28th October - Stevie Wonder's Talking Book

Artist – Album: Stevie Wonder – Talking Book

Released: 28^th October 1972

Sounds Like: Gloomy Monday: the antidote

The best music has an ability to transport you far away from your bodily situation. Hence, although it may be miserable Monday morning in late October – one where we I am groggily sat in work preparing myself for the worst storms to hit these shores for a quarter of a century, whilst my girlfriend is sunning herself in beautiful Sicily and my housemate is en route to Paris – when the opening bars of ‘You Are the Sunshine of My Life’ kick in I still feel all warm and fuzzy and good inside.

If ‘You Are the Sunshine of My Life’ is just a little too sickly sweet for you (I do get that, but for me it’s just too pure to warrant cynicism), rest easy that this isn’t just a collection of saccharine love songs. The funky hit ‘Superstition’ is blistering in its attack on old-school mind-sets, whilst the Orwellian ‘Big Brother’ shoots down power hungry politicians who only care about the population during voting season. Even those tunes about love aren’t concerned only with giddy infatuation – ‘Maybe Your Baby’ is overwhelmingly paranoid (“Maybe my baby done made another plan with another man”), whilst ‘Blame It on the Sun’ is genuinely heart-breaking self denial.

If, after all, you do just want a gigantic, no-holds-barred love song, then look no further than ‘I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)’, quite possibly the most uplifting five minutes Stevie Wonder ever recorded.

Albumaday... rating: 10/10

1.       You Are the Sunshine of My Life – 2:58

2.       Maybe Your Baby – 6:51

3.       You and I (We Can Conquer the World) – 4:38

4.       Tuesday Heartbreak – 3:02

5.       You’ve Got It Bad Girl – 4:59

6.       Superstition – 4:26

7.       Big Brother – 3:34

8.       Blame It on the Sun – 3:26

9.       Lookin’ for Another Pure Love – 4:43

10.   I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever) – 4:53

Listen to ‘I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0Y9P45XYUc

Also released on 28^th October:

1966: The Kinks – Face to Face

Also released on 28^th October:

2003: The Strokes – Room on Fire

Also released on 28^th October:

2011: Rizzle Kicks – Stereo Typical