A Review of Stevie Wonder's 'Songs in the Key of Life (1976)'

BY SHINJU KIM

Listen on Youtube: https://www youtube com/playlist?

list=OLAK5uy mcG CMFTptcsuZrsFVztPqlrZaLuaGnS

Who is Stevie Wonder?

Stevie Wonder is an African-American singer and songwriter, not to mention producer, composer, keyboard player, harmonica player, and drummer. Wonder was born with a condition that made him completely blind, but despite this it is clear that has done little to curb his undeniable talent and ambition He is an iconic name from the 60s, 70s and 80s, releasing his first single that would top the charts in 1963 at the age of 13, also making him the youngest artist to do so in the 20th century.

As well as this, he has also accomplished other astonishing feats: he won 25 grammy awards, won album of the year 3 times with 3 consecutive releases, and has sold 100 million records worldwide Wonder has greatly morphed and influenced the genres of R&B and soul, though admittedly, that statement may still sell short his importance to music as we know it today.

What is the Significance of “Songs in the Key of Life”?

This album, “Songs in the Key of Life” is part of a lineage of what many listeners today consider his run of ‘classics’ in the 70s, beginning with 1972’s “Music of my Mind’ and ‘Talking Book”, continuing with “Innervisions (1973)” and “Fulfillingness’ First Finale(1974)” and finally concluding with “Songs in the Key of Life”, all released under Motown Records Be warned, this album is colossal, containing 17 tracks over 2 separate discs, along with an extra EP that brings the total to 21 songs, and 104 minutes of run time Stevie Wonder is the leading voice of this show, supported by many other great talents: Nathan Watts on bass guitar for many of the tracks, Michael Sembello leading the guitar on a few songs; Shirley Brewer shares the leading vocals on the song Ordinary Pain.

However, it has been almost 5 decades since its release, which inevitably leads to the question, does the music still hold up? To my ear, it certainly does.

Track by Track Overview

The album’s catalogue opens with the song “Love’s in Need of Love Today” that begins with sweet, layered vocal harmonies, soon accompanied by soft jazzy keys which melt into a slow, creamy, soulful instrumental that provide the stage for Stevie’s lyrics. Throughout the album, Stevie’s lyrics contain poetry, wisdom, and passion, and what stands out the most about his pen to me, is his ability to provide power and upliftment without shying away in the slightest from discussing the serious, dark and tragic aspects of life

In this first song, the lyrics set the thesis for the experience that the whole album will soon delve into, Stevie Wonder singing about schemes of evil and hate that must and can only be stopped if we learn to embrace the power of love.

The intro to track 2, Have a talk with God, immediately plunges us into a completely different sound, with a lot more funk, a faster tempo, a harmonica that cuts through the soundscape and a pummeling electric bass, that almost seems as if it should sound discordant at first, but through some confounding mystery sounds just as perfectly smoothed and orchestrated as the previous track. Another thing that I instantly love about this album is that it never treads on the footprints laid by its previous songs, its sounds and hues evolve continuously throughout its runtime, yet at no point does a single song seem out of place aesthetically.

Village Ghetto Land, masterfully paints a landscape of his ‘dead-end street’, a place of crime, poverty, killing, desperation and misery. Intense lyrical imagery seemingly juxtaposes the track’s light-hearted instrumental orchestration, that is used to drive home the message, conveying the irony of public perception or attitude towards these ghettos and attempts to preach gratitude to those in suffering.

This record continues with the song Contusion, followed by Sir Duke, the former being a rapid fire, high energy, instrumental track, featuring fantastic drumming and a meld of synthetic instruments and live electric guitar and bass to provide as a frankly awesome musical interlude, and the latter opening with vibrant trumpets and percussion-work before becoming an upbeat, groovy song, where Stevie Wonder delivers his vocals with the energy to match. Here, Stevie Wonder depicts the wondrous power that is music and song, and how it affects the listener, while also paying homage to artists before him. The energy of this song, particularly in its pre-chorus and chorus, is infectious in almost every sense of the word.

I Wish keeps up the funk and groove of the previous tracks, touching on themes of childhood nostalgia, tomfoolery and longing to be able to experience those days once more. The passion in Stevie Wonder’s singing reaches its climax in the punchy chorus, accented by the chants of the bright brass.

The 7th song, Knocks me off my Feet, offers a sonic 180 more akin to the sound of the opening song, containing graceful piano-playing and Stevie Wonder performing smooth, love-filled lyrics on top about being in love Cute and charming, this song and melody, in particular, has been stuck in my head. If that wasn’t enough, each time Stevie Wonder sings the chorus, the key shifts up and Stevie Wonder sings with even more passion and love. Amazing.

Pastime Paradise goes on to lyrically criticise legislators and politicians who choose to live in the past instead of planning for the future, and modern listeners may realise that this song is actually the inspiration and predecessor to the song “Gangsta’s Paradise” by Coolio, released 1995. The following song, Summer Soft is an absolutely gorgeous song with some of Wonder’s most angelic singing throughout the entire album, illustrating the coming and passing of love through a poignant analogy with the yearly seasons, and a stunning, bombastic final chorus.

