Marvin Gaye

A bomb in its day, then suppressed for years, Here, My Dear came about when a divorce court told Gaye that all the proceeds from his next album would go to his ex-wife. A career highlight, Gaye's painfully autobiographical masterwork exquisitely charts the course of a failed marriage, from "I Met a Little Girl" to "Anger" to "Falling in Love Again."

The brightness of the disco remix Motown has made available on "A Funky Space Reincarnation" is a vivid reminder of how pathologically laid back Gaye is striving to be. I mean, seventy minutes of pop music with nary a melody line almost qualifies as a tour de force, and the third side barely escapes the turntable at all. Yet this is a fascinating, playable album. Its confessional ranges from naked poetry ("Somebody tell me please/Why do I have to pay attorney fees?" is a modernist trope that ranks with any of Elvis Costello's) to rank jive, because Gaye's self-involvement is so open and unmediated, guileless even at its most insincere, it retains unusual documentary charm. And within the sweet, quiet, seductive, and slightly boring mood Gaye is at such pains to realize, his rhythmic undulations and whisper-to-a-scream timbral shifts can engross the mind, the body, and above all the ear. Definitely a weird one. (Grade - B+)