From the time that I was a teen, and first became aware of the concept of a shelved album, the sheer thought of the amount of unreleased music that many record labels and artists have stashed away in their private vaults has always intrigued me. All that life and game changing material that may potentially go unheard forever is, ahh$%#@@@&!!!!!, both painful and amazing to think about.

So imagine my delight, when this past weekend, I came across a post on the popular hip hop forum, Okayplayer, that pointed me in the direction of two snippets of never-before-heard Stevie Wonder tracks from 1974 (unfortunately, the poster said that they promised whomever provided them with these tracks, they’d only post snippets).

According to legend, Stevie recorded an album in that year, and for reasons unknown, decided to shelve the project after it was all said and done. Whether or not this is true is anyone’s guess, but these snippets from the supposed shelved album are quite ridiculous, and hold up pretty well some 34 years later: