 Wonder and Wright wanted to "touch on the social problems of the world", and for the lyrics "to mean something".The album was released at around the same time as Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On".As both albums had similar ambitions and themes, they have been compared; in a contemporaneous review by Vince Aletti in "Rolling Stone", Gaye's was seen as successful, while Wonder's was seen as failing due to "self-indulgent and cluttered" production, "undistinguished" and "pretentious" lyrics, and an overall lack of unity and flow.