The Good: Good vocals, Some decent lyrics, Some interesting instrumentals
The Bad: SHORT!, Repetitive
The Basics: On one of his more collaborative and - unfortunately - repetitive albums, Stevie Wonder reminds us of his gifts with Talking Book!
As January picks up and I suddenly become inundated with albums from my Artist Of The Month, Stevie Wonder, I find myself exploring a period of his musical career that is intriguing, developed and conceptually more diverse than his earliest works. With his album Talking Book, Stevie Wonder has a decent mix of a classical pop and soul sound with some emerging funk sensibilities and instrumentations.
In fact, more than most Stevie Wonder albums, listening to Talking Book affirms for the listener that Wonder had a sound and ability that were audacious. Instrumentals on "Tuesday Heartbreak" and "Superstition" are still surprising and funky in ways that few artists have since built upon, making Wonder's work pioneering and enduring. But as a compact disc, Talking Book does not take great advantage of the medium and some of the songs are so repetitive that they drone on in ways that are boring, especially upon further replayings of the disc.
With only ten songs constituting 43:26, Talking Book is a blend of Stevie Wonder's musical sensibilities and those of a few guest artists. Stevie Wonder wrote all of the music on Talking Book, but he only wrote the lyrics for seven of the songs. Yvonne Wright and Syreeta Wright, Wonder's wife, wrote the lines for the other three songs (Yvonne one, Syreeta two). Even the vocals are not only Wonder's on Talking Book. On his classic song "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life," Gloria Barley, Lani Groves and Jim Gilstrap have significant "backing vocal" presences. Several of the songs have significant background vocals, some of which are not even credited in the liner notes (but it is clearly not Wonder performing the repetitive bit at the end of "Maybe Your Baby").
Beyond that, Wonder's musical vision appears to be aided, but not corrupted. Ray Parker Jr. pops up for guitarwork on "Maybe Your Baby" and Jeff Beck and Buzzy Fenton provide the same support on "Lookin' For Another Pure Love." Stevie Wonder appears to do all of the other instrumentation, mostly on the Arp and Moog synthesizers. Wonder is also credited with producing the album, though associate producers Cecil and Margouleff won a Grammy for their work engineering Talking Book. In other words, this seems like one of Wonder's more collaborative works and it is good.
However, Talking Book is hardly flawless and one need look no further than the second track to realize that. After the feel-good, harmonizing vocals of "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life" comes "Maybe Your Baby," a song absolutely plagued by a repetitive line that invokes headaches when on repeat. Indeed, that the last two and a half minutes of the song are spent repeating the same eight words over and over again is just annoying. Actually, more than simply annoying, it is painful to listen to and it guts the emotional resonance of the lyrics that come up early in the song.
But beyond that and some of the way more pedestrian songs like "You And I" understate the instrumentals (after listening to the album over nine times, I can't even pick the tune for that song out!), Talking Book is a musical and lyrical triumph.
Perhaps best known for "Superstition" and "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life," Talking Book is a diverse album that explores themes of love, paranoia, loss of love and government interference. But more than simply exploring such a diverse range of themes - with instrumental and vocal accompaniment that ranges from obvious pop to jazz to funk to slow, classical ballads - Wonder does it well. Take, for example, the classic "Superstition." It is hard to argue that the song has been so popular since its release without acknowledging that "When you believe in things that you don't understand, / Then you suffer, / Superstition ain't the way / Very superstitious, wash your face and hands, / Rid me of the problem, do all that you can, / Keep me in a daydream, keep me goin' strong, / You don't wanna save me, sad is my song" ("Superstitious") is good writing!
But the surprise of Talking Book is that it is not a two-song album. Despite the greatness of his two biggest hits of the album, some of the best lines come in his socially conscious lyrics. Wonder articulates the paranoia against encroaching government that helped to define the late 1960's and early 1970s with his compelling lines "Your name is big brother / You say that you got me all in your notebook, / Writing it down everyday, / Your name is I'll see ya, / I'll change if you vote me in as the pres, / The President of your soul / I live in the ghetto, / You just come to visit me 'round election time / I live in the ghetto, / Someday I will move on my feet to the other side . . ." ("Big Brother"). The vilification of the poor and downtrodden by the oppressive institutions of the government are not lost on Stevie Wonder. But what is more impressive is that he explores the problems in the context of a very nonthreatening, light funk song that allows it to slip under the radar. For those considering Talking Book, it is a song to pay attention to!
But it is not all grandiose social statements on this album. Instead, Wonder continues his trend of exploring the human spirit and he does that quite well. So, for example, he is truly soulful in his mourning on "Tuesday Heartbreak." His longing is palpable when he sings "Tuesday heartbreak seem to be a drag, / When you know that you love her especially, / Catch up baby, catch up with my dreams, / Maybe than I can see you all the time / But I wanna be with you when the nighttime comes / I wanna be with you when the daytime comes, / I wanna stay and never go away, / Oh baby, it's alright (sic)" ("Tuesday Heartbreak"). Wonder has an amazing concept of how tortured the rejected lover's soul can be!
As well, Stevie Wonder has an amazing voice for exploring his diverse themes with. Smooth and soulful on tracks like "Lookin' For Another Pure Love" and energetic and funky on songs like "Superstition." The vocal diversity here is not so much in range as it is in the ability embody so many different sounds and levels of volume and energy with the same voice. So while he stays within a fairly stable and safe register - mid-range - Wonder's songs do not sound repetitive in their vocalization.
Ultimately, Talking Book is a slightly above average album, but it is plagued by repetition - as I write this, the album is closing again with the interminable repetitions of the title line to "I Believe (When I Fall In Love With You It Will Be Forever)" - and that does grate on the listener after even a few listens.
The best track is "Big Brother," the low point is "Maybe Your Baby."
For other works by Stevie Wonder, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
The Jazz Soul Of Little Stevie
Eivets Rednow
Music Of My Mind
Stevie Wonder’s Original Musiquarium I
In Square Circle
Conversation Peace
Natural Wonder
The Definitive Collection
A Time To Love
7/10
For other music reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!
© 2012, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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