This week in music: Innervisions
I didn't really plan anything for this week, so I thought I'd do something a little different. Since I happen to have the Stevie Wonder album Innervisions with me, and I've been meaning to listen to it for a while, I thought I'd do that and make some comments on what I do when reviewing an album I don't know that well. So here goes...
I like to give it a few play throughs to get a feel for it and to see what jumps out at me. I'm in the middle of the first now. My initial reaction is how varied the album is. Coming from Motown records, which tends to have, especially around this time, a pretty distinctive sound, the range of genres here is pretty impressive. I'm hearing some Jazz and rock influence, the hints of the synthesizer movement to come, and, of course, some R&B and Soul as well. Just not as much as I would have expected. Oh...here it is the bassline of Golden Lady is definitely Motown.
Also, while I'm doing the first playthrough I like to read the artist's profile on allmusic.com. It helps me to listen to the album not only sonically, but to place it in respect to their development. That way I can get a better feel for the artist and the process as well as the end result. I usually hold off on reading the album review until I've developed my own ideas about the album to avoid prejudicing myself one way or the other. I tend to be more careful about that with "classic" albums, because they already have that stigma Also when you let someone tell you what you're hearing you might miss something else. Better, I think, to try to absorb yourself first and then you can read other reviews more critically.
Ok, first play is over. Hmm...there's a lot to this album. A lot of sounds and styles. There are some great instrumental sections, and some places where he really lays down some serious funk. The synthesizers sound a bit dated in places, but, oddly, not as dated as a lot of 80's synth sounds. I mentioned that there are a lot of genres represented here, but it's not choppy. There's a little bit of everything in each song, so they kind of flow across the album. Sometime one style becomes more dominant, but eventually it recedes and a new one rises to the front. It's like a sonic liquid swirling around. There is definitely an explosive creative force here.
This is borne out by the Allmusic Guide artist biography. It describes Stevie as a genre bending genius, and places Innervisions right in the middle of his most creative period. It also mentions his fight to break free from the control of Motown and forge his own sound, which probably accounts for why it shows less influence from the Motown school than I had expected to hear.
I'm nearly through the second playthrough of the album now, and I'm hearing a few new things, probably in light of his biography. There are some piano parts which have an almost classical quality, so it's not surprising that he did study classical composition for a while. He also has a voice which defies category. He certainly fits well within the R&B sound, but wouldn't sound out of place on the pop charts, and he clearly had many crossover hits which prove this to be so. The Allmusic Guide album review doesn't really add much more to the picture other than to point out that "He's Mistra Know-It-All" is about Richard Nixon.
Alright. I'm going into play three now, and I'll read through the lyric sheet and focus a little more on the songwriting. He's got a gift for loose rhythmic words that rhyme or choose not to rhyme in an uncontrived way. I'm not sure at this point that I would consider this a concept album, though. Allmusic calls it as such, but it doesn't really work for me. There are certainly unifying themes that run through the songs, and they're most definitely not placed on the album randomly. Still, there's not really any attempt to forge a coherent story, more a series of thoughts and images which form, together, a picture of the world. I really like the way the Red Hot Chili Peppers covered "Higher Ground". I think the punk-ish group chant chorus really worked well. Strange I never noticed it's a song about reincarnation before. The Latin grooves of "Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing" are seriously infectious.
I've been through the album three times now and I'm going into the fourth and now I'm ready to take my notes track by track.
Stevie Wonder - Innervisions (Motown 1973)
1) Too High: Has a light jazzy quality. A little repetitive melodically, but is broken up by harmonica solo, and strong dynamics. Vocals are loose and fluid, with a groovy almost scatish quality.
2) Visions: Almost a hallucination. Very light and airy. Carried by an arpaggiated acoustic guitar part. It comes bubbling up from under "Too High" like a moment of clarity, or a lucid dream of safety. As the song ends the tougher rock/R&B strains of "Living For the City" bring reality back to bear. The phrasing is as fragile as it's placement between these more aggressive pieces.
3) Living For The City: This has the feel of early Rock and Roll mixed with a little James Brown soul. The synths are a little heavy for me, but not too distracting. This one starts off very simple, and then builds in intensity telling the story of a young boy in Mississippi struggling under the burden of race and planning to move to New York to make a better place for himself. At this point it takes a rather abrupt turn into a sound poem with some dialogue pieces that catapult the main character into the problems of the city and then returns to the main theme, but in a much more angry reprise. Despite this harshness in tone the words clearly call for hope.
