Stevie Wonder

Released just three years after Signed Sealed Delivered, Innervisions shows Wonder's maturation as a songwriter. The stellar "Living For the City" and "Higher Ground" practically leap off the vinyl, and "Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing" keeps the humor rolling. The work of a man profoundly grappling with the realities of racism and economic disparity.

With his last three albums Stevie Wonder has replaced Sly Stone as the most significant
individual black innovator in the twin fields of R&B and rock. He has also replaced him as the
most popular black music personality: Wonder's appeal now crosses every boundary. His
music always sounds free and, at his best, he does things no one else can. "Living for the
City" has the most compelling -- pounding, throbbing, unyielding -- beat to be he... More >

It's neither Wonder's attraction to cliches nor his proud belief that he's the peer of anyone who can read this that leads him to render his mental life in a visual metaphor. It's because he's got no use for abstraction--he's technical/physical rather than logical/conceptual. Here once again he treads the fine line between glossolalia and running on at the mouth. Any suggestion that the bitter defeats of "Living in the City" are as unfactual as the "dream come true" of "Golden Lady" is simply irrelevant, because both are the truth--and unless he's snuck one past me and "Golden Lady" is about the sun, which would be interesting, that song is the worst one here. This is music that makes you believe in faith, almost like Stevie, who only knows that leaves turn from green to brown because he's got no choice. (Grade - A)