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Innervisions

Stevie Wonder - Innervisions Audio CD

A fair review of the Stevie Wonder "Innervisions" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Stevie Wonder reviews here, or go back to the Stevie Wonder tabs.

Band: Stevie Wonder
Title: Innervisions
Rating:

Release Date: 2000-03-21
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Too High 2: Visions 3: Living for the City 4: Golden Lady 5: Higher Ground 6: Jesus Children of America 7: All in Love is Fair 8: Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing 9: He's Misstra Know It All

Love this CD!
I used to hear a lot of his songs at my old job and this cd has a lot of his greatest tracks on it =).

One Of the Most Perfect Albums Ever Made
The songs are so crisp, clean & relevant still today as much as they were back in the early 70's when the album was first released. I remember growing up listening to the songs off of this album and being amazed at how one man could capture the social scene of that day.

1) Too High: Song written warning of the lows of continued drug use. Many artists of that day wrote about it's "highs", but Stevie was one of the 1st to talk about the "lows" of that culture and how it was tearing at the very fabric of the black community especially. Great lyrics and he once again is playing all the instruments! Genius. . . .

2) Visions: This is probably my favorite on the whole album. Stevie takes us on a ride through the visions in his mind and shows us a what the world could be if only love and respect were the order of the day. This song shows why his songwriting skills are unmatched historically. Acoustic guitar is simply outstanding!

3) Living for the City: An "epic" that gives the listener an inside perspective of life in america for those of African descent. It's an incredibly written & produced walk through the life of a person "born in hard time Mississippi" & who, although, is able to get out and make to the "North" where things are supposed to better for blacks finds out the hard way that the song remains the same no matter the geographic location.

4) Golden Lady: One of the most beautiful songs ever written. The progession at the end of the song keeps building to a cresendo going up a key & is a highlight as he sings about the love of his life and how he sees her through the love in his eyes.

5) Higher Ground: This is a jam that showcases Stevie using the synthesizer much the way a bass guitar would be used in a song. He was one of the 1st to use the instrument in place of bass or strings or even guitar. The lyrics are stunning in this song of a man reaching for something higher than himself and the status quo of that day. Has incredibly meaning even today

6) Jesus Children of America: Stevie was one of the 1st mainstream artist to call Christianity to task for the hypocrisy of that day as well as other mainstream religions. It's call to examine what you're praying and saying vs. what you're actually doing & making sure the 2 match. Great drums and keyboards by Stevie in this song!

7) All is Fair in Love: This is a song with lyrics describing what every lover has experienced at some point. The crushing agony of a relationship on the brink and a heartfelt cry of a lover unable to deal with it's difficulties. Beautifully written song.

8) Don't You Worry Bout a Thing: Latin-funk based song about the true meaning of having someone's back in the good times and bad times. The song deals with letting those you love know they don't have to worry cause if no one else is there for them, you will be.

9) Mistra Know-It-All: This is said to be the 1st of Stevie's tongue lashings aimed towards then President Nixon about his "so called" policies of that day and how out of touch washington was with the realities of life for most people living in this country at that time.

No one matches Stevie's uncanny ability give you a snapshot of the world at that moment & his unparelled musicianship set's him apart as one of the True innovators of music history. I highly recommend this album, especially for those who may be just getting into his work. Not his first but a great starting point to understand his true genius.

Excellent song-wise, remastering is crummy
I love Stevie Wonder and this is an excellent collection. This is a great album song/composition-wise. It's a 5-star album if you consider just the songs themselves. The reason for taking away two stars is because the remastered version is so bright and harsh it hurts my ears. Stevie's voice is full of sibilance and on the tracks where he has electronically altered his vocals, these come across as way too bright. It gets your attention but soon becomes tiring because of the harshness in the vocals. .

beyond beauty and innervision

one of his must haves for your collection. "Innervisons" was just a peak into the world of Steveland Morris and what was to come.
Stevie reaching the peak!!! were we redy for "Songs In The Key. . . . "? Not't yet but "Innervisions" began the process of filling the inner core of my generation, and many more to come, with knowledged & African American understanding and pride. With "Innervisions" this album not only reached out to Stevie's inner city fans, it reached out to every nation and it's people.
Indeed, this was his first masterprice!!!!!!
and then along can "Songs In The Key of Life". . . . . . WOW! .

Wonder's most political album - and a deserved classic
For the following year's "Innervisions", released just before a major accident that saw Wonder lose his smell as well as sight, he turned to social commentary in a manner that he would never rival on any other album. After his masterpiece Music of My Mind, Talking Book was a little disappointing despite two brilliant songs in "Superstition" and "Maybe Your Baby". In doing so, Wonder showed clearly that he was at the time the premier soul musician.

Opener "Too High" showed considerable melodic growth compared to his previous albums, but it is a touching sad song about the dangers of hard drugs. "Visions" is even softer and entirely free of electronics, even featuring an acoustic guitar that showed Wonder must have had some interest in the more experimental music of the time - yet Wonder always gives the song his own spin. "Living for the City", the epic third track, is a very deserved masterpiece in which Wonder maintains a remarkably steady crescendo throughout each verse and backs it up with passionate lyrics about the problems of living in the ghetto. The dense groove of "Living for the City" is notable in that it never seems overblown even with the bass bass drum throughout the song.

"Golden Lady", the fourth track, is a beautiful love song, but with "Higher Ground" Wonder returns to social commentary with an anthemic, yet delightfully melodic song about a theme he was certainly preoccupied with at the time: the striving for a better world. The groove and Wonder's voice, though, are much tighter than on his previous album, and there is an urgency lacking on parts of "Talking Book". "Jesus Children of America" continues in a slower vein of social commentary, whilst the closer "He's Misstra Know-It-All" is a beautiful song about the dark politics of the Richard Nixon era. The surprising thing about this song is that, like "Living for the City", Wonder can in a rare manner provide new energy in the middle of a song. "All in Love Is Fair" is a beautiful, moving ballad with an unexpectedly loud piano outro, and "Don't You Worry About a Thing" is a sparse, lighthearted, but quaint funk piece that showed Wonder capable of more different styles than one imagines his audience would have thought.

All in all, if perhaps not quite the equal of "Music of My Mind", "Innervisions" deserves its status as one of the very best soul albums, showing a man who can master seemingly any style without effort and produce some of the very best social commentary ever put to record.

You can see a complete list of all Stevie Wonder discography, or go back to the Stevie Wonder tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.