Friday, June 29, 2007

305. Stevie Wonder - Fulfillingness' First Finale (1974)

















Track Listing

1. Smile Please
2. Heaven Is Ten Zillion Light Years Away
3. Too Shy To Say
4. Boogie On Reggae Woman
5. Creepin'
6. You Haven't Done Nothin'
7. It Ain't No Use
8. They Won't Go When I Go
9. Bird Of Beauty
10. Please Don't Go

Review

After a couple of astonishing albums from Stevie Wonder we get another one. Unfortunately it isn't as good or cohesive as the two previous albums, this is not, however, to say that it is a bad album. Most of the tracks are really good, but it is quite hard to follow perfection in any meaningful way, and if you fall short of it it always smacks of disappointment.

This is however a really good album. The main problem here is the fact that it seems more a collection of very good songs than an album. The beauty of Talking Book and the anger of Innervisions made them two cohesive wholes, even if they had interludes of anger and beauty respectively. This album seems to mix the feel of the two previous albums in a less satisfactory way. But i am being too harsh here, because the songs themselves are great, it just isn't as perfect an album.

The songs here are mainly love songs, and they are good ones, there are a couple of political tracks here, plus a track amusing to Portuguese speakers where Stevie fails to speak Portuguese in Bird Of Beauty. Generally the songs have a certain gospely feel that makes them sound really life affirming and uplifting. So in the end it is a great album, but it isn't Innervisions of Talking Book. Get it at Amazon UK or US


Track Highlights

1. They Won't Go When I go
2. Heaven is 10 Zillion Light Years Away
3. You Haven't Done Nothin'
4. Boogie On Reggae Woman

Final Grade

8/10


Trivia

Fulfillingess' First Finale won Grammy Awards for Best Male Pop Vocal, Best Male Rhythm and Blues Vocal Performance, and Album of the Year in 1974. When Wonder took two years to record his follow-up album (Songs), this broke his consecutive Grammy streak and led to Paul Simon's famous quote thanking him for not releasing an album in 1975 (when he won the Album of the Year award for Still Crazy After All These Years).

You Haven't Done Nothing:

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