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A part-time lover; a full-time Wonder: Stevie Wonder: At the Close of a Century
To condense Stevie Wonder's career into four CDs could have been a catastrophe—an unworthy tribute to the man who has amazed fans since he was 12 years old. Yet At The Close of a Century, millennial title aside, is anything but a failure. This kind of "career-summary" box set may not have been easy to put together for an everlasting icon like Stevie Wonder—he of 33 albums and 37 years in music—but it manages to encapsulate both his hits and his less well-known songs more faithfully than any of his other compilations (there have been five). The term "compilation" isn't really worthy to grace a set like this.
Beginning with the 12-year-old Stevie moving a live crowd with "Fingertips Pts. 1 & 2" and ending with "How Come, How Long," a duet with Babyface, At The Close spans all of Wonder's styles, from childhood to Motown to '70s funk to '80s synthesizers. And it all sounds good. Even the fourth CD, which represents the final stage of his career, is filled with excellent songs: "That Girl," the totally '80s (but still damn catchy) "Part-Time Lover," "Overjoyed," and a lesser-known gem, "These Three Words." The songs you know are also here, of course—like "Superstitious" and "Uptight (Everything's Alright)"—but so are the bilingual "Ngiculela—Es Un Historia—I Am Singing," and a surprisingly good version of Bob Dylan's "Blowin' In The Wind."
And then there are the Stevie Wonder songs you loved without even knowing it. Remember "Gangsta's Paradise"? No, it's actually "Pastime Paradise." "Wild Wild West"? Nothing more than the grooving "I Wish" with a Kool Moe Dee hook. Beat junkies will also recognize "Never Dreamed You'd Leave In Summer" as the emotional hook to Common's "Retrospect for Life" and "Too High" as the sample from Tha Alkaholiks' "All Night Long." The point is that Stevie's wonder has only gotten better with age. The long line of other people's hits is just another testament to the multi-talented artist's legacy. As a songwriter, singer, and musician, Stevie's music is too unique and too dynamic to be nailed down to one style. He was funk before there was P-Funk ("Higher Ground," "Superstitious"), reggae after Bob Marley was dead ("Master Blaster [Jammin']," "Boogie On Reggae Woman"), and sometimes just a good piano and song man ("Lately").
At The Close of A Century does not only benefit from the songs it has, but from those it doesn't. Unlike its recent double CD predecessor, Stevie Wonder: Song Review, it has neither the overdone cover of "Redemption Song" nor the just plain corny "Ebony and Ivory" with Paul McCartney. In their place are such beautiful tracks as "Isn't She Lovely"—the greatest father-daughter love song in history—and the long jam "Do I Do," featuring Dizzy Gillespie on trumpet. Of course, some of your favorites might be missing—"The Secret Life of Plants" and "Jungle Fever" are mine—but the comprehensive liner notes should make up for everyone's own personal problems with the set. Either get this excellent set, or go ahead and try to buy all 33 albums. The choice is yours. (Uptown)
—Joshua Drimmer
All materials © 2000 The Yale Herald, Inc., and its staff.
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