STEVIE WONDER Fulfillingness' First Finale (Tamla)

Stevie Wonder’s new album, with Sly Stone’s Small Talk, may be the first step in a new direction for avant-boogaloo; it is formula avant-boogaloo. The characteristics which distinguish Sly (for instance) from Kool & the Gang have dwindled, Sly offering us no more than a weird tic built around his own perversion of his beat. Earth, Wind & Fire, War, Kool & the Gang — all of them know how now. Why should we bother if Sly doesn’t?

With Stevie. Wonder, the problem is a little different. If he has never been as eccentric or arrogant as Sly, he has also never seemed as inspired. “Superstition” is a brilliant song, but it is no match for There’s a Riot Goin’ On as either cultural bludgeon or plain entertainment.