Innervisions

Released on August 3, 1973, Innervisions is Stevie Wonder's sixteenth studio album and the second entry in what critics call his "classic period" (1972-1976). Recorded over seven months with producers Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff, the album was performed almost entirely by Wonder himself, who played nearly every instrument while writing all of the lyrics.

The sessions made extensive use of the TONTO (The Original New Timbral Orchestra) synthesizer system, a revolutionary instrument that gave Wonder a new sonic palette. Robert Margouleff recalled: "It was just the three of us in a room, and the sounds we were creating gave him a whole new palette."

Thematically, the album surveys America at a moment when 1960s optimism had begun to curdle. Its nine tracks move through drug abuse, systemic racism and urban poverty, political hypocrisy, and spiritual searching, held together by a clear-eyed refusal to look away from the nation's contradictions. "Living for the City," a seven-minute narrative epic, stands as its centerpiece.

The album peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and reached No. 1 on the R&B charts, charting for 89 weeks. At the 1974 Grammy Awards, it won Album of the Year, making Wonder the first Black artist to win that award, along with Best Engineered Non-Classical Recording. Rolling Stone placed it at No. 34 on its 2020 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.