Stevie Wonder - Songs In The Key Of Life

A pretentious, bloated, insipid and insanely overrated record. Just why this double LP has become such a firmly canonized album and the Stevie Wonder record that everyone seems to think that they "must have" is a mystery, as it offers very little to justify the annoying hybris on display. Examine the evidence: Funk numbers marred by a bland rhythm section. Synth-driven arrangements that, even for the time, were hopelessly derivative and dated. Sappy, syrupy songs that go on forever (atrocities like "Isn't She Lovely" mark the transformation from the joyful and infectious positivity of some of Stevie's best early 70's music to the ghastly sentimentality he'd be swimming in later on in his career, a downfall which, as you might recall, culminated with "I Just Called To Say I Love You" – and baby crying doesn't belong on a record, period). Some incredibly embarassing lyrics ("Well he's the only free psychiatrist that's known throughout the world / for solving the problems of all men, women, little boys and girls" – this, in case you wondered, is a tribute to the Almighty himself called "Have a Talk With God"). And some oddities that just fall flat – such as the meandering fusion workout "Contusion" and the annoying "Village Ghetto Land", which is solely accompanied by the kind of keyboard sound you expect from a band playing on a Caribbean cruise ship. And to top it all off: The toe-curling "Black Man", whose lyrics are so tediously preachy that they're impossible to take seriously.

In fact, "Songs..." has a lot in common with Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" in that it's (a) an embarassingly self-conscious and failed attempt to make a truly epic album that tackles serious issues, and (b) overpraised to the extreme. Unfortunately, the demise of Stevie Wonder didn't start with those musical miscarriages he committed to record in the 80's, or even with "Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants". It started right here.

Probably the best album in the history of popular music !
This classic masterpiece reminds me of the Bible. You may not touch it often, maybe not even once in years, but it's always good to know it's there.
Often i think of a certain melody, phrase or song, that i want to hear again, that sparks the intention to look for the album and put it on my turnatble.I always end up playing the whole album (although the 7" got lost somehow) at least once , if not more than twice...
Whenever i listened to 'Songs In The Key Of Life' during the past 5 years, since i got this very album from a flea-market, there's always another song that's my favorite. It used to be 'Pastime Paradise' (long before Coolio changed it to "Gangsta's Paradise") . Today it seems to be "JOY INSIDE MY TEARS" once again = touching, perfect, complete. What a wonderful melody, up-building and ever increasing with this typical Stevie Wonder lyrics, that often leaves just a tiny light of hope. But i only heard LP 2 (Side 2+3) as yet! Sides 1+4 are on LP 1 (old-school style for the automatic record-changers). There are more than half a dozen of great songs on LP 1 as well.'Love's In Need Of Love Today','Have A Talk With God', Sir Duke' (Side 1) 'Isn't She Lovely' and 'As' (Side 4) are among my ever changing favourites.