Everybody who has never heard “You Are the Sunshine of My Life”
\ncan stop reading right now. ‘Fraid we cater to a bit more
\nwell-versed crowd sometimes, and this review of
\nTalking Book<\/i>, Stevie Wonder’s 1972 release, isn’t going to
\nfocus on either of the two radio songs – “Sunshine” and
\n“Superstition.” Yeah, they’re good songs – but the rest of this
\nalbum is so amazing, it’s hard to imagine that these were the only
\nsongs that made it to mainstream radio.<\/p>\n
“Maybe Your Baby” is a long, sometimes rambling song with
\namazing funk keyboards and some very interesting things done on
\nguitar by Ray Parker Jr. The drums are also quite interesting, with
\nsome unexpected rhythms slammed out on the cymbals. The whole thing
\nseems to be an instrumental jam with lyrics slapped on top,
\nrepeated ad infinitum by the background vocalists. The booklet
\ndoesn’t list any names – I don’t have the remastered version – so
\nI’m curious whether that’s Wonder or stock crooning.<\/p>\n
“You And I” is one of the most heartfelt, low-key songs I’ve
\nheard in a long time; particularly from 1971 Motown. It’s not
\noverdone, it’s not even approaching funk, and it’s honest. I find
\nit to be very beautiful, with a bit of a theremin style vibe in the
\nbackground somewhere. “Tuesday Heartbreak” isn’t terrible, but it’s
\na bit passable. More up-tempo than “You And I,” but not quite a
\n“rocker,” it sits nicely in the middle as a funk-oriented
\nshuffle.<\/p>\n
“You’ve Got It Bad Girl” features Wonder’s keyboard playing
\nabilities pretty well, and his voice returns to the emotional, but
\nit doesn’t sound as raw and meaningful as some of the other songs
\non the album.<\/p>\n
Ok, at this point, I really should pay attention to
\n“Superstition,” which, despite being overplayed, is amazingly good.
\nListen to Stevie Funk It Up! With “Big Brother” we hear keyboards
\nthat, the first time I listened, I would have *sworn* were guitar.
\nThey do some interesting things, sounding very similar to
\nre-processed acoustic strumming. Wonder returns to soulful singing
\nagain, from slightly smug on the previous cut. He continues with
\nthis into “Blame It On The Sun,” another great cut.<\/p>\n
The last two songs segue directly, and it certainly is a good
\nexperience to hear them do so. I gushed about “I Believe (When I
\nFall In Love It Will Be Forever)” in another review, for the
\nHigh Fidelity<\/i> soundtrack, and here it fits so much better –
\n“Lookin’ For Another Pure Love” seems fulfilled by the ending
\ntrack. Both are filled with great performances, and “Lookin'” even
\nhas Jeff Beck on guitar.<\/p>\n
This album is definitely greater than the sum of its parts;
\nwhich, in retrospect, is probably why only two tracks are still
\nheard frequently on the radio. This is my first Stevie Wonder
\npurchase, but it certainly won’t be my last.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":25956,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6336],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-37162","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-stevie-wonder","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37162"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37162"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}