ARTIST: Stevie Wonder
TITLE: A Time To Love
LABEL: Motown
GENRE: R&B
BITRATE: 205kbps avg
PLAYTIME: 1h 17min total
RELEASE DATE: 2005-10-18
RIP DATE: 2005-10-12

Track List

01. If Your Love Cannot Be Moved    6:11
(Feat. Kim Burrell)
02. Sweetest Somebody I Know        4:31
03. Moon Blue                       6:44
04. From The Bottom Of My Heart     5:11
05. Please Don't Hurt My Baby       4:40
06. How Will I Know (Feat. Aisha    3:39
Morris)
07. My Love Is On Fire              6:16
08. Passionate Raindrops            4:50
09. Tell Your Heart I Love You      4:30
10. True Love                       3:32
11. Shelter In The Rain             4:19
12. So What The Fuss                5:04
13. Can't Imagine Love Without You  3:45
14. Positivity (Feat. Aisha         5:07
Morris)
15. A Time To Love (Feat.           9:17
India.Arie)

Release Notes:

"A Time to Love" is Stevie Wonder's first studio album since 1995's
"Conversation Peace," though for much of this year it seemed as if
the wait might be even longer.

Planned release dates came and went, and still Wonder tweaked and
fiddled with the final product, leading some to believe the album
would never actually come out. Always a perfectionist, Wonder told
Billboard the delays were "just a matter of getting it right."

And, for the most part, "A Time to Love," currently available on
Apple's iTunes and slated to be released in stores Oct. 18, gets it
right. At 55, Wonder's distinctive voice is in fine shape, and it's
great to hear him after having to endure such wan imitators as
Justin Timberlake and Usher.

If nothing else, Wonder gets props for resisting the now-typical
tack of veteran artists these days -- namely, loading up their
albums with younger, radio-friendly artists. Certainly, that was a
winning formula on Carlos Santana's "Supernatural" and Luther
Vandross's final studio album "Dance With My Father." Still,
whatever those albums' achievements, one could never escape the
fact that such demographic-driven duets diluted the final product
in yet another cynical triumph of marketing over music.

Of the 15 tracks here, there are only three duets -- gospel singer
Kim Burrell on the opening track, "If Your Love Cannot Be Moved,"
India.Arie on the nine-minute title song, and Aisha Morris,
Wonder's daughter (and the inspiration for his classic "Isn't She
Lovely") on the ballad "How Will I Know."

"If Your Love Cannot Be Moved" is one of Wonder's best songs in
the past two decades. Opening with a human beat box that blends
into traditional percussion, it's a vital, dramatic tune with an
urgent string accompaniment threading between Wonder and
Burrell's well-matched vocals.

The mood quickly shifts with the midtempo "Sweetest Somebody I
Know," which sounds like a more lanquid version of "Bird of
Beauty" from 1974's "Fulfillingness' First Finale." Still, even
at 4 1/2 minutes, the song feels long. For several songs, Wonder
settles into an adult-contemporary lull with "Moon Blue" and
"From the Bottom of My Heart," but picks up the pace with the
funky "Please Don't Hurt My Baby," and it's a welcome change.
The album bounces easily between delicate ballads like "How Will
I Know" (not a cover of the Whitney Houston song) and the
predictably upbeat "Positivity," which manages to be sunny
without becoming cheesy.

Comparable to 1985's "In Square Circle," "A Time for Love" is an
enjoyable album that should be judged on its own merits. No, it
doesn't compare with Wonder's 1970s masterpieces such as
"Innervisions," "Talking Book," and "Songs in the Key of Life."
Then again, little else produced by anyone in the last three
decades does.