Not only that, but the song works on an additional level as a sly parody of the kind of sweet bombast associated with silent-film melodramas.Īfter the delights of “Finale,” however, you’re on your own, since plucking the exhilarating moments from Journey through the Secret Life of Plants is a harrowing, highly subjective task.

“Finale” commences with a quick, slapstick keyboard fill and then expands into an undulating instrumental whose billowing bass and synthesizers evoke a quivering field of flowers in bloom. Stevie Wonder‘s Journey through the Secret Life of Plants is so uneven, so full of tiny pleasures and bloated tedium, that for some assurance that Wonder hasn’t lost his touch, you ought to start by listening to the LP’s last cut.