4) Golden Lady: Starts with light piano and a distinctively Motown inspired bassline. This is pretty clearly a more romantic song than any so far, but surrounded as it is with songs of hope this is really not so different. It's a little sentimental, but forgivably so.
5) Higher Ground: A seriously funky tune. Deep funk with a complicated rhythmic base. I really like the sound in the chorus. This is another song of hope, I think. Maybe we can get it right next time.
6) Jesus children of America: There's still some funk here, but a soulful R&B sound has move to the fore. The backing vocals are very Gospel. It's actually reminds me of the Beatles' "Come Together" in tone. This is probably the other part of the redemption intimated in "Higher Ground". Ends a bit abruptly.
7) All In Love is Fair: More than anything else on this album I think this one relies most on the words to carry it. That's not to say that the music is boring in any way. In fact, I actually really like the simplicity of the piano part. It's very haunting and creates an interesting tension, but the lyrics about giving away love, only to wish you hadn't later are quite poignant.
8) Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing: Tight Latin grooves on this one. The chorus is very catchy. This is a great place on the album to put this little pick me up, which reinforces the "Everything will get better" felling that moves through the album.
9) He's Mistra Know-It-All: If I were writing a song about Nixon it wouldn't be nearly this pleasant, but I'm angrier at Nixon than Stevie seems to be. This really says bemused rather than angry and that's ok too.
That's pretty much it. I'm now familiar enough with the album to write about it, and I've got some notes to help me remember things I would want to say, or would jog my memory of how it all sounded if I looked back at them a year from now. If I were going to put this up here I would typically just synthesize all this into a less rambling form and leave it at that. I don't think I really need to revisit everything again though. I'll leave with this. Overall, I think this album has aged pretty well. It's hard to really think of it as revolutionary because so many people have taken so much from it over the last 30 years. But there's a rawness here that remains, and a twisted mass of anger and hope that really holds this together. Musically, it's very strong. I tend to be a bit critical of early, or even modern synths, but that's just a personal thing. I'd put it around 4.5/5 stars, but I'm sure those who were more into this style of music would go 5/5.
Currently listening to: Innervisions - Stevie Wonder (duh)
Currently reading:
Last Netflix Movie: Yet again Dawn of the Dead
I like to give it a few play throughs to get a feel for it and to see what jumps out at me. I'm in the middle of the first now. My initial reaction is how varied the album is. Coming from Motown records, which tends to have, especially around this time, a pretty distinctive sound, the range of genres here is pretty impressive. I'm hearing some Jazz and rock influence, the hints of the synthesizer movement to come, and, of course, some R&B and Soul as well. Just not as much as I would have expected. Oh...here it is the bassline of Golden Lady is definitely Motown.
Also, while I'm doing the first playthrough I like to read the artist's profile on allmusic.com. It helps me to listen to the album not only sonically, but to place it in respect to their development. That way I can get a better feel for the artist and the process as well as the end result. I usually hold off on reading the album review until I've developed my own ideas about the album to avoid prejudicing myself one way or the other. I tend to be more careful about that with "classic" albums, because they already have that stigma Also when you let someone tell you what you're hearing you might miss something else. Better, I think, to try to absorb yourself first and then you can read other reviews more critically.
Ok, first play is over. Hmm...there's a lot to this album. A lot of sounds and styles. There are some great instrumental sections, and some places where he really lays down some serious funk. The synthesizers sound a bit dated in places, but, oddly, not as dated as a lot of 80's synth sounds. I mentioned that there are a lot of genres represented here, but it's not choppy. There's a little bit of everything in each song, so they kind of flow across the album. Sometime one style becomes more dominant, but eventually it recedes and a new one rises to the front. It's like a sonic liquid swirling around. There is definitely an explosive creative force here.
This is borne out by the Allmusic Guide artist biography. It describes Stevie as a genre bending genius, and places Innervisions right in the middle of his most creative period. It also mentions his fight to break free from the control of Motown and forge his own sound, which probably accounts for why it shows less influence from the Motown school than I had expected to hear.
I'm nearly through the second playthrough of the album now, and I'm hearing a few new things, probably in light of his biography. There are some piano parts which have an almost classical quality, so it's not surprising that he did study classical composition for a while. He also has a voice which defies category. He certainly fits well within the R&B sound, but wouldn't sound out of place on the pop charts, and he clearly had many crossover hits which prove this to be so. The Allmusic Guide album review doesn't really add much more to the picture other than to point out that "He's Mistra Know-It-All" is about Richard Nixon.
