Stevie Wonder: A Time 2 Love

Herald rating: ***

If there was such a thing as the seven wonders of music, then Stevie Wonder's Songs In the Key Of Life from 1976 would be one of them. Arguably, Talking Book (1972), or Innervisions (1973), could also be prime choices but Songs ... was, no, still is, even today, an ambitious album in its approach and length (two LPs and one EP).

It is packed with hits (Sir Duke, Isn't She Lovely) and love songs, but it is also surrounded by masterful and righteous funk and soul numbers about everything from living in the ghetto to race relations and peace.

Today, Wonder's influence - especially that creatively brilliant 70s period - infiltrates acts such as Fat Freddy's Drop and any number of old and new hip-hop and R&B artists.

The 70s was definitely his heyday, while his 80s and 90s career was full of overproduced, saccharine-sweet hits, highlighted by the awful, I Just Called To Say I Love You. Sadly, that song has been a millstone around Wonder's neck.

On this album his first in 10 years, there is nothing quite so dire, but it is patchy, with tracks such as the flaky Passionate Raindrops and Shelter In the Rain, resembling a cross between show tunes and school assembly songs. It's weird though, if any one gets away with sweet cheese, then it's Wonder.

The album has an impressive guest list, including Prince playing a twiddly, laid-back guitar on the funky So What The Fuss, Bonnie Raitt playing an evil slide guitar on Tell Your Heart I Love You, and the soothing but politically charged India.Arie on nine-minute last track, A Time To Live.

His daughter, Aisha Morris, also guests, but one of her contributions is on the trite Positivity. Whereas Wonder once made us feel positivity, now he just feels the need to sing about it.

Some of the beats - reminiscent of the Neptunes' beats of three or four years ago - are modern, man, but unfortunately Wonder is just not up to it. He is better backed by the deep funk - almost P-funk - beats of So What The Fuss or Please Don't Hurt My Baby.

The one constant is his incomparable, gritty, and soaring voice, that has a believability that many smooth, sex-obsessed R&B artists of today don't have.

He always had a sweetness that oozed romantic charm, and while he's not as convincing now as he was on You Are the Sunshine Of My Life from 1972, songs like Tell Your Heart I Love You, and the slower and more beautiful Moon Blue prove Wonder still has it. It's just that A Time 2 Love is a little inconsistent.

Definitely one for the fans who have been waiting for even a slight return to the 70s. For all you others, you'll be skipping tracks willy-nilly to find the funk and trying to get away from those damn raindrops.

Label: Motown