As a kid who became a big fan of Stevie Wonder after hearing That Girl in the late 70s, I had been telling my friends for years just how cool Stevie Wonder was. In 1985, Stevie made my argument for me with In Square Circle, certainly his best album of the last 20 years. The single Part-Time Lover was a huge, huge hit, and the song has such great beat and rhythm that it always sounds fresh and exciting. Go Home also saw success as a single, but it's probably my least favorite song on the album. Then there was Overjoyed; I'm not sure it ever got the attention it deserved as a single. Quite simply, it is one of the most beautiful songs of Stevie Wonder's incredible career. The rest of the album is a smorgasbord of musical delight. I Love You Too Much is a powerful, energetic love song, while Spiritual Walkers and Land of La La are hard-driving songs with infectious beats. If it's slow Stevie Wonder ballads that you want, look no farther than the tender Whereabouts and precious Never in Your Sun. Stranger on the Shore of Love represents the best of both sides of Stevie Wonder, and I think it could have been a huge hit had it been released as a single. The album closes with both a political and moral track called It's Wrong (Apartheid), a song protesting the system of apartheid that still existed in South Africa at the time this album was released.

In Square Circle was actually the very first CD I ever owned, and it still stands as a showcase of what CD technology could do. Overjoyed features the calming sounds of ocean waves in the background, giving the song a very distinctive sound; I Love You Too Much has a unique brush-like percussion beat driving it, and it comes through loud and clear on CD. Stevie was always ahead of his time, and he is one of the few performers who absolutely deserves the title of musical genius. In Square Circle helped introduce Stevie Wonder to a new generation of listeners, and it stands as one of the greatest albums of the late, great 1980s.

In Square Circle is another classic Stevie Wonder album. The album features his usual themes; ballads, upbeat r&b and songs with a social bent. The socially conscious songs are all strong including "Land Of La-La", "Spiritual Walkers" and "It's Wrong (Apartheid)". "Part Time Lover" is a shimmering workout number that is as good as anything he's ever done. The song became his ninth and final number one song (although he would hit number one in 1986 as part of Dionne Warwick's "That's What Friends Are For" song). "Go Home" is an underrated gem with it's driving keyboards and funky beat. "Overjoyed" is a lush beautiful ballad that just soars to the heavens. In Square Circle hit number four on the charts but it marked the end of a 14 year run of chart dominance for Mr. Wonder. To date, he has not reached the top ten on either the singles or albums chart since this album.

Stevie had a great success with songs here. I especially love Land of LaLa, Overjoyed, and Whereabouts! A great album is hard to find but I found it here!

