Love Having You Around/Superwoman/I Love Every Little Thing About You/Sweet Little Girl/Happier Than The Morning Sun/Girl Blue/Seems So Long/Keep On Running/Evil
Music Of My Mind is considered to be the first mature Stevie Wonder album after he was able to throw off the constraints of the Motown machine and give free rein to his own creativity. (US:21)
“This is the album where Stevie is largely agreed to have arrived, signifying his new fully integrated signature sound, style and personal form of expression that would forever change the face of R & B.”
“In spite of its relatively minor weaknesses, it's definitely his greatest and by far his most characteristic album to date and can be justifiably regarded as the first of his classic period. With better pacing, just a little fewer longeurs and lapses into self-indulgence or random experimentation, we'd be looking at his first true masterpiece.”
“One thing that makes this album get overlooked is that most of the tracks are love songs with only the powerful Evil approaching any sort of social commentary. Yet, check out these love songs and keep in mind that the guy writing them was only twenty one when this album was made. Still the songs have a maturity to the lyrics.”
“Stevie was beginning to be an album artist with this set. Granted, it’s not exactly, his best work since none of the songs are great and most are forgettable. However it was a step towards the brilliance that would come.”
“This is the first Stevie album where everything came together. He'd finally managed to throw off the creative constraints imposed by Motown and found his own sound - and what a sound it was. This is what a musical paradigm shift sounds like. A hugely influential album, everything that came afterwards owes something to this album.”
“Stevie Wonder isn't quite there yet. Music Of My Mind is his first album as a soul artist, a position which he hasn't quite got used to it yet, and his songwriting still has a some way to go. His vocal performance isn't as transcendent as it would become and doesn't flow well. His keyboard melodies haven't become dominant yet and his vocals sound a lot less smooth when layered over screeching sax instead of soft bubbling keyboards. His lyrics, while decent, are mostly shallow. This seems like a practice album when compared to those that would follow.”
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