One cannot help but be in awe of what Stevie Wonder tried to accomplish with the most famous of his records. The man tried to take all that was good in his previous three masterworks and throw it out there on a sprawling, double LP that was intentionally designed to be his masterwork.<\/p>\n
Multiple sections of Songs\u2026<\/i> are a tedious affair and shining examples of overindulgence, which is common on double albums. However, to tear apart the album on account of that would be akin to picking at a few blemishes on Van Gogh\u2019s \u201cStarry Night.\u201d The majority of the material present ranks up there as Wonder\u2019s best, and, in fact, some of the best of the 70s.<\/p>\n
Disc One (or sides one and two, for those of you who stick to vinyl) is the best example of this. With the exception of \u201cSummer Soft,\u201d Wonder and his backing band rarely miss a beat, as song after song is a home run. The combination of rock, funk, gospel, pop and R&B is top notch.<\/p>\n
The oft-deried \u201cLove\u2019s In Need Of Love Today\u201d may not be the most uptempo of opening tracks, but when placed in context of what Wonder wanted his album to mean, it is the perfect song to start things off. It was a genius stroke on Stevie\u2019s part to include faux-strings on the blisteringly ironic \u201c The singles “Sir Duke” and “I Wish” speak for themselves, and there’s not much more I could add to the discussion. So, on to the second disc (or sides three and four).<\/p>\n The proceedings begin promisingly, with the utterly ebullient \u201cIsn\u2019t She Lovely.\u201d Everything is pitch-perfect on this track, from Wonder\u2019s infectious vocals to classic harmonica solo. \u201cJoy Inside My Tears\u201d rewards the listener with its subtleties; it is slow paced but just as effective as its predecessor. \u201cBlack Man\u201d is more than a tad preachy, but the subject it elaborates upon is well worth the time and effort to listen to.<\/p>\n \u201cAs,\u201d and \u201cAnother Star\u201d are the two final tracks on the album, technically speaking, and together they clear 15 minutes of running time. Both would have been much more successful as 4-5 minute tracks; in their present form, the energy and momentum that had already taken a hit with the sub-par \u201cIf It\u2019s Magic\u201d falters even further. In this case Stevie reached for the knockout punch with an epic closer, but his reach extended his grasp, one of the few times that has ever happened.<\/p>\n The Something Bonus<\/i> EP included here reclaims the album from a poor ending; these four songs represent a Wonder just laying it out and having some fun. None really make any indicting statements on humanity, or resemble his better love songs, but they are just as innately melodic as anything from his other albums. <\/p>\n Songs In The Key Of Life<\/i> should be essential listening for any fan of late 20th century music; the good moments are that important. However, the added excess and length of the double album format means Songs<\/i> falls just short of the level reached by Talking Book, Innervisions <\/i>and Fulfillingness\u2019 First Finale, <\/i>and represents the last important statement Wonder would make of the 70s. But what a statement!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":28195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6336],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-40499","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\/40499","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\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40499"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}