50 Years of Soul Power

Posted February 20, 2013 by J Matthew Cobb in Features

Stevie Wonder
Innervisions
(Tamla; 1973)

SITKOL is a thick book, sometimes too heavy to digest. Innervisions is more majestic in its assignment and explores the wild world of Wonderness in a forty-four minute cycle. The opener “Too High” is stacked with Beatles soul. It’s just a dead giveaway for the bold adventure to come. “Living for the City” and the Moog-bass driven “Jesus Children of America,” both preachy Staples Singers-esque protest songs, sound like essential Sunday morning selections. “Higher Ground” is delicious swamp funk, set to a lyric that Bob Dylan would’ve scored. And then he spits some humor into a sweet slice of salsa on “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing. And inside all of this, Wonder isn’t afraid to be himself. A bold testament of Wonder’s greatness as a complete musician.