Marvin Gaye "You're the Man"

(Motown, 2019) This was billed as a "lost" Marvin Gaye album, by which they mean, it is not a lost Marvin Gaye album. But it is a great Marvin Gaye album, and it theoretically could have been album-ish, because everything was recorded 1971-ish, though not for a single project. And none of it is unreleased. As anyone who bought Motown box sets in the 80s and 90s knows, they had groups go into the studio constantly and record and record and record, and somehoww in additon to releasing up to six LPs a year for acts like the Supremes, there was still a seemingly endless supply of unreleased covers of other Motown songs, pop hits, and b-list material from Motown writers. Gaye was a little different. Though his first phase was as a standards crooner, by the early 70s if he didn't write himself he wanted only interesting, original material in front of him and he didn't feel like being in the studio any more than he had to be. If you have a nice run of Marvin's early 70s 45s and a bunch of box sets/comps, you have heard all of these previously non album-tracks, but put together they are pretty a,mazing, and if this was an album it would be one of his better ones -- and now it is. The title track is a deep, dark, nasty banger damning politicians, which somehow is ambiguous about if the pledge of "got to vote for you, 'cause you're the man" is damningly ironic or theoretically hopeful. There are Vietnam-era holiday songs that are moody and political, yet a soldier's off kilter update of "I'll Be Home For Christmas" also manages to hang more raw carnal tinsel on an erotic Christmas tree than you might expect. Working with top session guys and brilliant producers like the Funk Brothers, Ray Parker Jr. Michael Henderson, Willie Hutch, Fonce Mizell and Hal Davis (and producing some of the best stuff himself) this is a collection of Vietnam/Nixon era poltiical/social/sexual/challenging material in the wake of Gaye's greatest work, so it is fascinating and super high quality. And a lot better than hearing these tracks haphazardly tacked onto a bunch of CD box sets.