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| A Time To Love | 
 enlarge | Artist: Stevie Wonder
Label: Motown
Category: Music
List Price: $13.98
Buy Used: $1.33
You Save: $12.65 (90%)
New (67) Used (59) Collectible (1) from $1.33
Avg. Customer Rating:  144 reviews
Sales Rank: 18077
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.9 x 0.4
MPN: 000240202
UPC: 602498621882
EAN: 0602498621882
ASIN: B0001MSGX0
Release Date: October 18, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | If Your Love Cannot Be Moved | | • | Sweetest Somebody I Know | | • | Moon Blue | | • | From the Bottom of My Heart | | • | Please Don't Hurt My Baby | | • | How Will I Know | | • | My Love Is On Fire | | • | Passionate Raindrops | | • | Tell Your Heart I Love You | | • | True Love | | • | Shelter In the Rain | | • | So What The Fuss | | • | Can't Imagine Love Without You | | • | Positivity | | • | A Time To Love |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Stevie Wonder took more than ten years to give a studio successor to Conversation Peace but A Time to Love feels fresher than we had any right to expect after such a long wait. For starters, the guests are well picked: They include Bonnie Raitt (playing slide guitar on "Tell Your Heart I Love You"), gospel singer Kim Burrell (on "If Your Heart Cannot Be Moved"), India Arie (on the title track), and Wonder's own daughter, Aisha Morris (whom listeners may remember as the source of her dad's delight in Songs in the Key of Life--"Isn't She Lovely"). Last but not least, Prince plays elegant, minimal funky guitar and En Vogue perform swoony backup vocals on first single "So What the Fuss," a classic pared-down dance number graced with Wonder's trademark socially conscious lyrics. It's on tracks like these--sounding as if they could be from anytime between 1975 and now--that Wonder shows he's still got the golden touch. He remains a sterling melodicist ("Moon Blue" is a killer ballad), and the harmonica intro on "From the Bottom of My Heart" is among the loveliest he's created. Of course a Wonder album wouldn't be complete without saccharine ballads, and he delivers there too ("Passionate Raindrops," "Can't Imagine Love Without You"). Still, this is a solid effort from one of America's premier artists. --Elisabeth Vincentelli
Album Description
Japanese pressing of A Time To Love, which is the 28th studio album from the legendary singer/songwriter, includes the single 'So What The Fuss' and features guest appearances from Kim Burrell, Aisha Morris, India Arie, Prince & En Vogue. This pressing includes a Japanese only bonus track which you download from PC sight with password in the package.The bonus track is limited, and you can access it till Apr, 2006. Motown. 2005.
Album Details
First Pressing Will Come with a Japan-original 8cm Bonus Disc Including Two Tracks.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 139 more reviews...
 Stevie's Back October 18, 2005
111 out of 116 found this review helpful
Stevie Wonder's A Time To Love has been slated to be released several times in the past year or so. But it kept being pushed back and one wondered if it would ever be taken off the shelf. Usually that doesn't bode well for albums, but that is not the case here. This album is the best he's done since maybe Hotter Than July. The album finds him mixing the best of his musical traits, his social awareness and his sweet love songs. Mr. Wonder is a notorious perfectionist, but his attention to detail in the production real shines. The songs are magnificently arranged and crafted, especially the love songs. Mr. Wonder sings them with an all-knowing confidence of someone who isn't new to the game. The opening song, "If Your Love Cannot Be Moved", is a dramatic opening that is a duet with Kim Burrell and features some rhymes from old-school legend Doug E. Fresh. "Sweetest Somebody I Know" is a great mid-tempo number while "Moon Blue" & "From The Bottom Of My Heart" are more syrupy. "How Will I Know" is a jazzy number that he duets with his daughter Aisha Morris (who made her recording debut as the baby crying on the song she inspired 1976's "Isn't She Lovely). The song is especially appealing because there a sense of joy and fun that Mr. Wonder lets out while singing with his daughter (who sounds a bit like Alicia Keys). "My Love Is On Fire" (which features great flute work by Hubert Laws) & "Passionate Raindrops" have tremendous orchestration and "So What The Fuss" is as funky as anything he's done since the 70's. Mr. Wonder saves the best for last in the sprawling nine-minute title track. It is a duet with India.Arie (and features old fried Sir Paul McCartney on guitar) that has a sweeping string arrangement and the message of peace and love is as sincere and convincing as any social lyric Mr. Wonder has recorded. This album has it all and don't be surprised if the year-end accolades pile up high for this first-rate effort. Let's hope it is less than a decade before Mr. Wonder graces us with another album.
 It's not the "return to greatness", but it's a big step in that direction... October 23, 2005
46 out of 59 found this review helpful
As much as I love Stevie Wonder, I don't think this record is the return to greatness that it is hyped to be.
Perhaps it is not fair to compare any records after "Hotter Than July" (the one most people say that any new record is the "best one since") to those before, because those include some of the greatest albums ever made. "Talking Book", "Innervisions", "Fulfillingness First Finale", "Songs In The Key of Life"...all within a few years. The only other artist to put out that much amazing music, of such high quality, over such a short period of time, is probably The Beatles. Now that's a legacy.
I think Stevie Wonder has gone from being a genius-like musician who hit new career heights with every consecutive album, to simply a master craftsman. That explosive creativity and daring, the confidence, the scope...they're gone.
Now he simply creates safe, sweet-sounding, conventional songs with very little passion behind them.
