Passionate Raindrops has a BEAUTIFUL chorus!
Overall it's a fine album, 3,5 out of 5.

okay,I have listened to this CD several times all the way through.It'll take me several more days before I can write a thorough review (I need to "live" with these new songs for awhile,lol).But so far,I am REALLY impressed! This CD was worth the wait.

DavidEye said:

It gets better with each listen, man. Great, great work.

Cloudbuster said:

what are your favorite songs?

My favorite songs are in the middle, together like a suite:

-How Will I Know
-My Love Is On Fire WITH HUBERT LAWS!
-Passionate Raindrops

I understand that this is a Prince fan site, and I understand Prince is truly a musicail genius but must of the people on here just constanly kiss his ass and its getting kinda ludacris. To say Stevie's "So What the fuss" isnt great without Prince to mean just means you either really don't like the song and your just saying that because "you love everything Prince does" no matter how bad or good it is. LETS FACE IT STEVIE IS NOT GOING TO MAKE AN ALBUM LIKE THE 5 BACK 2 BACK CLASSICS HE CRANKED OUT IN THE 70'S. iF your waiting for that to happen then its time you give Stevie up. It's sayz somethiong about an artist when the only one he's competing with is himself. I'm a huge Stevie Wonder fan and I think it's a very strong album. It's most def, the strongest thing he has put out since Hotter In July and in some cases I might even say it better than that album. The one thing that bugs me about Stevie he seems to use Legendary musicians as studio musicians and nothing more. you wouldn't know this album was filled with great artist unless you read the liner notes. SIr Paul, Prince, Oscar Castro-Neves to name a few all put in great work. "If your love cannot be moved" gives me goose bumps Stevie and Kim Burrell sing with so much soul and emotion that is most def missing from today's music scene. There are of couple songs on the album that I can do without like "Please Don;t Hurt My baby", and "Positivity", and yes "A Time to Love" goes a little too long. But on its on merits "A time to love" is classic Stevie. I'm making no excuses for Stevie cause he sure as hell doesnt need them, but the man is 55 years old with no more awards to win, nothing else to prove, he has the respect and admiriation from everyone. It's almost safe to say that are expections for Stevie is high that he will never reached them. Let's just be glad that this man is blessing us with music.
Stevie from a true fan i thought you did a great job, and although I got mad with all those damn delays "A Time to Love" will be blasting through my speakers for a long time

So we've got a few people who aren't too keen on Positivity and one who loves it.

awww... i love stevie! i got the cd this morning...i LOVE the first track "if your love cannot be moved" i'd have to say that's my fave, i dunno why tho lol i was also happy to hear the extended version of "so what the fuss" on accounta i've only heard the video version...June7, do u have the cd? if so, what do u think of it?

June7 said:

Hey June 7...long time no see!

What are your thoughts on the new CD?

Now that I've given it repeated listens from start to finish. Maybe I was a bit harsh on it. This cd is better than Conversation Peace. However, I still don't hear a whole lot of progression from the previous release. And after 10 years, that's not a good thing. Musically, Stevie still has "it". But something is missing that keeps me from raving on this cd like I do over Earth Wind and Fire's "Illumination" Are Robert Margouleff and Malcolm Cecil still alive? Maybe their engineering skills and co-production are what's missing. Maybe Stevie needs to work with a producer who was influenced by his work from back in the day. I love Stevie and I'm happy to have this disc in my hands, but I don't understand "What the Fuss" is over this cd. The Jungle Fever soundtrack holds up better than this one.

CinisterCee said:

Hubert Laws? Really? Oh shit.

I'm deeply in love with "Moon Blue"

I just adore this song

manthevan said:

I've been playing that song all day long.It's lovely,isn't it?

It seems as though the overall opinion is somewhat mixed, even though there are a lot of people around here who really like it. Wilson and Alroy, who I dislike in many ways but are stevie worshippers, really panned it (despite giving Conversation Peace 4 stars...well alroy gave it 3.5). I think it's really really good considering how disappointed I thought I was going to be. Really, his first release in 10 years with innumerable delays couldn't have been anything but a disappointment to some extent unless it actually was the next Innervisions, but i think this is as close to that as we could have reasonably expected to get.

If your love cannot be moved and a time to love have very stately almost ominous melodies and very fresh world-music elements. The title track actually sounded like something that stevie could have made in the seventies. I LOVE the massive percussion breakdown, it made it feel very tribal and eerie and I loved the way the melody morphed in that subtle, gradual way that Stevie often used to do.

Please Don't Hurt My Baby and Tell Your Heart I love you are great pieces of bad mama jama funk that stevie hasn't done this good in a long time, and is so what the fuss no matter what people have said about it. Positivity recalls many of the jackson 5's or even stevie's own semi-inspirational superfeelgood pop songs and only an enemy of manking would call it trite if you ask me.

How Will I know and Moon Blue are very classy, jazzy ballads of the first rank that stevie used to be able to crank out in his sleep. My love is on fire and sweetest somebody I know are like the mellow-yet gorgeous candy grooves like bird of beauty or sunshin of my life.

Most of the other songs seem like slightly weaker entries in the latter two categories but are by no means bad, and while there are moments that border on easy listening as there have been in virtually all of stevie's output since 1980, his musicianship and sense of melody are still firmly intact and his production sensibilities have greatly improved, even if they aren't back to the glory day feel. Anyway that's just my opinion in detail.
[Edited 10/19/05 21:17pm]