Maps of Music

In Square Circle (1985)

Where the lyrics of In Square Circle take you, and where it was really made.

This Stevie Wonder album spent 12 weeks at number one on the US Top R&B Albums chart, yet Spin's review called it 'a pleasant muttering packaged as a Major Statement'.

Key places

Recorded at Wonderland Studios, Los Angeles (1985)

Recording site Motown Recording Studios — The album is credited as recorded at Wonderland Studios in Los Angeles. The point sits at the city centre, so the exact studio building is not shown. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• The twentieth studio album by American singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder
• Released September 1985 on Tamla Records
• Spent 12 weeks at number one on the US Billboard Top R&B Albums chart
• Made the top five on the US Billboard 200
• Peaked at No. 5 on the UK Pop Albums chart
• Hit singles: Part-Time Lover (No. 1), Go Home (No. 10), Overjoyed (No. 24), Land of La La (No. 86)
• Won a Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance

Background

• Follows Hotter Than July, Wonder's 1980 album, as the comparison point for later critics
• Go Home and Overjoyed were performed on the Saturday Night Live episode of 7 May 1983, which Wonder hosted

Recording

• Recording is credited to Wonderland Studios in Los Angeles, California

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Stevland Hardaway Morris, known as Stevie Wonder, was born May 13, 1950 in Saginaw, Michigan, and became blind shortly after birth.
• He signed with Motown's Tamla label at age 11 in 1961, receiving the name Little Stevie Wonder.
• His single "Fingertips" topped the Billboard Hot 100 when he was 13, the youngest solo artist ever to do so.

Career

• Music of My Mind and Talking Book (1972) marked the start of his classic period, moving away from the Motown sound toward synthesizer- and keyboard-driven music.
• Innervisions, Fulfillingness' First Finale and Songs in the Key of Life (1973–1976) won three consecutive Grammy Awards for Album of the Year, and he is the only artist to have done so.
• In the 1980s he campaigned to make Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a federal holiday and scored several number-one hits, including "Ebony and Ivory" and "I Just Called to Say I Love You".
• He has sold more than 100 million records and won 25 Grammy Awards, the most by a male solo artist.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Rolling Stone (Jon Pareles): Wonder seems immune to posturing self-importance and keeps making listeners' ears happy; calls him as irresistible as ever on this album
• The Village Voice (Robert Christgau): gives a B+; hard to name what is missing compared with other Wonder records, but next to Talking Book or Hotter Than July it sounds cushy, polyrhythmic pop rather than polyrhythmic rock
• AllMusic (Ron Wynn): gives 3 out of 5 stars; says Overjoyed and I Love You Too Much are better than the hit Part-Time Lover, which became the album's defining tune for many listeners
• Spin (RJ Smith): calls it a pleasant muttering packaged as a Major Statement, missing the energy and comedy of Wonder's stage work
• The New York Times (Stephen Holden): praises the chromatic melodies, dance rhythms and synthesized instrumentation as classic Wonder; calls it more concise and less experimental than Songs in the Key of Life and Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants, and more melodic and danceable than Hotter Than July

Reappraisal

• Critics of the period split between praise for the songs and complaints about the sound and the lack of edge

Records

• US Billboard Top R&B Albums: 12 weeks at number one
• US Billboard 200: top five
• UK Pop Albums: No. 5
• Platinum sales, as noted in the AllMusic review
• Grammy Award: Best Male R&B Vocal Performance

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Go Home was performed at the 1986 Grammy Awards in a synthesizer jam with Thomas Dolby, Herbie Hancock and Howard Jones.
• Go Home and Overjoyed were performed on the 7 May 1983 Saturday Night Live episode that Wonder hosted.
• Land of La La, the lowest-charting of the four hit singles, reached No. 86.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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