Talking Book is an amazing album that just about any artist could proudly hail as the legendary capstone of their career and while it is rightly acclaimed as a great album, I still think it suffers mildly from being part of an amazing streak of albums Stevie Wonder put out at the height of his career.

I mean.. "Oh, another genius masterwork from Stevie Wonder? Throw it on the pile.." is a kind of a ludicrous reaction, but it's kind of what happens when one looks back on his early 70s output in the rear view mirror. You can love any given bit of it but it's a challenge to take it all in and appreciate it properly.
posted by Nerd of the North at 3:13 PM on October 29, 2022 [4 favorites]

This has been in heavy rotation since I was 9. I didn’t know until many years later that Wonder played all the drums, too (I wasn’t big on liner notes yet as a pre-pubescent) which is really amazing. His swing is something else. Just the intro to Superstition alone is one of the most iconic drum grooves of all time.
posted by Devils Rancher at 3:15 PM on October 29, 2022 [4 favorites]

Bonus (previously on Mefi): awesome performance of "Superstition"...on Sesame Street yt

It's never NOT a good time to post that "Superstition" link. It should honestly just be a permanent link on the Metafilter header. Having a bad day? Click here.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 3:40 PM on October 29, 2022 [4 favorites]

Gift link for later

The album closes with 'I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever),' which is both gorgeous and one of the most Stevie Wonder of Stevie Wonder songs.

And the article is really well-done--they talked to a lot of people about an album that obviously means a lot to them (and me too--thanks for the link).
posted by box at 3:44 PM on October 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

1. Music of My Mind
2. Talking Book
3. Innervisions
4. Fulfillingness' First Finale
5. Songs in the Key of Life

These 5 albums are considered Stevie's "classic" period released in this order from 1972-1976. Talking Book is probably my favorite, although it's a tight contest between that and Innervisions.

Interestingly, for me, although Songs in the Key of Life was his grand slam as measured in both critical and commercial success, it does absolutely nothing for me. Like..at all. I've tried, but it's just not there.

Funky Stevie will always be best Stevie.
posted by jeremias at 4:01 PM on October 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

Interestingly, for me, although Songs in the Key of Life was his grand slam as measured in both critical and commercial success, it does absolutely nothing for me. Like..at all. I've tried, but it's just not there.

I can't disagree that funky Stevie is best Stevie but I have to speak up in defense of Songs in the Key of Life, which is my favorite from that killer stretch of albums. I think it has some of the problems most double-albums do (and actually it wasn't just a double album, it was released as four full LP sides plus a bonus EP with another 18 minutes' worth of music on it!) and maybe its earnestness seems corny or heavy-handed in the Year of Our Lord 2022, but with two or three exceptions it's still remarkably solid and the high points are real highs.

In a previous comment, box suggests I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever) as "the most Stevie Wonder of Stevie Wonder songs" and it's a strong contender. I believe, though, that Songs in the Key of Life's opener Love's In Need of Love Today gives it some stiff competition for that title.
posted by Nerd of the North at 4:50 PM on October 29, 2022

as
posted by philip-random at 9:40 PM on October 29, 2022 [6 favorites]

Getting complete artistic freedom from Berry Gordy in 1971 is a tremendous accomplishment that most people couldn't fully grasp at the time. It allowed him to move from a singles focus to making albums as cohesive statements. There's no way this could have happened without that freedom.
posted by tommasz at 6:10 AM on October 30, 2022 [3 favorites]

There are only three acoustic instruments on the original recording of Superstition: Stevie on drums, and two of his common session collaborators on trumpet and tenor sax. That's it, everything else is Stevie on synthesizer(s), which makes that track a landmark in terms of synth use alone, brilliant compositional use of that instrument when it was brand new. This run of albums really is completely, amazingly ridiculous.
posted by LooseFilter at 6:40 AM on October 30, 2022

as

Another Star

Had to follow you up here with the perfect pairing. I listened the absolute ever-loving HELL out of these two back to back, the end two tracks of side 4 of the original vinyl version. Partially because there was no brief silence between them, a little fade from the groove of "As" and then BOOM straight into the first powerful keyboard chords of the fabulous "Another Star." Together, over 15 minutes of Stevie at his best.
posted by hangashore at 7:57 AM on October 30, 2022 [4 favorites]

everything else is Stevie on synthesizer(s)

The clavinet is not an acoustic instrument, but it is an electrically amplified string instrument, not a synth.
posted by Dysk at 8:41 AM on October 30, 2022 [2 favorites]

The world needs a new Stevie Wonder album, non?
posted by DJZouke at 12:40 PM on October 30, 2022

He released albums in 2005 and 1995, so maybe we're due.

(Or, he participated in this in 2015, so, maybe hearing Ed Sheeran sing 'I Was Made to Love Her' made Stevie Wonder want to take a decade off.)
posted by box at 3:16 PM on October 30, 2022