Aside from his tremendous powers of performance,
Stevie Wonder stands as one of the greatest songwriters of the late 20th century, probing the joyous peaks and depressing valleys of love and relationships. The Motown tribute album Conception: An Interpretation of Stevie Wonder's Songs has its highs and lows as well; with
Stevie himself in the producer's chair (along with new-era Motown exec
Kedar Massenburg), the album certainly has a lot of promise. It boasts plenty of neo-soul balladeers --
India.Arie,
Mary J. Blige,
Brian McKnight,
Joe,
Musiq -- as well as mainstream stars like
Eric Clapton and
John Mellencamp, who took musical cues from classic
Stevie Wonder LPs like
Talking Book or
Songs in the Key of Life. But since there's little chance of matching these virtually untouchable originals, interpreting his songs with rearrangements would be the best way to make a tribute. Unfortunately, there's far too little going on here than familiar versions of familiar songs with a slightly different voice attached.
Clapton gets the opener, an energetic but perfunctory version of "Higher Ground." Far better is a version of "That Girl," with
Joe crooning the song while
Mr. Cheeks (from
the Lost Boyz) improvises some rapping over the top. Most of the neo-soul names struggle to add anything to
Stevie's incredible originals, though
Musiq's sweet scatting and note changes makes for a refreshing "Visions," and
Dave Hollister's slower, more dramatic version of "Love's in Need of Love Today" is worth a listen.
India.Arie contributes the lone new song, an embarrassing
Stevie tribute track named "Wonderful" that drops a few song titles. ~ John Bush