My Top 100 Albums: #91 - Stevie Wonder, ‘Innervisions’

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91.

Stevie Wonder, ‘Innervisions’

Tamla, 1973

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You won’t find many funk or soul albums on this list - my limited experience and lack of particular zeal for this genre make it an area that will be criminally underrepresented on the whole. On the upside, this fact should bring into stark clarity the broad appeal of Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions. Wonder was just 11 when he signed for Motown Records in 1961 but he soon became one of their most lucrative discoveries, releasing several albums of his own in the ‘60s as well as writing music for the great number of other artists in Motown’s portfolio. Many of his enduring hits come from this period, as the Motown executives profited greatly from his prodigious and precocious talent, while enforcing upon him and their other artists a restrictive and unrewarding contract. By 1973, though, Motown Records’ influence was on the decline and Stevie Wonder was a global superstar in his own right, and Wonder had been able to sign a new contract which bought him a significant boost in creative freedom. Innervisions was Stevie Wonder’s sixteenth studio album (released when he was still just 23), but his first in which he was able to truly exhibit his creative talents. Wonder is responsible for all facets of this release, from the music and lyrics to the engineering and production. Almost all of the instrumentals featured were played by Wonder himself, most distinctively that unforgettable ARP synthesiser that dominates this record. Musically and thematically as well as conceptually, Wonder lets loose on this album, dragging the listener on a journey from the more typical celebrations of love on the likes of Golden Lady and All in Love is Fair to socially-conscious exposés in Living for the City and the closing track He’s Misstra Know-it-All. The music is diverse but always fastidiously well-executed, from the balladic Visions to the explosive funk of Higher Ground and even his brief foray into Latin jazz on Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing. Indeed, Higher Ground features one of the most compelling funk riffs ever written and is one of the greatest individual tracks of that generation in my book. As a self-professed philistine when it comes to this genre of music, I highly recommend this album.

Hidden Highlight: Too High

1. Too High

2. Visions

3. Living for the City

4. Golden Lady

5. Higher Ground

6. Jesus Children of America

7. All in Love is Fair

8. Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing

9. He’s Misstra Know-it-All

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See the full list so far here:

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