Let me start off by saying that no solo artist in the history of popular music has ever had a run like Stevie's. When it comes to critical and commercial fame, he was the man for 15 or 16 years straight. The only other artist that comes close is Prince with about 12 years and Madonna (who didn't write half of the stuff she did at the beginning). And truthfully, who would put dance queen Madonna in the same league as Stevie? Not too many I would think. In Square Circle was the last of the great Stevie albums. Let's look at it song by song.
Part-time Lover: Take the catchiest, dancable beat you can think of and mix it with a great story about cheatin', a cool yet eerie synth line and a great doo wop riff from a guy named Luther Vandross and what do you get? Another number one hit for the Wonderman. This is definately lite Stevie but the song is too catchy not to love. Being Stevie though, he ends it with a lesson: The person who was doing the cheating throughout the song finds that their lover was cheating on them too! A great fun pop song. I Love You Too Much: Stevie's keyboard playing is still great here and it's the main show in this yet another layered work. Whereabouts: The first time I heard this song I didn't really know what to make of it. It's not the classic Stevie ballad and it's not his regular mid-tempo ballad. It's almost show tune like in it's cadence. Don't get me wrong, it's a good song that has grown on me and hopefully it will grow on you too. Stranger On The Shore Of Love: One of the two low points on this album (See Land Of La La). The title is used as a metaphor in the song but it just doesn't work. The song was done with Ain't No Use from Fulfillingness First Finale as a model but is not even close to being in the same league as that song. Skip it. Never In Your Sun: This song has been highly overlooked. The rhythm was used by teen pop idol Debbie Gibson in her biggest hit Only In My Dreams. It's a sweet song about bringing happiness to people when they're down. Sweet vocals and a good harmonica solo helps lift the song to another level. Spiritual Walkers: Who are the Spiritual Walkers? Jehovah's Witnesses and Hari Kirshnas to start. They are those who are so into their religion, their God that they live to preach his word. In the song Stevie sings about us hiding from them when they knock on our doors or approach us. These are people who's world revolve around God and we hide from them. The music is dancable but at the same time is more of a march. A good song. Land Of La La: See Stranger On The Shore Of Love. Go Home: Jazzy, funky and cool all at once is this song. Funky horns weave in and out of an even funkier bassline. The song is about a person in love with someone and who is willing to do anything for that person. Yet the person pushes them away. Of course at the end, Stevie being Stevie, that person realizes that they need the other but it's too late. Chek out the background vocals on this one. Pretty cool. Overjoyed: One of the last classic ballads he's done. Overjoyed was an ok hit when originally released but has become one of his most requested and respected songs in his repertoire. The song was written while he was doing Secret Life Of Plants but it didn't fit in with the rest of the album. Well it fits in perfectly here. The rhythm section is the sounds of water, birds chirping and pebbles dropping. Stevie's strings (yes, he does write his string parts. Mr. Riser just orchastrates them for him) are beautiful and very tricky at the climax of the song. Besides the amazing Lately from Hotter Than July, it is my favorite ballad of not only Stevie's but anyone else too. Apartheid (It's Wrong): Another great finish to a great album. It is the best anti-apartheid song written and one of the best polital songs of his career. He uses African vocalist singing in their native language as background vocals. The rhythm is literally crazy and hypnotic using african instraments. The last words are shouted/sung, "Freedom is coming...hold on tight!" Just wonderful.
As I said when speaking about Songs In The Key Of Life, if you get this album, you own a piece of music history, I say it about In Square Circle but for other reasons. This turned out to be the closing of an incredible chapter of an amazing musical journey. Oh Stevie continues to record and every album has at least a song or two that pushes the boundaries of music, but not the entire disk. Stevie has matured became in the late 80's very involved with political matters for his children's and our's sake. So, in a lot of ways, he's moved on to more important things. Get this cd. It is the last of the great ones by one of the most important artist in music history.

this album did it for stevie; after a decade of inspired and inspiring songs, arrangements, melodies and lyrics, he totally sold out and offered a bland, awful, completely uninspiring product, and this continued throughout to this very day.

Or did he? Well, this is partially true, except for one thing; Stevie was always about selling albums. Yes, he did it in an amazing, beautiful way, but stevie has always been a commercial artist. This album reflects that; he has become very interested in digital synths with this one. And, unfortunatley, he is not as creative with digital synths as he is with analogue. Not only that, but the album does not feature his great drumming either! It's all drum machines. A disaster?

Well, the arrangements are sometimes a mess. Not quite a disaster, but this album doesn't live and breath like classic stevie. In the 70's, stevie would make a song on which he played every instrument live and breath like a real funk jam. Prince was someone who inherited this tendency from Stevie, but Stevie did it better. But on this album, his arrangements are not as "living" as before, and it's easily blameable on Stevie fully embracing digital technology. For this reason, this album sounds much more dated than his 70's albums; well, in a way, all albums are dated by their time period. But I could see somebody creating an album like, say, Talking Book today; it's sound is timeless. This album is very 80's.

This is why this album loses one star; also, there are more weak songs on this one album (one or two) than all of Stevie's output in the seventies put together (zero). So, I can't help but see this as the beginning of Stevie's "unimportance" in music. Stevie has, or never will, have the impact on music he once had.

So why four stars?! I spend this whole review bashing this album, but then I give it four stars; well my fellow Stevie fans, I give this album four stars because even if Stevie has lost his edge, importance, and arrangement creativity he still has one very important thing; his pure melodic ability. All of these songs are very very melodic and catchy (part time lover) or beautiful (overjoyed). Only one misstep; Apartheid (It's Wrong) was a stupid, dated mistake. I know Stevie couldn't resist doing his political commentary thing but it just doesn't work here.

All in all, this is a very good album. But there is a reason I focused so strongly on the negatives. This is the beginning of the end for Stevie. He still has his wonderful melodic sense; it hadn't failed him at this point. Unfortunatley, however, Stevie's melodic ability begins slipping rapidly after this album, making his music very adult contemporary. Most fans shoudl stop here, proceed with caution after this.