Stevie Wonder is a musical genius. I've said that many times and will continue to say it. But even geniuses have a bad day sometimes. After 15 years of changing the world of music, Stevie becomes a concerned citizen of the world. As he dove himself head first, heart, soul, mind and body into his music through the 70's and half of the 80's, he now began to dive into more worldly things like injustices and the like. Using his fame and fortune to make people aware of the many wrongs taking place in this world. As usual, let's look at the album song by song.
You Will Know: A nice song sprinkled with a beautiful melody, a nice starlight sound effect and a great message of knowing God and your place in this great world of his. It does unfortunately lose something by the end of the song though because it becomes too repetitive. Overall though, a pretty good album opener and a pretty good song. Dark And Lovely: Even though he took the title from a hair product, this is a pretty jammin' song. It's another anti-apartheid song but it can't even touch the great It's Wrong from In Square Circle, just one album before it. It features some good keyboard work. In Your Corner: Hands down the worse song Stevie's ever done. What is it about anyway? And why do we need to know about whatever it is? The song is supposed to be fun in the same mold as Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing or I Ain't Gonna Stand For It, but it's not even on the same planet as these great songs. Skip it. With Each Beat OF My Heart: An overlooked classic. Stevie mixes a beautiful melody, great background vocal arrangments, a great harmonica solo and a sample of his heartbeat (filling in for the kick drum part) together to create this beautiful peice of music. His creative juices were really flowing in this one. It took the world 20 years to catch up and fall in love with Overjoyed and it took us 23 years to fall in love with and really understand Lately. So I guess we need at least 4 more years before we start hearing covers of With Each Beat from Hip Hop artist and the like. Maybe then we will appreciate this great song which shines as one of the beacons on this album. One Of A Kind: An ok song wherein Stevie is professing his love to his woman. Nothing special, especially not for Stevie, just ok. Skeletons: A very good political song about the skeletons that can sometimes fall out of a politicians closet. The song was written and released around the time of the Contra-Gate scandal with Oliver North and Reagan. And it worked perfectly in that atmosphere. A funky beat matched with a scratchy keybaord line, Skeletons is very dancable and yet thinkable at the same time. Get It: From 1982 to about 1988 Michael Jackson was the artist to perform with. Stevie jumped on that bandwagon with this so-so song. Again, nothing special going on here just an ok song. The only thing remotely interesting is the fact that Stevie and Michael were on oppisite sides of the world when they recorded their parts. Michael was in Asia on tour and Stevie here in the States. But that's more of a wonder of modern technology more than of songwriting. Galaxy Paradise: A very different song for Stevie. Something completely out of his style. it's not terrible but it's not great either. Let's say it's good, and for sure interesting. He uses a lot of synth sounds here and the starlight again too. Check it out and see what you think. Cryin' Through The Night: Another ok song ala One Of A Kind from earlier in this album. Free: Another overlooked classic from The Man. On the original album, this was the last song and it is one of the best album finales he's ever had. Albeit for a mediocre album. In it you can hear traces of Songs In The Key Of Life. With it's Hari Krishna rhythm and sound, and the lyrics harking back to Pasttime Paradise, it's a joyous sound. Unfortunately, on the CD, it's not the finale, it gets jumbled into the rest of the album and even worse, gets followed by two more just so-so songs. But please don't be blinded by that fact. It is, with With Each Beat Of My Heart, another highlight of not only the album, but of Stevie's great career. A must hear. Come Let Me Make Your Love Come Down: Stevie and B.B. King doing a song together? It's got to be hot right? Eh, wrong. It's just another song. Not a very good one at that. There's no inspiration here. Their both just kind of there. My Eyes Don't Cry: This is Stevie as the "cheap" one man band. On this one, it's all done on the synthesizer. Drums, horns, bass, everything. And it sounds like it too. The only redeeming part of this song is where Stevie pulls out a kazoo (Yes! A kazoo!!) and plays it along with the rest of the song. As silly as it may sound, that kazoo to me represents the creative chances that not only Stevie has taken in the past but all of our greatest artists have and will take in the future. It's a form of irreverence but yet love for an art that only those of us who love and enjoy it can really appreciate. It's like a mothers hard love. She loves you so much she'll whoop your butt and ground you for a week to protect you from harm.
Characters is not an essential Stevie album to have so I can't say BUY THIS CD as I usually say about his stuff. You can skip it, BUT..... you'd miss the message of You Will Know, the shear beauty and creativity of With Each Beat Of My Heart (which I know is just waiting to be recognized for the classic that it is) and the joy and enlightment of Free. So, with all things said and done, I hate to do this to you but.....you make the call!
