Lets Get It On - Marvin Gaye

Advantages: One of the greatest posthmous releases of all time
Disadvantages: a little too stringy

...To anyone who has listened to any part of his body of work, it isn't a surprise that Marvin Gaye was a huge jazz fan. Take his vocals, for instance. It was his love of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn and Frank Sinatra along with the stirring orchestras of vocal harmonies that surrounded him as a member of the doo wop group The Moonglows and his Hebrew Pentecostal background that served as his vocal influences. And for his first twenty years as a performer he thrilled audiences by forging an artistic style that combined exquisite phrasing and intensely personal vocal interpretations along with the ritual of discovery and submission through extravagant praise that he heard as a boy: that need to reach and be reached, to touch and be touched, to heal and be healed through majestic prayer to one's maker. You could hear... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Sublime
Disadvantages: none

...After brilliantly surveying the social, political and spiritual landscape with What's Going On, Marvin Gaye turned to more intimate matters with Let's Get It On, a record unparalleled in its sheer sensuality and carnal energy. Always a sexually-charged performer, Gaye's passions reach their boiling point on tracks like the magnificent title hit (a Number One smash) and "You Sure Love to Ball;" silky and shimmering, the music is seductive in the most literal sense, its fluid grooves so perfectly designed for romance as to border on parody. With each performance laced with innuendo, each lyric a come-on, and each rhythm throbbing with lust, perhaps no other record has ever achieved the kind of sheer erotic force of Let's Get It On, and it remains the blueprint for all of the slow jams to follow decades later — much copied, but never... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: Classical Motown for almost every (love) occassion!
Disadvantages: Perhaps been done before.

...I had been contemplating buying this "Very Best Of" collection for a while. I alredy had a few recordings such as "What's Going On", which is easily his best album. The attraction to this Very Best Of collection is probably for listeners who love Marvin Gaye but also wanted to pad out there collections. The Music: The Music as is typical of Gaye is excellent. The guy at my local store told me that they had been flying of the shelves with Valentines day the last weekend. Honey Drizzlers all over the country had been again turning to Marvin to "set the mood" on Saturday night! Who can blame them with tracks such as "Sexual Healing" and "How Sweet It Is". A disapointing exemption is that of "Music" which is very difficult to track down but excellent "Get Down" music. Sampled by Eric Sermon (if you have heard of him) for his song... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful