Stevie Wonder - Signed, Sealed & Delivered

Signed, Sealed & Delivered is the sound of a 20-year-old Stevie Wonder grabbing the steering wheel and refusing to let go.

Released in 1970, it marks the moment the former child prodigy began taking real creative control at Motown. He co-wrote the title track with Syreeta Wright and produced it himself, and its success showed the label that his instincts could be trusted. The run of masterpieces that followed in the 1970s starts to make sense right here, in an album bursting with confidence and ideas.

That title song still sounds like pure joy, all stabbing horns and an irresistible shout-along hook. Heaven Help Us All is something deeper, a gospel-tinged prayer for a troubled world that feels just as relevant decades later. His version of the Beatles' We Can Work It Out turns the original into a strutting, harmonica-laced funk workout, and Never Had a Dream Come True offers a tender, aching ballad to balance the energy.

You can hear a young artist stretching out, testing just how much a soul record could carry, and having a blast doing it.

For anyone who knows Songs in the Key of Life inside out, this is the essential prequel, and it is irresistible on vinyl.