If you're in the mood for treacly ballads, he's got four or five here. Midtempo R&B/soul...three or four. They all sound perfectly produced, but they are so generic, it's a little disappointing. A solid three-star effort.
Almost a dozen songs into the album, I came across "So What The Fuss", and he leapt from my speakers.There was life, an energy, a spirit that hadn't shown itself yet on the album. I see Prince contributed to the track, but not so much to overshadow Mr. Wonder.
Soon, "Positivity" exploded out, and for the first time in decades, I thought..."HERE he is! He's BACK!" Here was energy, crackling. Spirit, by the bucketloads. Melody. Rhythm. And then this sweet female voice sweeps in to elevate the track to new levels, and it's none other than Aisha. Yes THAT "Aisha" we first met way back on "Songs In The Key Of Life". His daughter. And while she made an appearance earlier on this album, it was on a non-descript ballad. Here, the two voices prod each other to exquisite heights. Wow.
The album ends with a powerful "A Time To Love". THIS is what I mean by "passion". You can't tell me you cannot hear the difference between the first ten or so songs on the record, and THIS one. It's a duet with India.Aire, and all of Wonder's prowess is on display.
He's not a elder statesman, he's not a "craftsman", he's still Stevie Wonder...one of the greatest living musical artists. Put together an album of songs like these three, THEN we're talking "Hotter Than July".
I'm taking this as hope that he isn't done with us yet.
 I am shocked....... November 3, 2005
14 out of 27 found this review helpful
I am shocked at the reviews people are leaving here. I dislike reviews of an album based on their love for the artist and not the actual material they are listening to. If anyone else had made this album, the reviews would be very different. It seems that all the reviews are based on everyones desperation to see him return to his best and yes, I am one of those people but this album is not what that is. His voice is still amazing and his lyrics are still of the highest standard but the production is the problem. All of the tracks sound as though they have been lifted straight out of the 90's. The beats and melodies are light and safe and very much in the same catergory of his former works "I just called" or "Happy Birthday". Is this the Stevie Wonder that you admire? I hated those works. I admire the Stevie Wonder that created "Living for the City", "Too High" and "Superstition". Those tracks were raw and inventive and are sampled and covered again and again. This album is so light, it will be played in every McDonalds of this world but who else will really listen? Every single person I have asked about this album says the same thing, "It sounds like his cheesey 90's stuff" and even though I would love to defend him, I cannot. There is nothing here that will be followed, there is nothing here that will set the trend. Unfortunately, he has taken 10 years just to make something that is safe, slushy, uninventive and out of date. I could never say that about alot of his works in the 70's and 80's, but about this, I already have.
Stevie doesn't need to do remakes December 31, 2005
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
How dare one reviewer suggest that Stevie do remakes and sing other writer's songs? Part of his charm is the fact that he writes and produces all of his own music.
And what's this continuing theme of calling his ballads "syrupy". So, what do you guys want? You want this writer of some our greatest love songs to start writing songs that appeal to the Little Kim (in jail) and Dr Dre (slapped a woman) generation? Give me a break.
And enough with the references to The Beatles being the greatest of all time ... Yes they were good, but the greatest? I love Paul on his own more and its debatable whether or not the underappreciated Monkees had better songs than the Beatles, considering that they managed to stay together much longer and release albums in the 60s, 80s and 90s.
But back to Stevie ... So many acts rely on other writers for their words and music. But Stevie, Elton and Billy Joel are in a class all their own. That's why we wait 10 or more years for their next releases. And stop comparing his current product to his 70s work. Each album should stand on its own merit. Besides, while HOTTER THAN JULY was a nice album, it definitely wasn't his best. Check out CHARACTERS for imaginative lyrics, IN SQUARE CIRCLE for absolutely pretty melodies, CONVERSATION PEACE for non stop variety and NATURAL WONDER, a live concert celebrating the span of Wonder's career. And if that's still not good enough, go out and make your own CD.
TruSoulDJ
Solid Stevie - but nothing innovative October 24, 2005
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Stevie Wonder is getting sincerely high marks from...Stevie Wonder! Every song on Stevie's new CD is beautiful & clean, AND every song could have come straight off of any earlier Stevie LP from Talking Book onward. No new ground broken here.
Once again, Stevie's achingly gorgeous voice is layed overtop of his trademark Wonderlove backing production, crooning near-perfect melodies (and his legendary disregard for proper syllable accenting) about the two things he likes most to hold forth on, the need for more love between man & woman, and the need for more love between the world's citizens.
For fans who like their favorite artists to keep on the same steady course and stick to their own best tried-and-true sound, this CD will not fail to please. Fans who like their artists to show some real growth and innovation from album to album (which Stevie did brilliantly from Music of My Mind through Songs In The Key of Life) may definitely notice some "wait-a-minute-haven't-I-heard-this-before?" boredom settling in after a few tracks. Since I fit into that latter group, I had to drop one star for an otherwise perfect Stevie Wonder CD. It's a pleasure to listen to, but you keep asking "OK, Stevie, you're THE professor of musical genius for the last century, aintcha got nothin' new to teach us?"
Perhaps not, perhaps he's through showing the new (he is much older and the space between his offerings much, much longer), and that's OK. Stevland Morris' contribution to music is vaster than any 50 other singer-songwriters, most of whom are lucky to have two or three orginal musical statements in a career. From Prince to Usher, everyone is still combing through Stevie's bottomless bag of musical breakthroughs, and any newcomer interested in a contemporary music career could still learn 95% of what they need to know studying Stevie's 70s & 80s catalogue. Thank you for blessing us so richly, Stevie.
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