Stevie Wonder
Innervisions

THE REVIEW

Writing a review... it's certainly not an easy thing! But taking a look at this beautiful site, I noticed something a bit strange... where are the reviews of Stevie Wonder's albums? I haven't found them, but I don't count, so to solve a non-issue, I'll write them myself.

As I was saying, writing a review is not simple, especially when it comes to Stevie Wonder, and even more so when it comes to a magnificent album like Innervisions, so I imagine you will understand and excuse me if it's not to your liking. Let's dive in. Innervision, an album that has brought both joy and pain to our Wonder, considering the Grammy Awards won but also the accident that nearly killed him after the album's release.

The record (yes, I know... I'm twenty-five years old but I still like the term record...) starts with "Too High," a track that follows the path marked by previous albums and will lead to the magnificent "Songs In The Key Of Life," a piece that, despite its funky beat and the urge to move it puts in you, has the theme of drug abuse, which our Wonder knew well at the time. This is followed by "Visions," which brings us back down to earth, more than a song, an arpeggio with guitar and vocal cords, filled with fundamental themes, the meaning of life, and the "inner vision" that gives the album its title, in one sound, like how Bob Dylan would sound if he had a black voice. The third track, "Living for the City," I've always considered more than a song, a theatrical work, perhaps a concept to develop separately, but even as it is, it's thrilling. The themes are poverty, marginalization, and racism, emblematic is the long interlude of the arrest and trial of the black boy in the middle of the song, which right after this part, however, opens up and almost becomes an anthem for the will to succeed. We continue catching our breath, with "Golden Lady," a song bursting with love and joy, between bossa nova and the African rhythms of the bongos. Halfway through, Stevie grabs us by the jacket and invites us to get up and dance with the famous "Higher Ground," a riff repeated thousands of times not just by me but also by many musicians who have covered it; even in this track Stevie manages to perfectly reconcile a tight and funky rhythm with social themes. Social themes that continue in the next track, "Jesus Children Of America," a song, a prayer, where the funk becomes darker and goes hand in hand with the themes, and the weight of Wonder's words hits us directly in the stomach. By this point, the album has already turned somber, and a hint of melancholy hits us in "All Is Fair In Love," sad and melancholic, a ballad about ended loves. But by this point, Stevie gives us another slap in the face, and a beautiful and provocative Hispanic woman invites us to dance in "Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing," in which Stevie invites us to smile and not to worry about anything. The album closes with the beautiful ballad of social commentary "He's Misstra Know It All," which if you didn't know English, could very well pass for a bittersweet love song.

In conclusion, "Innervisions" is and will remain one of the most beautiful albums not only in Stevie Wonder's discography but in the entire history of music, and its importance transcends the album itself because it will be the final phase of the path undertaken by the artist in the seventies, which will then have its greatest splendor in "Songs In The Key Of Life."