Happy 20th Anniversary to Stevie Wonder’s twenty-third studio album A Time To Love, originally released September 27, 2005.
“Sounds kinda like Stevie Wonder, right?”
One typically hears that about Michael Jackson or Musiq Soulchild, Glenn Lewis or PJ Morton… even Donny Hathaway at times. Joni Mitchell once said when she first heard Chaka Khan, she “thought it was Stevie.” For a time, we heard that about everyone except Wonder himself.
Something happens in lengthy music careers where, after a period of setting trends everyone else follows, the artist drifts away from what they’re known for. While coasting, they may try on new sounds, engage new passions, or start entirely new careers. It’s a hero’s journey of sorts, and if they live long enough, they eventually return home.
Thus far, Wonder’s trek has been surprisingly mathematical. During his 1970s golden era, he released eight studio albums. As he grappled with how to best express his creativity in the 1980s, that output shrunk to four records. The 1990s halved it again, down to two. That leads us to the 2000s where we find only one: Wonder’s last studio album to date, A Time To Love.
In typical fashion, several anticipated dates were pushed back while he got the final product just right. As he told Newsweek, “I’ve been working on songs for 10 years, what’s a couple more months?” Prior to this, Wonder hadn’t released a full-length studio effort since the star-studded Conversation Peace (1995). Although a complete artistic statement, it found Wonder fitting into the prevailing musical zeitgeist of ‘90s R&B rather than the other way around. To that end, A Time To Love is an unpretentious return to form for a music legend with nothing to prove, but plenty of freedom to play.
The disc begins on a bombastic note with rapper Doug E. Fresh’s beatboxing as a rhythmic herald. This sets up an iconic duet with Wonder and gospel dynamo Kim Burrell on “If Your Love Cannot Be Moved.” Amidst jangling guitars and liberally deployed tablas, Wonder and Burrell entwine their complementary voices to shout down hypocrisy (“You can't be a friend but not through thin and thick / You can't be a clique, but in danger split / You can't evenly share, and then grab the biggest hand”).
Most people’s first taste of the record, however, was the heavy-bottomed funk of “So What the Fuss.” Evincing how much of a king Wonder is, he not only taps Prince as rhythm guitarist to inject Minneapolis into the mixture, he also did the impossible, reuniting a splintered En Vogue to serve as his backing crew. Dawn Robinson’s acrimonious departure nearly derailed EV3 (1997) and Maxine Jones would later step away as well. By Soulflower (2004), Cindy Herron and Terry Ellis stabilized with Rhona Bennett as a trio. However, only a summons from Wonder could get Bennett to kindly bow out while Robinson, Jones, Herron, and Ellis shook their thangs and sang their gloriously stanky “shame-shames” in its energetic music video.
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While that show of might is exceptional, “From The Bottom Of My Heart” proves Wonder can captivate on his own. The chromatic harmonica he is synonymous with is immediately arresting, love at first blush. This midtempo feels familiar and fresh, yet contemporary as if a younger, hungry songwriter was commissioned to recapture that trend everyone once followed. Wonder’s creativity remains inexhaustible though. Like the vast extent of the album, he writes and produces it all himself.
If that wasn’t potent enough, he comes to life on “Please Don’t Hurt My Baby.” As adult as his tales of being “blinded by sexsation” are, they hearken back to the juvenile mischief of “I Wish” (“Just don’t tell / I’ll give you anything you want in this whole wide world!”). Complete with a fiery horn section, one juicy push-pull of a chant (“You shoulda thought about that… / Before you did the ooh-ahh-ooh-ahhh!”), and most notably, Wonder playing live drums, several crucial pieces of his sound—largely missing from the ‘80s and ‘90s—return. This is the way you want a Stevie Wonder song to sound.
These elements surfacing on A Time To Love are what made works like Talking Book (1972) and Hotter Than July (1980) so impactful. His familiar clavinet work interplays with Brazilian guitar and a sultry cushion of his own voice on “Sweetest Somebody I Know.” Then “Tell Your Heart I Love You” brings back the harmonica signature alongside the country-blues flavor of Bonnie Raitt on slide guitar. As much as he masters funk, Wonder knows his way around emotionality and brings that to bear on the poignant “Shelter in the Rain.” Written as he reconciled with the terminal illnesses of both his brother and first wife Syreeta Wright, the proceeds from the single would later be donated to Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts in 2005.
Though jazz has been a key component in Wonder’s musical circuitry, he rarely commits to the genre as on A Time To Love. Whether trading riffs with flutist Hubert Laws (“My Love Is On Fire”) or easing into smoother adult contemporary territory (“Can’t Imagine Love Without You,” “True Love”), Wonder finds the optimal light for his vocal identity. He wields it well on the traditional jazz cool of “Moon Blue,” co-written with actress Akosua Busia. Here, he subdues his powerful vocal tone to complement the song’s aloof charm. Never taking anything too seriously, he chuckles at his voice cracking as he plays with a note like a kid with a water hose. It is excessively endearing.
Continuing that mood is “How Will I Know,” a sublime duet with daughter Aisha Morris. Though she has lent her voice to his records before, she hasn’t been a foreground vocalist since her baby coos and laughs bubbled through the celebratory “Isn’t She Lovely” from Songs In The Key Of Life (1976). She pops up again on the summery, pop-funk penultimate track “Positivity.”
Taking nothing away from Morris, Wonder has a musical daughter join him on “A Time To Love.” Upon signing to Motown Records, India.Arie made her reverence for Wonder paramount, closing her debut Acoustic Soul (2001) with the tribute piece “Wonderful.” Its follow-up Voyage To India (2002) was titled after an instrumental from Wonder’s Journey Through “The Secret Life Of Plants” (1979). To have her co-write and sing with her idol on the title track and closing opus of this prestige release made Arie the people’s champion. I, among the people cheering, found myself so enrapt by this moment, I nearly overlooked royalty among Wonder’s sidemen: the Sir Paul McCartney plays guitar on the tune.
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This excellent veteran affair could very well be the last album released from Wonder, and yet, many have missed its vitality and genius. With such prolific, rich, and relevant work in his canon, it would be the height of avarice to ask any more of him. If he chooses to conclude his groundbreaking discography with A Time To Love, he does so in grand fashion, surrounded by love from legends and learners alike. As an artist, activist, and vanguard for over 60 years, Wonder has done his work and then some. The world knows he owes it nothing more.
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