You Will Know

Dark N Lovely

In Your Corner

With Each Beat Of My Heart

One of a Kind

Skeletons

Get It featuring Michael Jackson

Galaxy Paradise

Crying Through The Night

Free

Come Let Me Make Your Love Come Down

My Eyes Don't Cry

Hi again sosgemini!...gotta love the way you phrase your questions...it can't be 'What a great masterpiece this album is!' Nah, now why y'all have to put a slight downer on thangs, by phrasing the great man the way you have?...kind of diminishing his work since the 80's no?

Anyways...peace, out

I wish I could, but I can't. It's filled with the elements that drag down a Stevie Wonder album;

overproduced, overlong songs, and while I do enjoy my 80's synth sounds, there's too much of it everywhere and too little natural insturments. For example, one of the better songs, "Cryin' Through the Night" is from the outtake from the 70's. This is the original:

and this is the demo from the 70's:

the 70's outtake just feels right with the mood of the song, hell the singing is more emotive and the tempo and the swing of the drums lends its self to a more meloncoly tune, which fits to my ears and the lyrics.

Ok enough bashing: With Each Beat of My Heart is probably the best ballad he's ever written; "You Will Know, Skeletons, and My Eyes Don't Cry and pretty damn good songs, and even "Come Let Me Make My Love Come Down is still a decent song, even though it coulda been WAY more bluesey and incorporated more of Stevie Ray Vaughn and B.B. King on the track.

Characters is a good album, but his last masterpiece is "Hotter Than July"

funkyandy said:

Hi again sosgemini!...gotta love the way you phrase your questions...it can't be 'What a great masterpiece this album is!' Nah, now why y'all have to put a slight downer on thangs, by phrasing the great man the way you have?...kind of diminishing his work since the 80's no?

Anyways...peace, out

It's called trying to stimulate discussion. Cha know, the difference between an open ended question vs. a yes or no question.

At anyrate, as we were....

[Edited 1/18/11 8:26am]

Sosgemini,

I am going to take the heat off of you and place it on my by saying the following. In my humble opinion, Stevie's last masterpiece was "Songs In The Key Of Life". In my opinion, he has not made a good album since then. SITKOL, and all of his albums prior to that, were all masterpieces, because they have all stood the test of time. In my opinion, nothing after that is worth getting into.

Stimulate discussion?...You asked a closed ended question...lol

So answer = no

funkyandy said:

Stimulate discussion?...You asked a closed ended question...lol

So answer = no

Why the hate?

shorttrini said:

Sosgemini,

I am going to take the heat off of you and place it on my by saying the following. In my humble opinion, Stevie's last masterpiece was "Songs In The Key Of Life". In my opinion, he has not made a good album since then. SITKOL, and all of his albums prior to that, were all masterpieces, because they have all stood the test of time. In my opinion, nothing after that is worth getting into.

I could probably settle with saying from a pop/soul masterpiece, 'Songs' is his masterpiece, even though I think "Hotter than July" , is pretty damn good pop album. And this is ignoring the beautifully written "Secret Life of Plants" but I have to disagree, there's a lot of material missed without buying his albums after "Hotter than July", IMO.

yes

Full length version of the 70s Cryin Through The Night is great. Also some instrumental takes of it too.

CoolTarik1 said:

shorttrini said:

Sosgemini,

I am going to take the heat off of you and place it on my by saying the following. In my humble opinion, Stevie's last masterpiece was "Songs In The Key Of Life". In my opinion, he has not made a good album since then. SITKOL, and all of his albums prior to that, were all masterpieces, because they have all stood the test of time. In my opinion, nothing after that is worth getting into.

I could probably settle with saying from a pop/soul masterpiece, 'Songs' is his masterpiece, even though I think "Hotter than July" , is pretty damn good pop album. And this is ignoring the beautifully written "Secret Life of Plants" but I have to disagree, there's a lot of material missed without buying his albums after "Hotter than July", IMO.

I will give you, "Secret Life of Plants", but that's about it. In my opinion, nothing else, measures up. Give me "70's Stevie", any day.

shorttrini said:

CoolTarik1 said:

I could probably settle with saying from a pop/soul masterpiece, 'Songs' is his masterpiece, even though I think "Hotter than July" , is pretty damn good pop album. And this is ignoring the beautifully written "Secret Life of Plants" but I have to disagree, there's a lot of material missed without buying his albums after "Hotter than July", IMO.

I will give you, "Secret Life of Plants", but that's about it. In my opinion, nothing else, measures up. Give me "70's Stevie", any day.

funkyandy said:

Stimulate discussion?...You asked a closed ended question...lol

So answer = no

Seems like he just asked a question (and in that question praised the album), and you answered "no"

I think it's a valid question, esp since Stevie has not had that many albums since Characters; not every one can possibly be a masterpiece. It would be more dismissive if the question was about Prince's 1987 album.

IDK.... I personally adored A Time To Love... i like it a little more then Characters. But it is better then his 2 90's albums very true=]

I like the songs on Characters a lot (aside from Get it) despite the plastic sounding production.

