MARVIN GAYE

“There’llcome a time when the world won’t be singing/flowers won’t grow, bells won’t be ringing”

What’s Going On: 50th Anniversary 2LP Edition

MOTOWN/UME

FIFTY years on from its initial release, Marvin Gaye’s masterpiece still sounds like an argument wrapped in a dream. Structurally, it has the shape and logic of a sermon, sounding both urgent and relevant to the turmoil of the moment. At the same time, its rhythms, and the timbre of Gaye’s voice, reach for something universal; a kind of peace, the reassurance of timelessness. The album is a religious thing, but also an inquiry into the notion of faith.

Gaye had a lot of questions in 1971. Some of these were personal, some were political. Many of them inhabited the part of