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

28th September - Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life

Artist – Album: Stevie Wonder – Songs in the Key of Life

Released:  28^th September 1976

Sounds Like: Life, the Universe and Everything

Yet another double album! I'm beginning to think that the double whammy is uniformly a bad idea - Songs in the Key of Life was a little bit disappointing. I know in some circles this may be considered blasphemy, but hear me out: Some of the songs here are glorious, but over 17 songs Wonder struggles to keep his expansive creative side under control. A case in point is 'Isn't She Lovely' - a nice enough if a bit schmaltzy tune, but clocking in at 6 and a half minutes long and involving the sound of bathtime is just not necessary. Still the majority of it is exceptional, with 'As', 'Sir Duke' and 'Summer Soft' being the incredible highlights.

Albumaday... rating: 8/10
 

1.       Love’s in Need of Love Today – 7:06

2.       Have a Talk with God – 2:42

3.       Village Ghetto Land – 3:25

4.       Contusion – 3:46

5.       Sir Duke – 3:52

6.       I Wish – 4:12

7.       Knocks Me Off My Feet – 3:36

8.       Pastime Paradise – 3:27

9.       Summer Soft – 4:14

10.   Ordinary Pain – 6:16

11.   Isn’t She Lovely – 6:34

12.   Joy Inside My Tears – 6:30

13.   Black Man – 8:27

14.   Ngiculela – Es Una Historia – I Am Singing – 3:48

15.   If It’s Magic – 3:12

16.   As – 7:08

17.   Another Star – 8:08

 
Listen to ‘As’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWhMyOs0pCQ

Also released on 28^th September:

1987: The Smiths – Strangeways, Here We Come

Also released on 28^th September:

1998: The Beta Band – The Three EPs

Also released on 28^th September:

2004: Brian Wilson - SMiLE

3rd August - Stevie Wonder's Innervisions

Artist – Album: Stevie Wonder – Innervisions

Released:  3^rd August 1973

Sounds Like: A true visionary

Much like the fact that it’s difficult to compare music from different genres, it can be even more problematic to judge albums that have differing aspirations. After all, some records are composed purely to make you dance, and it hardly seems fair to weigh them up next to albums made to push the boundaries of music, or served to make some commentary on the state of the world. For one, those albums with superior motives are more likely than not just be a bit naff – difficult to listen to and tiresome. Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions, however, is an exception to this rule, as he effortlessly supplies an album laden with weight of the world’s ills and yet one which is somehow an unbridled pleasure to listen to.

Little Stevie’s got his back up about a lot of things on this album, from the dangers of dope in ‘Too High’ to the perils of urban life in the epic ‘Living for the City’ – which, unlike on the single version, contains a mini-drama in the middle, where Wonder assumes multiple personalities and acts out the unfortunate circumstances that befall those that lack the requisite savvy in the streets. The political acrimony surrounding Richard Nixon’s occupation of White House gets covered on ‘He’s Misstra Know-It-All’, and Tricky Dicky gets his biggest kicking from a black artist this side of 2009 comedy Black Dynamite. There are some more tender moments though, with the beautiful ‘Golden Lady’ the best of many splendid ballads.   

Innervisions is the 29^th perfect score in Albumaday... history, although, along with In the Aeroplane over the Sea, Doolittle, Odessey & Oracle and Pet Sounds, it belongs in the absolute top echelon of those 10 out of 10s. Thanks to a bit of forward thinking, I also know that the next album to join this most exulted company is not too far away... Don’t go anywhere folks!

Albumaday... rating:  10/10

1.       Too High – 4:36

2.       Visions – 5:23

3.       Living for the City – 7:22

4.       Golden Lady – 4:58

5.       Higher Ground – 3:42

6.       Jesus Children of America – 4:10

7.       All in Love Is Fair – 3:41

8.       Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing – 4:44

9.       He’s Misstra Know-It-All – 5:35

Listen to ‘Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOz3p6k5O2g

Also released on the 3^rd August:

1979: AC-DC – Highway to Hell

Also released on the 3^rd August:

1979: Talking Heads – Fear of Music