I’ve never liked Stevie Wonder as much as I feel I probably should. Certainly Songs in the Key of Life deserved consideration for my list of the best 70s albums, but I never gave it a second thought. As much as I appreciate this album, and Wonder’s music in general, I’ve never found it in me to love it.
Today’s Random Weekend selection is a perfect encapsulation of my feelings about Stevie Wonder — it’s brilliant right up until it stops being brilliant and starts being annoying.
U2’s tenth album, 2000’s All That You Can’t Leave Behind, was a comeback record following the failed electronica experimentation of 1997’s Pop.
The record was a deliberate attempt to return to the earnest rock style of The Joshua Tree — the style that catapulted the band to superstardom in the first place.
Back in high school and my first years of college, I made a point to discover the important music recorded before I was born. I had sufficiently mined the catalogs of Bob Dylan and The Beatles before finally turning my attention to The Rolling Stones.
Given my limited resources, I settled on two albums considered essential by the powers that be. One is still to come on this list, and the other was Beggars Banquet.
My standard line is that when I’m listening to Dusty Springfield’s Dusty in Memphis I feel like I’ll never need to listen to anything else. It so perfectly captures a mood and a sound that I want to say, “OK, everybody else, put down your instruments… we have our winner.”
There’s just something about this particular brand of British soul by way of the American south that works for me.
The second Beatles album on this list is similar to the first (Sgt. Pepper) in that its reputation and historic importance outweigh the quality of the actual songs.
They also boast the two most famous cover shots in the Beatles catalog (and perhaps in popular music history).
