Wonder confronts us virtually single-handedly, grasps our expectations and wrestles them to the ground [in Songs in the Key of Life]. I give him four out of five falls gratefully, happily; were it not for his lyrics he might have won them all.

My immediate impression of Songs in the Key of Life is that the album has none of the pinched, overwrought, over-refined quality one might expect from material that's been coddled and polished over a period of two years. If there are scattered traces of icy, brittle perfection, the overall feeling is expansive, spontaneous and startlingly immediate. Wonder's particular genius is that his carefully crafted perfection sounds so convincingly offhand….

The album offers something fresh at each listening, something right for every mood. But it's also one of the record's annoyances—it has no focus or coherence. The eclecticism is rich and welcome, but the overall effect is haphazard, turning what might have been a stunning, exotic feast into a hastily organized potluck supper.

Part of the problem is the bulk of the material. The inclusion of four straggling cuts on a bonus EP comes across finally as a self-indulgent rather than generous gesture. Are we being given this heap of songs as a dog-biscuit reward for our patience or because Stevie had such a staggering amount of fine material that he wanted to release as much as possible? Though the first impulse is to begin editing it down, the more you listen, the less you want to cut. With some rather appalling exceptions, the quality does over-whelm the unwieldy format.

The best songs in the collection are love songs, which are classic in their directness and simplicity…. (p. 77)

Wonder's message songs have always been a bit heavy-handed, but "Black Man" … is one of his most effective. Set to a percolating, popping rhythm, the song is essentially didactic, a Bicentennial history lesson drawing together key figures in America's melting pot with a forceful chorus that preaches (and sometimes demands), "It's time we learned / This world was made for all men." It ends with a shrill, aggressive question-and-answer session that might work as a teaching tool but is too brutal for a piece of music. Elsewhere, Wonder sings of "Village Ghetto Land," describing an almost Brechtian scene of despair and corruption over a deliberately ironic piece of elegant, mock-classical music. Two other songs—"Love's in Need of Love Today," whose point is neatly summed up in the title, and "Ngiculela / Es Una Historia / I Am Singing," sung in Zulu, Spanish and English—are more predictable about Love, as in Peace and Love, but in Wonder's hands they take on a warmth that transcends the shallowness of the lyrics.

Wonder's lyrics aren't clever or particularly intelligent but, at their best, they're instinctive, straightforward and touchingly sincere. Unfortunately, at their worst they're convoluted, awkward, atrociously rhymed and so tangled up in their pretensions to "poetic" style that they become almost comical. Songs in the Key of Life has more than its share of Wonder at his worst…. "Pastime Paradise" sounds like a parody of a well-meaning protest song with its meaningless shuffle of words ("Consolation/Integration/Verification/of Revelations"). Even the best songs are marred by uncomfortably twisted phrasing ("To me came this melody"; "But listen did I not though understanding / I fell in love with one / Who would break my heart in two") and sunk with leaden platitudes. Stevie underlines this dismal writing with his rambling liner notes. (pp. 77-8)

If the lyrics are flawed and uneven, the productions are, without exception, excellent. What he can't say in words he can say more fluidly, subtly and powerfully in his music. So it's Wonder's music, his spirit, that dominates here and seems to fill up the room. It's his voice—also beyond mere words, into pure expression—that snatches you up. And won't let go. (p. 78)