#367
Album: Songs in the Key of Life
Artist: Stevie Wonder
Year: 1976
Length: 104:29
Genre: R&B / Soul / Pop / Avant-Pop / Progressive Soul / Soul Jazz
“Tell me, who of them will come to be?
Pastime Paradise
How many of them are you and me?
Dissipation
Of race relations
Consolation
Segregation
Dispensation
Isolation
Exploitation
Mutilation
Mutation
Miscreation
Confirmation to the evils of the world”
We’ve hit, what I believe is, the final album by Stevie Wonder. I wish I could go on and on about how amazing this album is and how much of a talented, powerhouse of a musician Stevie Wonder is. I mean the fact that he was releasing album after album that was one banger after another and managed to come to a conclusion of an era with a double LP that manages to have no filler is absolutely amazing. That takes a level of creativity that is insurmountable and a well of ideas so deep that there’s no light (although this album feels like a bright light). I wish I could express all those things in such colourful detail as to fill out multiple paragraphs that will hopefully keep you engaged, but I just can’t. I don’t have the proper words to do that and as I had mentioned on a previous album, there’s only so much I feel I can talk a bit Stevie Wonder before it starts to get stale and repetitive. There’s nothing, absolutely nothing I can add at this point. This album is just fantastic and you’ll have to take my basic word on that.
This is where my musical limitations really start to shine. I’ve always been upfront about the fact that I’m purely a music enthusiast and know absolutely nothing about theory and can’t really break down a lot about why I think something may be good or bad. A lot of it is mostly purely on a personally emotional level that I can describe my feelings, which works out really nicely for some music, but I struggle with a bit more for other albums. It’s not that Stevie Wonder doesn’t evoke any emotions in me, his music does and especially here on Songs in the Key of Life (which might be my favourite, I even own this one on vinyl). There is this wonderful warmth throughout the album and he sings with such a calming tone that it’s hard not to smile while listening through all this. But that’s about as far as that goes. I enjoy it, it makes me happy, but I sadly feel I cannot go any deeper into why, and I really wish I could because Stevie Wonder deserves better than my rather shallow attempts at talking about his wonderful album. HE DESERVES BETTER.
Something I do love about this album, particularly the vinyl format of it, is how this double LP comes with a little mini third disc. It’s like a little baby vinyl record that this double LP gave birth to. Stevie Wonder had so many songs that he just needed to add this tiny extra disc for all of us to enjoy. He didn’t have to do that, but he did and I am grateful for that. I also love that with this album we get to hear the original, Pastime Paradise, a song that I went on quite a journey to finally, eventually, get to. Originally hearing it in the form of Weird Al’s parody, Amish Paradise, which led me to Coolio’s reinterpretation, Gangsta’s Paradise, which then had me learn there was an original version with Stevie WOnder’s, Pastime Paradise. I have to say the journey was worth it to get there because Pastime Paradise is easily the best of the three.
It’s funny, coming up soon I’m doing one of my monthly improv shows where improv troupes do sets inspired by albums in my record collection. For next month, seeing as it is February and black history month, I decided all the albums for that particular show will be by black artists. One of the albums is indeed this one right here, Songs in the Key of Life. Writing this out, it makes me realize how much I’ll need to really think about this album and do some deeper research because I’m going to need much more to say than just… this album good! I’m not complaining, if it helps me put into words what I want to express much better than that’s great! Plus I’m always down for a little history lesson when it comes to artists and their music! Let’s hope I can do it justice on that day!
Favourite Song: Pastime Paradise
-Bosco
Ps. Sir Duke is a banger.
Bosco's Modern Life 