There's inspired singing here, but even on the stupendous version of "Trouble Man" Gene Page's orchestra intrudes-Gaye hasn't managed to mix the instruments into the unified background presence of his recent studio albums. But this girl-boy duo sound just great on two Bell-Creed songs and the follow-up single, Wilson Pickett's "Don't Knock My Love." And while I suspect it was Marvin who edged Diana into the warmest and loosest-and streetest-performance of her career, maybe it was just the proximity of "Pledging My Love." B+ Of the six Motown-composed tracks, only Ashford & Simpson's "Just Say, Just Say" and the hit, "My Mistake," have any charm of their own.
Motown's record division could really put out some terrific albums if the publishing division wasn't always butting in. A-ĭiana Ross & Marvin Gaye: Diana & Marvin Then again, it's an even better song, and this album prolongs its seductive groove to an appropriate thirty minutes plus. Gaye is still basically a singles artist, and the title track, as much a masterpiece as "Inner City Blues," dominates in a way "I'm Still in Love with You," say, doesn't. Post-Al Green What's Going On, which means it's about fucking rather than the human condition, thank the wholly holey. B+īuy the single unless you like soundtrack albums. Worst of all, because they're used a lot, are David Van De Pitte's strings, the lowest kind of movie-background dreck. But the rest is pretty murky even when the lyrical ideas are good-I like the words on "What's Happenin' Brother" and "Flyin' High (in the Friendly Sky)" quite a bit-and the religious songs that bear Gaye's real message are suitably shapeless. And Gaye keeps getting more subtle vocally and rhythmically. "What's Going On," "Inner City Blues," and "Mercy, Mercy Me (the Ecology)" are so original they reveal ordinary Motown-political as the benign market manipulation it is.
This may be a groundbreaking personal statement, but like any Berry Gordy quickie it's baited skimpily: only three great tunes.
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