Ordinary Pain begins with a very mellow, cool mood with lyrics that talk about the pain and sense of loss after a fallout, that transitions midway to a more bass heavy and electric guitar heavy instrumental shift with a more harsh and emotive vocal performance by Shirley Brewer that expertly contrasts with Stevie’s verse, shedding light on the toxicity and harm caused by said relationship, and acts as a slight concession on the supposed beauty and power of love by revealing some of the dangers and turmoil that love can also cause in certain situations

Track 11, Isn’t She Lovely, marks the beginning of the album’s second disc with a sprite, bouncy instrumental that is all brought together by Stevie Wonder’s beautiful, jubilant and powerful singing that captures a deeply personal moment of his life, celebrating the birth of his daughter Aisha. The harmonica solo in between the verses is also great and is instrumental in creating a feeling of joy, innocence and new life, expanding on the contrast between this song and the two prior in the tracklist and developing a timeline of Stevie Wonder’s life experiences This song is fittingly continued by the slow, dramatic, overwhelming Joy Inside My Tears, and although it is not explicitly stated in spoken word whom Stevie praises with bringing him joy in the midst of grief, it can be reasonably theorised that he is referring to the daughter whom he celebrated in the previous song

The album continues with a zestful anthem about cross-racial unity and the celebration of different people’s contributions to the United States, regardless of their colour of skin in the song Black Man Beween its hardcore, upbeat-tempo sound to its empowering lyrics and chants of equality and standing against discrimination, every moment of its eight-minute runtime feels supremely vital to a message that needs to be heard by every ear. The themes of diversity in different cultures continues on the next song, Ngiculela/Es Una Historia/I am singing, during which Stevie sings different parts of the song in Zulu, Spanish and English in a promotion of unity and underscore that ultimately, love and kindness is the language of all people.

The 15th song, If it's magic, is a simple, but graceful ballad performed above the heavenly, gliding strums of a harp that evokes feelings of beauty intertwined with tragedy, and is concluded by the melody of a harmonica. Songs 16 and 17 are both huge closers to the album’s second disk, spanning 7 and 8 minutes respectively The former, As, is an epic, buttery, soulful, jazzy, latin-inspired, groovy amalgamation of different sonic ideas in which Stevie Wonder uses a completely different vocal style accented with a heavily growling, belting-out of lyrics preaching that, despite life’s hardships, there is or will be a reason for where you are The latter, Another Star, features just about every instrument employed earlier in the album, all collaborating to bring together an epic sense of finality and closure in this song; for me, this song synthesises a vivid image of a band on stage performing a final song on a theatre stage as the red velvet curtains begin to close A substantial final goodbye to top off a fantastic musical endeavour by Stevie Wonder and his team of musicians.

Appended with the rest of the project is a bonus EP entitled ‘A Something’s Extra EP’ , a collection of 4 extra songs for the purpose of feeding fans some of the extra products of the album’s spectacular creative process. It begins with song 18, Saturn, filled with theatric, melancholy, yet a sense of freedom or will for freedom, on which Stevie Wonder, supported by a grand orchestration, dreams of escaping from the pain, violence, and hatred of Earth for a paradise planet across the cosmos. This song is followed by Ebony Eyes, a western, pop-influenced, piano-heavy performance that stands out for its lighthearted, purely fun colour in comparison to much of the huge, worldaffecting problems that the rest of the album often strangles with

All Day Sucker, presents a hard-hitting groovy bass-heavy instrumental that incorporates abundant use of guitar performed by W G Snuffy Walden, Michael Sembello and Ben Bridges, as well as backing vocals by Carolyn Dennis Much like the previous song, it has a infectiously fun and catchy rhythm, and is a great addition to the album.

The album’s closing song Easy Goin’ Evening (My Mama’s Call), is a dulcet instrumental, perhaps the only instrumental track if you disqualify Contusion for its incorporation of vocal harmonies. Of this song, there is something so strangely mysterious about the way Wonder’s harmonica floats above the rest of the instruments, but at the end of the day, it is certainly a soothing cooldown that concludes this album

In summary, Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life, is a theatrical, expertly conducted, epic and ambitious musical project that serves as a testament to the incredible talent that was Stevie Wonder, and as a hallmark of modern musical history as a whole. The work features brilliant singing and instrumental performance, tightly written, brilliant songs, one after the other, deeply interwoven themes and topics throughout the tracklist, still incredibly relevant today, that help tie 104 minutes of material into a single, awesome album.

My Top 5 Favourite Songs:

1 9 | Summer Soft

2. 13 | Black Man

3. 17 | Another Star

4 2 | Have a talk with God

5. 1 | Love’s in Need of Love Today

Overall Rating:

9 6/10, an absolutely awesome album from front to back, filled to the brim with overwhelming talent, skill, ambition and musical experimentation, not to mention all the songs being fantastically enjoyable and catchy as individual listening experiences. Perhaps the album may, very rarely, drag on a certain musical idea for a half-minute more than truly necessary, perhaps a song barely falls short of launching the listener to the stratosphere, but these are just about the only few criticisms you could feasibly make to an almost perfect music record.

Information Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs in the_Key_of_Life https://en wikipedia org/wiki/Stevie Wonder