[The multitude of songs on "Songs in the Key of Life"] is a generous portion by anybody's standards, but one that is praiseworthy only if the material presented on all that vinyl warrants so much of one's time. In this case it doesn't.

Let me point out right away that I am a Stevie Wonder fan. In fact, I went out and bought [the] album as soon as it became available, and buying albums is something people on my end of the record business rarely do. Though I confess to being disappointed, I must add that I don't feel the expenditure was a total waste—the album, besides representing the latest work of an important artist, does contain material of musical value, and, had I been given the opportunity to hear it beforehand, I would still have bought it.

Starting at the top of the program, side one provided me with my first disappointments. Village Ghetto Land attempts, in semi-baroque Beatles fashion, a social comment, but it is on an embarrassing high-school level; an instrumental aptly named Contusion sounds like a bad Weather Report out-take; Sir Duke seems to have something to do with Ellington, Basie, (Glenn?) Miller, and someone the printed lyrics call Sachimo (sic); and there are two other songs of Love and God that are best forgotten. I Wish, a highly rhythmic, catchy recollection of childhood, starts off the second side in a more promising vein, but, with the exception of that and Past Paradise—featuring the twenty-four voices of a Hare Krishna chorus and the West Los Angeles Church of God Choir—this side, too, is dispensable.

The Wonder of the Sixties opens side three with Isn't She Lovely—and she would be, if she didn't go on so interminably. There follows a mildly interesting six and a half minutes called Joy Inside My Tears, but it is followed by a wretched eight and a half minutes of Black Man. This pits no less than forty-three vocal participants against one of those "we-all-must-live-together" message songs; the theme is tiresomely common, and this example is among the worst examples. Much has been said and written lately about pop lyrics as "poetry," but reading Wonder's lyrics in the accompanying booklet I was struck by their puerility—and they do seem to be a little worse this time around. However, Stevie Wonder usually manages to rise above even the most inane lyrics, so their inadequacy is less noticeable in the listening.

The song As here must be considered Wonder's pièce de résistance, for it is a marvelously infectious, exciting song that will surely be remembered long after most of the others are forgotten. It leads right into Another Star, a spirited song of love—and Stevie Wonder's new album finally comes alive. But look, we've reached the end of side four, and, though there is something arresting about the tango rhythm of Ebony Eyes (one of the four selections on the seven-inch "bonus record"), the party is, I'm afraid, over.

In the final analysis, "Songs in the Key of Life" is a disappointment, but bear in mind that we have come to expect the extraordinary from Stevie Wonder. If this album does not live up to expectations, much of it is still noteworthy when measured against most of the other pop offerings of the day. The ingredients for an exceptional single album are here, but … this latest Stevie Wonder offering is marred by excess.