Something Forgotten

I was glancing at one of those ranking lists, so ubiquitous on-line, of top albums by a musician yesterday when I realised I had managed to allow a magnificent double album to drift entirely from my mind. The muso in question is the incomparable Stevie Wonder and I was expecting to see either Talking Book or Innervisions at the top of the list. Instead there stood Songs in the Key of Life at the pinnacle, and I immediately understood why (though mildly disagreeing. For me it would have been Innervisions. Though, having said that I could have accepted any of the four albums following Music of my Mind without demure - Fulfillingness' First Finale also being outstanding in its way. In fact, I'd even accept Music of my Mind, come to think of it.)

The mystery was how I'd come to sort of forget Songs in the Key of Life. I suppose the fact I never owned it on vinyl played a part. Being a double album it was expensive and back in 1976 I decided I couldn't afford it. But since it was played by everyone at university, pretty much all the time when it first came out, and was easy to borrow, it somehow didn't seem necessary to own it. In contrast, yesterday ownership became a priority as I desperately needed to hear it again, and I downloaded it from iTunes in next to no time.

Of course, the big hits from the album - Isn't She Lovely?, Sir Duke, I Wish - were entirely familiar to me before listening. It was the other tracks that I'd sort of forgotten, but recognised immediately in that odd I know what's coming next way that fascinated me. Astonishingly there's absolutely no filler involved. Which leads me to a simple conclusion: the five albums noted above must be the greatest five-in-a-sequence that have ever been released in terms of unrelenting quality: great writing, great playing (most of it coming from the wonder man himself, great singing, great production.)