Journey through the secret life of plants - Classic or Dud

Some good tracks - yes.
Quite a bit of wacky (and also boring) waffle - that too.
:)

great thread. very enlightening

i heard a song on the radio supposedly from this today. it was really upbeat disco with vocoder/talk box. which track would this be?

"Tree"

Race Babbling. wow. fucking amazing

i thought it was YMO when i heard it

was just coming here to say exactly that (YMO). Wonder if the influence was explicit.

I'm surprised that this record hasn't gotten more love around here. After half a lifetime of Stevie love I just hear this record now and am getting my mind blown. didn't expect it.

this record is from '79 or so - did YMO have much of a profile outside japan at that stage?

i've been curious to have a listen to the whole thing after hearing 'race babbling' on beats in space a few years back, amazing track.

Some classic, some dud. It's neither nor.

it's a fine record.
if you like the four or five stevie LPs leading up to it, you'll find plenty to love.
classic case of an album being ignored cuz it's "a little late."

Always loved this one, at a time when it was neither profitable nor popular. Used to sing "The Venus Flytrap and the Bug" song in my head at Saturday morning bowling league.

You might have the makings of a New Yorker short story there, Haikunym :)

xpost

well don't know about YMO profile generally in US but I'm sure that Stevie got around... I'm sure there were backchannels that we could only dream of. i believe the vocoder (that's all over 'race babbling') is the one that like only 4-5 were ever made and he, herbie and ryuichi sakamoto owned.

reminds me (for no good reason) of the story about stevie calling donald fagen to tell him that the mastering on the "nightfly" CD was f'ed up

There are some moments of classicness, but overall it's boring and interminable.

i believe the vocoder (that's all over 'race babbling') is the one that like only 4-5 were ever made and he, herbie and ryuichi sakamoto owned.

Really? I just figured it was the same talkbox he'd been using for years.

yeah theres talkbox as far back as music in my mind. Though i havent heard ..life of plants so its possible

Reverend basically OTM. Even the moments I'd otherwise deem classic are hampered somehow (like how "A Seed's A Star" is horribly mastered).

I don't particularly care for "Send One Your Love" either. †

I mean, I'll still take this over every album that followed except Hotter Than July.

Even thought it begins with the occasional good track (the singles were both pretty good), I would say the album is totally dud. It might have worked as a single album, but even then it would have been patchy.

If there is one Stevie Wonder album that deserves rehabilitation, then I'd much rather go for "In Square Circle" or "Characters", both of which are quite good.

Jungle Fever is the only post-Musiquarium album I'll go to the mat for.

(Would've been much improved, tho, by the inclusion of "Feeding Off the Love of the Land.")

He's like latter-day Prince: good songs on too-long albums.

xpost

Well, talkbox does not = vocoder (not to be a vocal processing pedant). This one is most def. vocoder.

YMO was on Soul Train in 1978 (I believe...it was after their debut album), so there's at least that exposure in the US.

to derail further, other time I've had this YMO influence question is that one track on McCartney II... think it's called "Frozen jap" which makes it more plausible (and upsetting)

Well, talkbox does not = vocoder (not to be a vocal processing pedant). This one is most def. vocoder.

― Bangelo, Wednesday, April 1, 2009 9:32 AM Bookmark

I wasn't saying it isn't vocoder, I was just stating what my assumption had been.

Jungle Fever is the only post-Musiquarium album I'll go to the mat for.

― Nurse Detrius (Eric H.), Wednesday, April 1, 2009 7:15 AM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I need to check that one out because

The docu this was based on is on google video and it's totes worth watching. It also makes no sense. I think I like the album better for having seen the movie.

I think this might be my fav Stevie Wonder song ever, so...classic

I can't tell how weird "Race Babbling" is.

this album is one of my favorites, though i put it on quite rarely. you have to be in the correct frame of mind cuz it really is a journey. and i will concede that the production does get in the way on some tracks. but there are some great ideas fleshed out into music here. it's kinda backgroundy music and helps a bit if you don't pay complete attention to it and just let it seep into yr surroundings.

Stevie's falsetto is so gorgeous on "Power Flower". Really surprising considering he almost never sang in it.

I just saw the movie of this. Pretty amazing! I would have done w less footage of lunatic pseudoscientists explaining how plants can read their minds and more timelapse flowers blooming to Stevie Wonder, but it was fun! And at the end, the bit where Stevie is wandering through beautiful fields singing the title track, is great.

There's a part in this movie where some Japanese scientists are apparently talking to a plant and the plant is talking back and they are trying to teach it the alphabet.

That movie is the best. I've watched it 3x! If you like plants, try R Attenborough's series Private Life of Plants. It's spectacular. Or the work of Ken Middleham. Also spectacular.

It has such a free spirit to it, this movie. You have your standard nature documentary stuff next to experimental dance piece next to poetry reading, etc. etc. Even the parts that I wasn't entirely into at first, I thought "Well it's cool that they experimented with this!" and by the end of the section I was won over!

Thanks I'll definitely check out PLoP!

Lol @ PLoP

Since no one seems to have linked in "Race Babbling," I'll post it here in case anyone hasn't heard it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdgk35iuDwc&index=10&list=PLSQMOy2KqI7cjxEfSXaYJpCKnU0Ixn4WN