HERE, MY DEAR - MARVIN GAYE
Marvin Gaye’s most misunderstood album was a bittersweet venting about his divorce from wife Anna, the sister of Motown founder Berry Gordy. The 1978 record settled scores and ended his contract, humiliated his ex, was widely ignored by the public and buried, some say, by the label. Listened to with a bright new digital presence, it’s quite a beautiful and seductive effort: a seamless romantic symphony that blends doo-wop, funk, sweet soul music and smooth jazz behind acidic, sad, sometimes rambling lyrics. (Don’t miss the mood elevator, the brilliant nine-minute “A Funky Space Reincarnation” on which Gaye touts the effects of weed from planet Venus.) A second disc of restrained new mixes by a roster that ranges from Easy Mo Bee to Marcus Miller to Prince Paul neither improves upon nor depreciates the original Gaye recordings. No harm, no foul, but the original disc is the focus, as it should be.
