use of soulful choir in the background culminates Wonder’s search for a song that is both spiritual and heartfelt R&B. The trumpet led "Sir Duke" is a song that is more old-fashioned pop, but with the chorus “you can feel it all oooover” people are hard pressed not to instantly love it. There are also two songs on the first half of the record that were sampled heavily in the late 1990’s by Will Smith (“I Wish” for the Wild Wild West soundtrack) and Coolio (“Pastime Paradise” was made into the more haunting “Gangster’s Paradise”) that show their influence but more than stand on their own and could have also been huge hits. In a way, this album harks back to both Todd Rundgren’s Something/Anything (1972) and CCR’s Cosmos Factory (1970) as examples of albums that are very do-it-yourself production and also so full of songs that sound like hits (and many of them were radio staples) it is sort of mind blowing.

In addition, the album tracks in between are simply just as good if not better than the hits. "Village Ghetto Land" is a song that should play too sermon-ish but give an accurate accounting of Wonder’s view of life of the poor on the streets, the instrumental "Contusion" featuring the late great Jeff Beck on guitar that owns something to the Jazz Fusion of the time; “Joy Inside My Tears” that is very repetitive but super emotional and meaningful as an cascading soul song of power; the rock n roll blistering “Another Star” who’s background of “nananaa” will stay in your head for days which Wonder displays yet another wonderful melodic line over. There are simply no mis-steps (perhaps I skip “I am Singing” sometimes, it depends on my mood) and to name a few poignant but meaningful tunes: “Black Man” which recites off black innovators in a song that gives a message- “this world was made for all men”; the almost a capella “If It’s Magic”, “Knocks Me Off My Feet” that morphs halfway through into a beautiful love song, the spiritual funk of “Have A Talk with God.

To top it all off, there is a bonus EP with the Vinyl that has songs like the psychedelic and smooth "Saturn", one of the most charming of soul ballads “Ebony Eyes", the amazingly funky "All Day Sucker" (my personal favorite), and the languid finale “Easy Going Evening” that just keep the flow of great Soul and Rock music going even longer! Wonder’s keyboard playing, sonic palette and overall arrangements are stellar throughout the record setting an almost impossible standard to live up to for other musicians. I’ve always wondered why someone like Stevie Wonder would release all this good music on one alum, as he could have spread out this material for 5 to 10 years. Then I realized, his influences, his scope and power at the pinnacle of his career- his goal was to make a masterpiece that would be remembered. He knew all about hit singles and lived in that world long enough as a child, his goal here was the perfect double album, and it may be the best Soul album ever made.