Stevie Wonder - A Time To Love (2005)

Stevie Wonder took more than ten years to give a studio successor to Conversation Peace but A Time to Love feels fresher than we had any right to expect after such a long wait. For starters, the guests are well picked: They include Bonnie Raitt (playing slide guitar on "Tell Your Heart I Love You"), gospel singer Kim Burrell (on "If Your Heart Cannot Be Moved"), India Arie (on the title track), and Wonder's own daughter, Aisha Morris (whom listeners may remember as the source of her dad's delight in Songs in the Key of Life--"Isn't She Lovely"). Last but not least, Prince plays elegant, minimal funky guitar and En Vogue perform swoony backup vocals on first single "So What the Fuss," a classic pared-down dance number graced with Wonder's trademark socially conscious lyrics. It's on tracks like these--sounding as if they could be from anytime between 1975 and now--that Wonder shows he's still got the golden touch. He remains a sterling melodicist ("Moon Blue" is a killer ballad), and the harmonica intro on "From the Bottom of My Heart" is among the loveliest he's created. Of course a Wonder album wouldn't be complete without saccharine ballads, and he delivers there too ("Passionate Raindrops," "Can't Imagine Love Without You"). Still, this is a solid effort from one of America's premier artists. ~ Elisabeth Vincentelli