Inner Visionary (Innervisions - Stevie Wonder)

Member Name: Zmugzy

Product:	Innervisions - Stevie Wonder
Date:	17/12/08 (273 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Possibly Stevie Wonder's greatest album

Disadvantages: None

Not something I would have gone out and bought. I actually got this CD from a freebie offer in the Guardian last year. I thought there might be one or two tracks that would appeal to me. Once I received the CD though, I must have played it incessantly for about a month. Conceptually and musically Innervisions is a powerful and innovative piece of work with no weak tracks. It's a great album and one which I'm glad is now a part of my eclectic collection. The album was originally released in 1973. A digitally remastered CD was released in 2000.

The album has nine tracks that cover a range of themes and issues: 'Too High', 'Jesus Children Of America' and 'Don't You Worry Bout A Thing' make references to drug taking; "Higher Ground" and "Living for the City" offer acerbic social commentaries; "All in Love is Fair" is a complex love ballad whilst "Golden Lady" is a more straight forward love song. Despite some of the serious issues covered on the album the overriding message is an optimistic one.

On three tracks 'Living For The City', 'Higher Ground' and 'Jesus Children Of America', Stevie plays all the instruments. It must also be one of the first albums to effectively make use of a ARP synthesizer keyboard. This along with a moog synthesiser are used extensively throughout the album. It is often overlooked that Wonder was one of the first artists to effectively and fully embrace this technology.

Track List:
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.

The opening track 'Too High' piles on a funky bass against a relatively simple repetitive chorus and a lyric conveying the pros and cons of narcotic induced states: "She's the girl in her life, but her world's a superficial paradise". There is fantastic percussion throughout and a punchy instrumental interlude with what sounds like a mouthorgan but is probably a synthesizer. Initially not my favourite track but it grows on you after a few repetitions.

'Visions' is an early classic slow-paced ballad set around piano and both acoustic and electric lead guitar. The theme is one of hope for a better world and is kind of philosophical in tone.

'Living For The City' turns up the beat with heavy percussion and piano. The lyrics make reference to harsh city life: poverty, racial discrimination, crime and even pollution. It's a concept track portraying the story from the perspective of a black American man escaping his poverty in the South to head for the city for a better life only to find himself confronted by exploitation and Police discrimination, but in the end offering hope in the line "I hope you hear inside my voice of sorrow and that it motivates you to make a better tomorrow'.

There are only two love songs on this album. 'Golden Lady' is a gentle love ballad with a catchy melody. Again what stands out for me is the percussion with plenty of cymbals, piano and keyboard backing up Stevie's smooth warm vocal. 'All In Love Is Fair' deals with the more abstract qualities of love and has to be one of the great Stevie Wonder love songs.

'Higher Ground' brings us back to funk this time with some distorted electric lead guitar. This comes across as a spiritual incantation encouraging people to keep it positive. On 'Jesus Children Of America' the funky lead guitar slips to the background and Stevie's voice dominates as it once again preaches sweetly about the benefits of 'transcendental meditation' and other things.

The jazzy 'Don't You Worry Bout A Thing' presents a more Latin sound with a catchy melody and chorus. The lyric is very simple and although it is often associated with drugs, there really is very little evidence for this in the words apart from the line: "When you get off... your trip". For me the song is just about being positive and not worrying.

The final track "He's Misstra Know-It-All", is another catchy song and is said by some to be a biting critique of the infamous and corrupt US President Richard Nixon. Personally I find little in the lyric to indicate this and it seems more likely to tell the tale of a street con-man with a "counterfeit dollar in his hand".

Innervisions is a remarkable visionary exploration of Stevie Wonders imagination and social conscience. It exudes grace and a rich tapestry of musical textures from start to finish. It shows Stevie Wonder as a gifted musician as well as an expert composer and arranger. It also lets us in on the blind world that Stevie inhabits. Take note of the lyrics of 'Visions': "I'm not one who make believes, I know that leaves are green" and witness the sound effects used at the end of 'Living For The City'. Innervisions is a well balanced piece of work, the music is spiritually uplifting and so is the message.

Summary: Possibly Stevie Wonder's greatest album