I find this record baffling because I'm a critic. For critics, it is an article of faith that one can be baffled by a record--which is to say, it is an article faith that all music can be analyzed, or anyway, puzzled out. I'm trying to right now--it's my nature. Not only doesn't Stevie agree--most musicians don't--but he proves his point, or would if proof were one of his categories. It isn't. The discipline his uniquely aural world requires is technical, not logical or even conceptual, and technically it's unexceptionable. Which brings me to my gut. According to my gut, there's nothing here as exciting as the best of Talking Book. B+