TOP 100 ALBUMS EVAR: #87
Marvin Gaye: What’s Going On (1971) <Tamla>
Genre: Soul
Nationality: USA (Washington, D.C.)
It’s often hailed as the best soul album ever made. Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On was a tremendous leap forward for the artist, possessing ambition and pure heartfelt emotion. Each track flowed from one to the next, making the work on a whole feel like one cohesive thought, a giant statement. Gaye made the concept of a war vet coming home to find nothing but injustice and violence in his own home. What’s Going On is a rallying cry for peace and love in the truest sense. Marvin sings with the passion he always had, but it feels palpable here in a way that transcends everything he had ever done at that point in his career. He urges his audience to do something. To act. To save. With such dark imagery of picket signs, brutality, war, pollution, and racism, this is in reality a motivational record. Gaye tells us that things are bad, but they can get better. Everyone has the power to drop their weapons and love one another. It’s such a pure thought that never goes into question. The results are beautiful too, bringing forward some of his biggest hits (“What’s Going On,” “Mercy Mercy Me”) as well as having some of his best vocal performances on record.
Key Tracks: “What’s Going On,” “Mercy Mercy Me,” “Save The Children”
For Fans Of: Stevie Wonder, Sam Cooke, Smokey Robinson