Stevie Wonder is a musical genius. I've said that many times and will continue to say it. But even geniuses have a bad day sometimes. After 15 years of changing the world of music, Stevie becomes a concerned citizen of the world. As he dove himself head first, heart, soul, mind and body into his music through the 70's and half of the 80's, he now began to dive into more worldly things like injustices and the like. Using his fame and fortune to make people aware of the many wrongs taking place in this world. As usual, let's look at the album song by song. You Will Know: A nice song sprinkled with a beautiful melody, a nice starlight sound effect and a great message of knowing God and your place in this great world of his. It does unfortunately lose something by the end of the song though because it becomes too repetitive. Overall though, a pretty good album opener and a pretty good song. Dark And Lovely: Even though he took the title from a hair product, this is a pretty jammin' song. It's another anti-apartheid song but it can't even touch the great It's Wrong from In Square Circle, just one album before it. It features some good keyboard work. In Your Corner: Hands down the worse song Stevie's ever done. What is it about anyway? And why do we need to know about whatever it is? The song is supposed to be fun in the same mold as Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing or I Ain't Gonna Stand For It, but it's not even on the same planet as these great songs. Skip it. With Each Beat OF My Heart: An overlooked classic. Stevie mixes a beautiful melody, great background vocal arrangments, a great harmonica solo and a sample of his heartbeat (filling in for the kick drum part) together to create this beautiful peice of music. His creative juices were really flowing in this one. It took the world 20 years to catch up and fall in love with Overjoyed and it took us 23 years to fall in love with and really understand Lately. So I guess we need at least 4 more years before we start hearing covers of With Each Beat from Hip Hop artist and the like. Maybe then we will appreciate this great song which shines as one of the beacons on this album. One Of A Kind: An ok song wherein Stevie is professing his love to his woman. Nothing special, especially not for Stevie, just ok. Skeletons: A very good political song about the skeletons that can sometimes fall out of a politicians closet. The song was written and released around the time of the Contra-Gate scandal with Oliver North and Reagan. And it worked perfectly in that atmosphere. A funky beat matched with a scratchy keybaord line, Skeletons is very dancable and yet thinkable at the same time. Get It: From 1982 to about 1988 Michael Jackson was the artist to perform with. Stevie jumped on that bandwagon with this so-so song. Again, nothing special going on here just an ok song. The only thing remotely interesting is the fact that Stevie and Michael were on oppisite sides of the world when they recorded their parts. Michael was in Asia on tour and Stevie here in the States. But that's more of a wonder of modern technology more than of songwriting. Galaxy Paradise: A very different song for Stevie. Something completely out of his style. it's not terrible but it's not great either. Let's say it's good, and for sure interesting. He uses a lot of synth sounds here and the starlight again too. Check it out and see what you think. Cryin' Through The Night: Another ok song ala One Of A Kind from earlier in this album. Free: Another overlooked classic from The Man. On the original album, this was the last song and it is one of the best album finales he's ever had. Albeit for a mediocre album. In it you can hear traces of Songs In The Key Of Life. With it's Hari Krishna rhythm and sound, and the lyrics harking back to Pasttime Paradise, it's a joyous sound. Unfortunately, on the CD, it's not the finale, it gets jumbled into the rest of the album and even worse, gets followed by two more just so-so songs. But please don't be blinded by that fact. It is, with With Each Beat Of My Heart, another highlight of not only the album, but of Stevie's great career. A must hear. Come Let Me Make Your Love Come Down: Stevie and B. B. King doing a song together? It's got to be hot right? Eh, wrong. It's just another song. Not a very good one at that. There's no inspiration here. Their both just kind of there. My Eyes Don't Cry: This is Stevie as the "cheap" one man band. On this one, it's all done on the synthesizer. Drums, horns, bass, everything. And it sounds like it too. The only redeeming part of this song is where Stevie pulls out a kazoo (Yes! A kazoo!! ) and plays it along with the rest of the song. As silly as it may sound, that kazoo to me represents the creative chances that not only Stevie has taken in the past but all of our greatest artists have and will take in the future. It's a form of irreverence but yet love for an art that only those of us who love and enjoy it can really appreciate. It's like a mothers hard love. She loves you so much she'll whoop your butt and ground you for a week to protect you from harm. Characters is not an essential Stevie album to have so I can't say BUY THIS CD as I usually say about his stuff. You can skip it, BUT.... . you'd miss the message of You Will Know, the shear beauty and creativity of With Each Beat Of My Heart (which I know is just waiting to be recognized for the classic that it is) and the joy and enlightment of Free. So, with all things said and done, I hate to do this to you but.... . you make the call!