Stevie Wonder "Innervisions" [1973]

You'd think a guy with no eyesight would have acute enough hearing to recognize when his laconic funkiness is getting undermined by his overly ambitious arch jazz posturing, but such is not the case with Stevie Wonder. Apparently by the time "Innervisions" was being made, Stevie still had yet to get the message that his career was only supposed to be as a miniature Ray Charles novelty act who taught white people to clap on the beat (for the most part). Instead, he fancies himself a sort of disabled Marvin Gaye with even sappier ballad tendencies. Playing nearly all the parts himself aside from future "Ghostbuster" songster Ray Parker Jr. on guitar, Wonder demonstrates himself as little more than a show-off with a Sunday-school worldview that includes anti-drug hectoring ("Too High"), the kiddie-pool-depth of Jonathan Livingston Seagull ("Higher Ground") and poor Spanish and geography skills ("Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing"), tangled up in a clusterfuck of synth and clav lines. Good drumming for a blind guy, though.