Alright. I'm going into play three now, and I'll read through the lyric sheet and focus a little more on the songwriting. He's got a gift for loose rhythmic words that rhyme or choose not to rhyme in an uncontrived way. I'm not sure at this point that I would consider this a concept album, though. Allmusic calls it as such, but it doesn't really work for me. There are certainly unifying themes that run through the songs, and they're most definitely not placed on the album randomly. Still, there's not really any attempt to forge a coherent story, more a series of thoughts and images which form, together, a picture of the world. I really like the way the Red Hot Chili Peppers covered "Higher Ground". I think the punk-ish group chant chorus really worked well. Strange I never noticed it's a song about reincarnation before. The Latin grooves of "Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing" are seriously infectious.
I've been through the album three times now and I'm going into the fourth and now I'm ready to take my notes track by track.
Stevie Wonder - Innervisions (Motown 1973)
1) Too High: Has a light jazzy quality. A little repetitive melodically, but is broken up by harmonica solo, and strong dynamics. Vocals are loose and fluid, with a groovy almost scatish quality.
2) Visions: Almost a hallucination. Very light and airy. Carried by an arpaggiated acoustic guitar part. It comes bubbling up from under "Too High" like a moment of clarity, or a lucid dream of safety. As the song ends the tougher rock/R&B strains of "Living For the City" bring reality back to bear. The phrasing is as fragile as it's placement between these more aggressive pieces.
3) Living For The City: This has the feel of early Rock and Roll mixed with a little James Brown soul. The synths are a little heavy for me, but not too distracting. This one starts off very simple, and then builds in intensity telling the story of a young boy in Mississippi struggling under the burden of race and planning to move to New York to make a better place for himself. At this point it takes a rather abrupt turn into a sound poem with some dialogue pieces that catapult the main character into the problems of the city and then returns to the main theme, but in a much more angry reprise. Despite this harshness in tone the words clearly call for hope.
4) Golden Lady: Starts with light piano and a distinctively Motown inspired bassline. This is pretty clearly a more romantic song than any so far, but surrounded as it is with songs of hope this is really not so different. It's a little sentimental, but forgivably so.
5) Higher Ground: A seriously funky tune. Deep funk with a complicated rhythmic base. I really like the sound in the chorus. This is another song of hope, I think. Maybe we can get it right next time.
6) Jesus children of America: There's still some funk here, but a soulful R&B sound has move to the fore. The backing vocals are very Gospel. It's actually reminds me of the Beatles' "Come Together" in tone. This is probably the other part of the redemption intimated in "Higher Ground". Ends a bit abruptly.
7) All In Love is Fair: More than anything else on this album I think this one relies most on the words to carry it. That's not to say that the music is boring in any way. In fact, I actually really like the simplicity of the piano part. It's very haunting and creates an interesting tension, but the lyrics about giving away love, only to wish you hadn't later are quite poignant.
8) Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing: Tight Latin grooves on this one. The chorus is very catchy. This is a great place on the album to put this little pick me up, which reinforces the "Everything will get better" felling that moves through the album.
9) He's Mistra Know-It-All: If I were writing a song about Nixon it wouldn't be nearly this pleasant, but I'm angrier at Nixon than Stevie seems to be. This really says bemused rather than angry and that's ok too.
That's pretty much it. I'm now familiar enough with the album to write about it, and I've got some notes to help me remember things I would want to say, or would jog my memory of how it all sounded if I looked back at them a year from now. If I were going to put this up here I would typically just synthesize all this into a less rambling form and leave it at that. I don't think I really need to revisit everything again though. I'll leave with this. Overall, I think this album has aged pretty well. It's hard to really think of it as revolutionary because so many people have taken so much from it over the last 30 years. But there's a rawness here that remains, and a twisted mass of anger and hope that really holds this together. Musically, it's very strong. I tend to be a bit critical of early, or even modern synths, but that's just a personal thing. I'd put it around 4.5/5 stars, but I'm sure those who were more into this style of music would go 5/5.
Currently listening to: Innervisions - Stevie Wonder (duh)
Currently reading:
Last Netflix Movie: Yet again Dawn of the Dead
posted by brian at 2:48 AM
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