The Good: Good lyrics, Smooth vocals, Good duration
The Bad: Somewhat generic jazz/funk sound
The Basics: Qualitatively rich and interesting, A Time To Love is nevertheless so homogenous as to be somewhat monotonous over time.
This year I have been doing something new in relation to my music reviews. I have picked an artist for each month of the year and I will do my best to go through as much (if not all) of their musical library in that month. I am immersing myself in new-to-me artists and listening to all sorts of artists throughout the year in order to grow my musical appreciation even more. My next artist of the month is Stevie Wonder, a musical artist whose work I have been surprisingly ignorant of in my lifetime. I mean, I have heard of Stevie Wonder and I know a few of his songs, but I've never listened to a full album of his before now and now that I have a whole stack of his albums in heavy rotation on my player, I find myself wondering why I hadn't given him a chance before now.
A Time To Love is Stevie Wonder's latest (as of this writing) original album and it is odd for me to start a serious review of an artist's body of work with their latest album. The reason I am starting here is, quite simply, that this 2005 album is the first Stevie Wonder album that crossed my desk, thus it is now the one I am the most familiar with. the only reason I mention this is that this ends up being a remarkably pure review of this album on its own. In context of Stevie Wonders other albums, this might be the most boring or repetitive endeavor, for all I know. Instead, I am forced to take this exactly as it is, without comparing it to other Stevie Wonder albums. That said, I enjoyed this musical outing quite a bit and think it is a great entrance to the works of Stevie Wonder as, I suspect, for most people it would be 100% new music. There was not a single track on this album that I was familiar with before I started listening to it.
With fifteen tracks clocking out at 77:36, A Time To Love is easily one of the best values in music I have listened to lately. Packed with music, good lyrics and vocal performances - primary and guest - that are impressive, Stevie Wonder creates an original and compelling musical experience with this outing. This album appears to be largely the musical vision of R&B/soul (is he considered funk, too?) legend Stevie Wonder. Stevie Wonder wrote all of the music on this album, and wrote all of the lyrics, save on two tracks which he co-wrote the songs with India.arie and Akosua Busia. Wonder plays a plethora of instruments, often on the same track. His arsenal of instruments that he personally plays on A Time To Love include: drums, keyboards (bass, bells, percussion, vibes, Tabla sound), (electric, Fender Rhodes, and acoustic) pianos, clavinet, organ, chord pads (I swear, I didn't make that one up), bongos, harmonica, chimes, bells, the voice box, marimba, flexatone, synth and moog bass, cymbals and motif melody. The fact that he is only one instrumentalist on the album ought to clue listeners in to the idea that this is a very rich album musically, at least in terms of level of sound.
As well, Stevie Wonder is credited with the production of the album, so it is near impossible to argue that the resulting album is anything but the intended musical vision of singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder. That musical vision is lyrically smart, vocally soulful, and instrumentally rich and monotonous. Because that last statement might seem to be the most problematic, it is worth exploring first.
A Time To Love is packed with instruments. Every song has virtually the same, heavily produced, precisely mixed quality to it that creates a mellow, soulful wall of sound. The drums are subdued to the keyboards, vocals and samples, the bass is heavy but not throbbing and the tempos are almost universally belabored and slow. This is not an album lacking in upbeat lyrics, but the sound of it is pulsating and full without being at all exciting. It is like like a dessert that is rich, but strangely tasteless, like an instant chocolate mousse; sure, it can be as thick as proper mousse, but it seldom actually tastes like chocolate.
As an album, then, A Time To Love works both remarkably well and musically poorly. The album has a cohesive mood music feel that gently resonates and creates a solid experience for the hour and a quarter running time. There is a smooth, smoky quality to the entire album that holds it together and encourages one to feel mellow, relaxed and loving. The problem is discussing the album as anything other than an album; track to track there is so little differentiation that it quickly becomes boring in that each song lacks individual resonance or clarity. There is a numbing effect to listening to the album over and over again because it loops extraordinarily well. The result is that this is not an album that one goes on a musical journey, one simply starts it and experiences it over and over again until one decides they want to get off this particular ride.
