Stevie Wonder is one of the rare artists who deserves most of
\nthe hype that he gets. A long and decorated musical career has
\nresulted in some of the best funk and rhythm-n-blues music ever
\nsaved to recorded media. Perhaps more impressive is his ability to
\ncreate the album as a single piece of work; the best Wonder CDs
\naren’t long collections of single songs, but one seamless entity.
\nOne of the best examples of this is his 1973 CD
\nInnervisions<\/i>. The follow-up to his massive, groundbreaking
\nTalking Book<\/i>,
\nInnervisions<\/i> is a grand, sweeping, funky collection of The
\nWorld According To Stevie, full of polemic on politics, religion,
\nlife in the inner city, and other weighty topics.<\/p>\n
And boy, it could have crashed under its own weight. The fact
\nthat it didn’t is a tribute to Wonder’s genius.<\/p>\n
Despite the minimalist packaging of the release I had (liner
\nnotes? what liner notes?) the quality of the recording itself is
\nhigh. Malcolm Cecil’s production is spare and elegant; it mixes the
\nrich tapestry of Wonder’s arrangements without collapsing under its
\nown weight. The sound is clear and lovely; David Walker and Ralph
\nHammer’s guitars are particularly well-handled, especially on a
\ntrack like “Visions” with its mix of fingerstyle acoustic and
\nwah-wah electric.<\/p>\n
The single that everyone knows off
\nInnervisions<\/i> is “Higher Ground,” more for the exuberant Red
\nHot Chili Peppers cover from 1989 than for the original. Too bad;
\nWonder’s version kicks out the jams with a funky back-beat and
\nhigh-hat cymbals setting the pace, similar in feel to his earlier
\nhit “Superstition.” That’s just the tip of the iceberg, though;
\nthere’s some serious funk woven all the way through
\nInnervisions<\/i>. “Too High,” “Living For The City,” and “Don’t
\nYou Worry ‘Bout A Thing” are all seriously powerful funk,
\nespecially the wild spoken word intro on “Worry.” The counterpoint
\nis the simple beauty of ballads like “Visions,” “All In Love Is
\nFair,” and “Golden Lady.” The album’s piece de resistance is the
\nacidic and viciously satirical “He’s Misstra Know-It-All,” Wonder’s
\nunflattering portrait of then-President Richard Nixon.<\/p>\n
\nInnervisions<\/i> is a modern classic, both on its own and
\ncombined with
\nTalking Book<\/i> as what may be the two greatest consecutive
\nalbums ever recorded by an American artist. Everyone’s CD
\ncollection should have a copy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":26455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6336],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-37689","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-stevie-wonder","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37689","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\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37689"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}