Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life (CD)

All Music Guide

Stevie Wonder's classic period peaked with Songs in the Key of Life. Not coincidentally, it's also the peak of his ambition and excess, spreading out over two albums, plus a bonus EP (now part of the last disc on a two-CD set), which gives him plenty of space to explore (or indulge, depending on your charity). And there are some superbly indulgent moments here, yet this is the kind of double album where those excesses add to the overall effect, making the immediate songs -- "Sir Duke," "I Wish," "Isn't She Lovely" -- shine all the more brightly, and providing little detours to explore on repeated listens. Musically, this is more consolidation than progression, adding elements of the direct Talking Book to the pseudo-psychedelic Fulfillingness' First Finale, leaving the record as a grand, sprawling demonstration of Wonder at his very peak. Though he tried to move further and farther, he never equaled this, which shines as brightly on its hits as it does in its eccentricities. - Stephen ...Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide Read more Less