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        Hotter Than July

        Rate It! Avg: 4.5 (9 ratings)
        Sample Album
        Hotter Than July album cover
        01
        Did I Hear You Say You Love Me
        		 4:08
        		$0.99
        02
        All I Do
        		 5:07
        		$1.29
        03
        Rocket Love
        		 4:39
        		$1.29
        04
        I Ain't Gonna Stand For It
        		 4:39
        		$0.99
        05
        As If You Read My Mind
        		 3:39
        		$0.99
        06
        Master Blaster (Jammin')
        		 5:08
        		$1.29
        07
        Do Like You
        		 4:25
        		$0.99
        08
        Cash In Your Face
        		 3:59
        		$0.99
        09
        Lately
        		 4:05
        		$1.29
        10
        Happy Birthday
        		 5:57
        		$1.29
        Album Information

        Total Tracks: 10   Total Length: 45:46

        Find a problem with a track? Let us know.

        eMusic Review 0

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        Michelangelo Matos

        eMusic Contributor

        11.16.10
        Stevie's first serious setback
        2000 | Label: Motown

        Stevie Wonder suffered the first serious setback of his career with 1979's Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants, a largely instrumental two-LP soundtrack that was panned by critics and ignored by audiences. It must have hurt, especially coming off the all-world triumph of 1976's Songs in the Key of Life, but Wonder is a resilient sort. He responded with 1980's Hotter Than July, whose title might as well have been "Still Got It." It bounds in on the keening guitar riff of the shifty rock number "Did I Hear You Say You Love Me," adeptly tackles reggae with the Bob Marley tribute "Master Blaster (Jammin')," and keeps pace with the kind of synth-funk that was fast becoming the R&B norm with his MLK nod "Happy Birthday." (Wonder would be instrumental in pushing to make Dr. King's birthday into a national holiday, which went into effect in 1983.) But it's Hotter Than July's ballads that have most endured: "All I Do," "Rocket Love," and "Lately" are all touchstones for later generations of R&B balladeers, with the bare piano-and-bass arrangement of the latter giving it a show-stopping quality.

        All of which made the album a handsome commercial proposition. It put Wonder… read more »

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        They Say All Music Guide

        Four years after the pinnacle of Stevie Wonder’s mid-’70s typhoon of classic albums, Hotter Than July was the proper follow-up to Songs in the Key of Life (his Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants concept record was actually a soundtrack to an obscure movie that fared miserably in theaters). It also found Wonder in a different musical climate than the one that savored his every move from 1972 to 1977. Disco and new wave had slowly crept their way into the mainstream record-buying public, and hindered the once-ample room for socially and politically charged lyrics. However, Wonder naysayed the trends and continues to do what he did best. Solid songwriting, musicianship, and production are evident in the majority of Hotter Than July. Wonder also carries on his tradition of penning songs normally not associated with his trademark sound, from the disco-tinged “All I Do” (originally planned to be released by Tammi Terrell almost ten years previously) to the reggae-influenced smash “Master Blaster (Jammin),” which went straight to the top of the R&B charts. While admittedly there are a few less-than-standard tracks, he closes the album on an amazing high note with one of the most aching ballads in his canon (“Lately”) and a touching anthem to civil rights pioneer Martin Luther King, Jr. (“Happy Birthday”). While most definitely not on the same tier as Innervisions or Songs in the Key of Life, Hotter Than July is the portrait of an artist who still had the Midas touch, but stood at the crossroads of an illustrious career. – Rob Theakston

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