Steve Winwood

With 'Back In The High Life,' Steve Winwood has created the first undeniably superb
record of an almost decade-long solo career, and the news of its arrival is as momentous as
its protracted deferment was disturbing. Indeed, the passion long smoldering in his finest
work explodes in the album-opening duet with Chaka Khan, "Higher Love," as Winwood
cuts through their lustrous harmony to intone, "I could light the night up with my... More >

This is the fate of a wunderkind with more talent than brains: after two decades of special treatment, he derives all the self-esteem he needs just from surviving, as they say. So he's confident that the veracity and unpretentiousness of his well-wrought banalities make them interesting, when in fact they're exactly as interesting as he is. (Grade: C)