This latest offering from Motown showcases the funkier and sometimes darker side of Marvin Gaye's musical output from the 1970's. Having enjoyed major success in the previous decade not only as a solo artist but with the many duets with Mary Wells, Kim Weston, and Tammi Terrell all of which produced those happy go lucky bouncy pop tunes, but times were a changing in the 1970's and the whole Motown sound found itself moving with the times with their artist roster having to also. Gone was the four on four uptempo songs of the glory years and enter a new sound.

During 1971 Motown and Marvin Gaye enjoyed what is perhaps hailed as the greatest project ever undertaken by the label with 'What's Going On' which today is as fresh as it was back then with many of the lyrics of the key songs touching a nerve with politicians both here and in the US and even now one looks back at what Marvin was saying over thirty years ago - how true was his mission statement!. This collection features the haunting 'Inner City Blues' from that project.

In 1977 the world found itself in the middle of the disco revolution and even though Motown had delivered some fine songs in that vein via the likes of Switch, Tata Vega, Thelma Houston, and The Originals but to name a few there had been nothing from Marvin until the release of 'Got To Give It Up' a steady plodding disco flavoured with that distinctive Gaye vocal delivery which was issued as a part 1 & 2 versions back to back - the result was a world wide club smash that still gets played today.

Black movie makers were quick to capitalise on Marvin's work for their soundtracks but often it was those seldom heard 'B' side gems that fed the appetite of Marvin Gaye fans who never left any stone unturned when it came to unearthing great songs like 'Funk Me' from his 1981 LP 'In Our Lifetime' released as the flip side to 'Praise' and a song that could have been featured on the aforementioned 'What's Going On' project. The 1970's were a difficult time for Marvin - on the one hand the successes of his hit duets with fellow Motown artist Diana Ross kept him in the limelight  - but the break up of his marriage to Anna was clearly reflected in his music with Marvin recording the album 'Hear My Dear' at the end of 1978 promising all proceeds from record sales to his former wife. From this LP 'When Did You Stop Loving Me, When Did I Stop Loving You' reflected his heartache at that time and I'm sure that there are many who can identify with Marvin via this song.

'Love Party' from his 1981 LP 'In Our Lifetime' has a lovely disco orientated backbeat with a powerful message and rates as good as anything else at that time. The summer of 1976 saw the release of the single 'After The Dance' a much in demand gentle affair and produced by Leon Ware from the album 'I Want You' which reached # 14 on the R & B charts, and # 74 pop that year.

For many there was only one era for Marvin's music and that was the 1960's, but this album gives the inquisitive collector a much different perspective on his music during a huge change in Motown's approach during this changing period and if you like your Motown a little on the gentler side and are not worried about dancefloor classics then 'Got To Give It Up' is well worthy of your attention.

Rating 7/10
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