There are a few great songs on Time to Love, but some of it sounds forced, especially lyrically.

His last masterpiece was The Secret Life of Plants but Characters was damn good though.

All of Stevie's albums are masterpieces

Yeah I said it!

bboy87 said:

All of Stevie's albums are masterpieces

Yeah I said it!

Even the '60s ones?

I listened to it last night for the first time in probably a decade and was shocked at how well the album holds up (sans Get It strangely enough). I think the songwriting is so solid throughout that this album has to be considered a masterpiece. I think it more then makes up for the overuse of synths, IMHO.

The answer is yes AFAIC. Characters is a fantastic album and I consider it to be Stevie's 9th and final masterpiece.

Where I'm Coming From

Music of My Mind

Talking Book

Innervisions

Fulfillingness' First Finale

Songs in the Key of Life

Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants

Hotter Than July

Characters

That's quite an impressive list, Mr. Wonder.

[Edited 1/18/11 12:37pm]

sosgemini said:

I listened to it last night for the first time in probably a decade and was shocked at how well the album holds up (sans Get It strangely enough). I think the songwriting is so solid throughout that this album has to be considered a masterpiece. I think it more then makes up for the overuse of synths, IMHO.

Some of the production works (You Will Know, Each Beat of my Heart) and some it quite painful (In Your Corner) but even the "weak" songs are decent, in terms of writing

i think the Jungle Fever soundtrack is just as good.

datdude said:

i think the Jungle Fever soundtrack is just as good.

I'm with you on this one. I think that's the last COMPLETE Stevie Wonder album were the tracks are great straight through. After that, like Conversation Piece had it's good moments and some garbage tracks.

Stevie's last masterpiece was IMO Hotter Than July (Musiquarium had some very strong cuts that should've been on Hotter Than July, but whatever)

I'm in the minority, I love Stevie's 80s albums like In Square Circle, Woman In Red, and Characters, but of course they don't compare to his 70s albums because he eliminated his strong 70s band and replaced it with synthesizers. But it's still some great music.

Timmy84 said:

bboy87 said:

All of Stevie's albums are masterpieces

Yeah I said it!

Even the '60s ones?

Stevie At The Beach got some jams

bboy87 said:

Timmy84 said:

Even the '60s ones?

Stevie At The Beach got some jams

thatruth said:

datdude said:

i think the Jungle Fever soundtrack is just as good.

I'm with you on this one. I think that's the last COMPLETE Stevie Wonder album were the tracks are great straight through. After that, like Conversation Piece had it's good moments and some garbage tracks.

Stevie's last masterpiece was IMO Hotter Than July (Musiquarium had some very strong cuts that should've been on Hotter Than July, but whatever)

I'm in the minority, I love Stevie's 80s albums like In Square Circle, Woman In Red, and Characters, but of course they don't compare to his 70s albums because he eliminated his strong 70s band and replaced it with synthesizers. But it's still some great music.

Hotter Than July was IT. And unfortunately, it was the last IT. But you know, the work he put out in the 70s, start to finish of that decade, had more brillance than due to one single man in a whole lifetime. Thank you, God, for Steveland Judkins Morris.

thatruth said:

datdude said:

i think the Jungle Fever soundtrack is just as good.

I'm with you on this one. I think that's the last COMPLETE Stevie Wonder album were the tracks are great straight through. After that, like Conversation Piece had it's good moments and some garbage tracks.

Stevie's last masterpiece was IMO Hotter Than July (Musiquarium had some very strong cuts that should've been on Hotter Than July, but whatever)

I'm in the minority, I love Stevie's 80s albums like In Square Circle, Woman In Red, and Characters, but of course they don't compare to his 70s albums because he eliminated his strong 70s band and replaced it with synthesizers. But it's still some great music.

I'll agree that Jungle Fever is consistently good throughout, but it has none of the highs that Characters does IMO. Off hand, I'd say half of the latter is better than anything on the former.

The 4 Musiquarium tracks are all top notch. Love every one of them!

I also dig '80s Stevie. If people would stop comparing the material to his '70s output, they'd probably appreciate it more.

allsmutaside said:

Thank you, God, for Steveland Judkins Morris.

That's his legal name?

sosgemini said:

allsmutaside said:

Thank you, God, for Steveland Judkins Morris.

That's his legal name?

Look at you.....makin' threads about the God of Music and you don't even know his real name

j/k

Timmy84 said:

bboy87 said:

All of Stevie's albums are masterpieces

Yeah I said it!

Even the '60s ones?

Actually, I think For Once In My Life is pretty much a flawless album. Excellent vocals and good songs considering Stevie wasn't the sole writer like he was on much of his 70's material.

As for Characters, I think Jungle Fever, Conversation Peace and A Time To Love are stronger albums overall. Conversation Peace especially, though I am a bit partial to all of his work. But "I"m New", "Sensuous Whisper", "Rain Your Love Down" and "Cold Chill" are flawless to me. And I can listen to everything on it with no problem.

Characters has some killer songs on it, but also a few I've never been able to get into.

[Edited 1/18/11 15:42pm]