3. Innervisions – Stevie Wonder (Tamla/Motown – 1973)
Stevie Wonder’s 7-album `70s output from the gap-bridging Where I’m Coming From and Music of My Mind to the brilliant yet too-oft-misunderstood Journey Through The Secret Life of Plants remains an unparalleled string of brilliance, hit-making, virtuosity and prolific profundity.
Yet no single album encompasses and encapsulates the scope of that genius finer than Innervisions which landed smack in the middle, circa `73. The Jazz trip of a poor girl’s all-too-brief flirtation with drug use set to Stevie’s double tracked harmonicas and shimmering Rhodes on “Too High,” the serene dream of universal peace “Visions,” the stark ghetto portraiture of “Living For The City,” the woman-as-sanctuary love letter “Golden Lady,” the striver’s anthem “Higher Ground,” a tap on the shoulder for those blindly following the Born Again Christian movement “Jesus Children of America,” the stone cold truth about matters of the heart “All is Fair in Love,” a recess of joy in the Latin-tinged “Don’t You Worry `Bout a Thing” and some parting words on hypocrisy “He’s Misstra Know-It-All.” Sure, Talking Book, Fulfillingness’ First Finale and the bountiful Songs in the Key of Life are all amazing in their own way. Still, Innervisions is a taut and terrific 360-degree masterpiece no matter what angle from which it is approached. Click NEXT for the next album.
