Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours…

Mother-dear’s Christmas loot arrived today.

Stevie Wonder’s Definitive Collection, y’all. Oh, yeah. My first-ever Stevie Wonder CD. I’m so proud.

I can’t even pin down exactly why, but I love his music—the vocals, the melodies, all of it. It comes together to create a cohesive Wonder sound that I can rock to for days.

Hear some of the Stevie Wonder-fulness (just ten tracks I selected). Because I like to share.

Another of the (four new) CDs I can now proudly say is in my collection is The Spooks’ Faster Than You Know. The Spooks have grown up, and I happen to love their sound. They’ve come together so that no one rapper (or Ming) dominates unduly, but each still shows off his or her talent.

That’s saying nothing of the Spooks-esque lyrics, which are always golden, and frequently humorous (as in “Broke”). Their beats have also matured since their debut album, and here they have a distinct advantage over Jurassic 5, in my opinion.

I was thrown off when I heard that too-familiar non-Spooks voice on the first track, though. That dude is everywhere: in Jurassic 5, on Linkin’ Park CDs, and now rhyming with The Spooks. When his solo project comes out in a month or so, I’m all over that like white on rice, because his voice and his rhymes are simply awesome.

Besides, you just gotta love a guy named 2na, you know?

Listen.