We’re used to Stevie Marvel making us wait for brand spanking new materials, and it’s at all times price it. However in the course of the Eighties, he hit a run of productiveness that noticed him launch three new albums, a movie soundtrack and a compilation that includes some recent music, all within the house of seven years. On December 19, 1987, his twenty first studio album was reaping rewards: only a week after coming into the R&B chart, Characters began a run of seven non-consecutive weeks atop that survey.
The album got here little greater than two years after Stevie’s 1987 set In Sq. Circle, which contained the chart-topping “Part Time Lover” and went double platinum within the US alone. Characters obtained off to a equally scorching preview when its first single “Skeletons” topped the R&B itemizing.
Any Stevie Marvel album is an occasion in its personal proper, in fact, however that was the right set-up. The brand new disc, produced as ever by Marvel himself, might not have been as large a crossover pop document as its predecessors, nevertheless it went on to generate three Grammy nominations and a second No.1 R&B hit (his twentieth in whole) within the ballad “You Will Know.” A 3rd, ”Get It,” a duet with Michael Jackson, made the highest 5 of that chart. Though Characters solely reached No.17 on the Billboard 200, it went platinum within the US, and gold within the UK and France.
Hearken to the most effective of Stevie Marvel on Apple Music and Spotify.
“There are no big surprises here,” wrote the Chicago Tribune of Characters, “just plenty of the polished, assured mix of pop, soul and funk that has kept Wonder on the charts for nearly 25 years.” Added Rolling Stone: “Even if Characters isn’t quite up to the level of Wonder’s best work, it is still an undeniable pleasure to have him communicating his compelling inner visions to the rest of us.”
Purchase or stream Characters.
