Stevie Wonder

Begin at the end. Stevie Wonder's Journey through the Secret Life of Plants is so uneven,
so full of tiny pleasures and bloated tedium, that for some assurance that Wonder hasn't
lost his touch, you ought to start by listening to the LP's last cut. "Finale" commences with a
quick, slapstick keyboard fill and then expands into an undulating instrumental whose
billowing bass and synthesizers evoke a quivering field of flowers in bloom. Not... More >

Like most great popular composers, Wonder is an appalling "serious" one. With their one-world instrumental flourishes and other sound effects, the presumably synthesized "orchestral" passages that dominate the first two sides are like bad (!) David Amram at their best (!) and some justifiably anonymous Hollywood hack at their worst. (Major exception: "Race Babbling," especially when it glances a presumably synthesized horn riff off presumably synthesized voices and ostinatos.) And only two of the four songs on side three, which defenders of this album admire, are worthy of Key of Life. But on side four Wonder's indomitable open-heartedness finally breaks through the mawk. "A Seed's a Star and Tree Medley" is even more foolish philosophically than most of the rest of the album, but its elan makes Stevie's vitalism palpable, so that even the presumably synthesized orchestral passages that wrap things up sound ardently schmaltzy instead of depressingly schlocky. Still, next time I hope he aims lower. (Grade: B-)