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Genre:

Pop/R&B

Label:

Motown / UMe

Release Date:

2026

Like most miracles, it arrived without warning. Songs in the Key of Life EP appeared at 4:54 AM on September 28, 2026, a date and time carrying significance for Stevie Wonder. On that day 50 years earlier, he released Songs in the Key of Life, the cumulation of a hot streak that’s still unparalleled in pop history: five years of masterpieces, each finding a wider audience than its predecessor. The timing isn’t coincidental, either. The Songs sessions concluded at 4:54 AM, commemorated by bassist Nathan Watts shouting “Fo’FiftyFo’!,” an exclamation that became a catchphrase in Wonder’s inner circles.

Such glimpses into Stevie’s private sanctum are vanishingly rare, which is part of why the existence of Songs in the Key of Life EP—a collection of four outtakes chosen by Wonder, mixed for release by the album’s original engineers, John Fischbach and Gary O Adante—is such a surprise. As prolific as Prince, who talked about his vault of unreleased projects while he was alive, or Bob Dylan, who has made a cottage industry of his ongoing Bootleg Series, Wonder is reputed to have written and recorded more music than he’s issued. It’s known that he shelved a completed album called Fullingness Second Finale prior to embarking on Key of Life, but he’s been reluctant to let any recordings out of the vault. Unlike so many artists of his stature, he’s never released a deluxe edition of his classic albums, nor have many of these recordings leaked out on bootlegs; they’re known as rumors and whispers, existing as song titles without form.

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That’s true of three of the four songs on this EP. The exception is “I Can See the Sun in Late December,” a song he gave to Roberta Flack for her 1975 LP, Feel Like Makin’ Love, and a tune he performed himself in a languid arrangement for Musikladen in 1974; he also sang a moving rendition at Flack’s memorial last year. Familiar as the melody may be, the version here is a revelation: The slightly swifter tempo and full arrangement transform the elegiac longing into a tender celebration of everyday beauty.

That sense of joy is carried over to its three companions on the EP. “My Life Story of Love” hearkens back to Wonder’s buoyant love songs of the early ’70s, its breeziness echoing the blissful “You Are the Sunshine of My Life.” That sentimentality also surfaces on “I’m Into Livin’,” a funky devotional where he seems as enamored by his rhythm as he is romance. Like “I’m Into Livin’,” “It’s Easier” is underpinned by an analog drum machine that still gives Wonder and his band the freedom to build a fluid, supple groove. They sound so at ease riding the Latin-infused beat that it’s startling to hear them stumble after nearly five impeccable minutes. The track’s sudden end is the only reminder that Songs in the Key of Life EP is definitionally a collection of outtakes, songs Wonder decided to leave in the vaults.

Sprawling across two full LPs, plus a companion bonus EP—the division between the entities has been lost in subsequent digital reissues—the original Songs in the Key of Life already felt generous, a record that captured the full musical and emotional range of Stevie Wonder. As released in ’76, the album feels complete, which may be the reason he released these outtakes as a separate entity, not as bonus tracks tacked onto a reissue: It illuminates the original while preserving its integrity. Listening to it as its own, distinct work, particularly after a long quarter-century with no new music from Stevie at all, Songs in the Key of Life EP seems like a wonder—four unheard recordings from a master in full flight. As brief as it is, it feels like a blessing.

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