That said, the instrumentals, heavy in keyboard, bass and muted percussion is in no way unpleasant and the album is certainly worthwhile for that. This is, in part, because Stevie Wonder has a great, smooth voice and he is perfectly comfortable in his range. Vocally, Wonder seems most comfortable in the mid-to-deeper ranges of the scales, though on songs like "Please Don't Hurt My Baby" he seems to be able to go throughout a rather extensive range, including singing higher than usual, or at least with more vocal force.
What is equally impressive is how articulate Wonder is both on the page and with his vocals. Wonder's poetry is often fairly dense (in terms of verbosity) and thematically, A Time To Love is pretty much unified in its message. This is Stevie Wonder's latest collection (largely) of love songs. Still, he is smarter than your average singer-songwriter in this regard by mixing it up a bit. Instead of always singing love songs about people, he manages to pop in a song or two about loving life itself or love in general.
Take, for example, "Positivity." "Positivity" is all about loving the full range and experience of life and looking at things optimistically, which comes through well when Wonder sings "Some people live in the what was and what could have been / As oppose (sic) to livin' in what is and how much they can / And be the first to complain about nothin' in life goin' their way / The attitude is 'that there I can't do nothin' 'bout' / and very happy with just breathin' in and out / The ones that when you say 'lets go make a difference' . . . I joy in the blessing" ("Positivity"). Stevie Wonder clearly contrasts his world view with that of the pessimists and he creates an upbeat song that is worthwhile and good.
As well, Wonder is a wonderful poet in terms of imagery. He is soulful and articulate with flowery lines like "Trying to make our bodies one / We fall prey to moon dreams / Til awaken by the morning sun / Still disoriented / I feel something warm on my face / Coupled by your embrace / we gaze in awe and wonder / as if we can't believe its (sic) so/ Just that taste of heaven / Has got us longing for so much more" ("Passionate Raindrops"). Wonder perfectly encapsulates and articulates intimacy with words that play along all of the senses.
Lyrically, Wonder even manages to be surprisingly strong when being straightforward, as he is on "From The Bottom Of My Heart." There he has the direct lyrics "From the bottom of my heart, I love you / I can say these words to you without delay / If you're wondering just how long I'll love you / Try forever that's how long I'll feel this way" ("From The Bottom Of My Heart"). You don't get much more direct on the sentiment than that and Stevie Wonder sells it as if it was something new on A Time To Love.
What also makes A Time To Love so good is that Stevie Wonder blends his smooth and generally lower-register vocals with some very classy and proficient female vocalists on several of the tracks. Usually, I am not so big on artists plugging guest artists (an absolutely insipid trait of most current rap albums as far as I am concerned, especially from emerging "artists") but Wonder seems to be using his celebrity to include new and/or underrated female vocalists who harmonize well with him. Artists like Aisha Morris (one of Wonder's daughters), India.Arie and Kim Burrell appear on A Time To Love and provide wonderful alto and soprano accompaniments to Wonder's own voice.
A Time To Love is a wonderful album that seems to be a worthy addition to a great artist's repertoire. Anyone who likes soul, jazz or r&b will likely find something to enjoy out of this experience; those who are not usually inclined toward such things might well find that this is the album to get them into any of those genres.
I am begging off my usual "best" and "worst" track on A Time To Love because the album flows so well track to track without being truly distinct on any single that it makes it more or less impossible for me to recall any one song after eight listens to this. This is a worthwhile, if homogenous, musical experience.
For other, former, male Artist Of The Month reviews, please be sure to check out:
Seal II - Seal
Aladdin Sane - David Bowie
It Ain't Easy: Essential Recordings - Wilson Pickett
8/10
For other music reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!
© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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