It’s hard to walk away from the place that made you a household name, but that’s exactly what Stevie Wonder did when he walked away from Motown. He’d grown tired of the increasingly confining box the label had him in, and wanted to do more. “People are not interested in ‘Baby, Baby’ songs anymore. There is more to life than that, I also think singles are very important but I don’t want to rely on singles only.” he told Melody Maker in 1971. And at the cusp of renewing his contract, he briefly left the label.

Motown eventually saw the light, and with co-writing provided by his then-wife, singer Syreeta Wright, Wonder embarked on what would be his most ambitious project to date— the 1971 release Where I’m Coming From. And even though the album contains one of his biggest singles, “If You Really Love Me,” which bridges his past and his future, it is nothing like what came before it. And with songs like "Look Around" and “Do Yourself a Favor” resting easily alongside some of the best songs of his classic period, it stands both on its own and as a glimpse of things to come. These are the sounds of an artist truly becoming himself. These are the sounds of freedom.

– Ashawnta Jackson