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Marvin Gaye: In Our Lifetime: The Stop Smiling Tuesday Reviews
The Stop Smiling Tuesday Reviews
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Marvin Gaye: In Our Lifetime (Expanded Love Man Edition)
(Hip-O Select)
Reviewed by Ronnie Reese
When In Our Lifetime was originally released in 1981, it was the end of Marvin Gaye’s relationship with Motown. The album was long overdue, and the tracks were taken and mixed without his consent. The rancor of the situation was typical of Gaye’s struggles during this period of his life, yet 20 years into his career, he was still an artist capable of a level of brilliance that has gone unmatched by few before or after him.
Meanwhile, Marvin Gaye the man was suffering — in debt, living in English exile, estranged from two women and ingesting copious amounts of narcotics. Here, My Dear, released in 1978, was a final, searing decree to his ex-wife Anna, and a partial divorce settlement of nearly $300,000 of the album’s earnings (of which only $210,000 was paid, due to poor sales). When “Ego Tripping Out” was released a year later, it was to be the first single from his next project, Love Man, but both song and album were quickly taken off of the market. In the next few years, Gaye’s attempts at recording were often challenged by the erratic and self-destructive nature of his personal life, and many wondered if he would ever release music again.
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In Our Lifetime is Gaye at the crossroads of his being, as seen on the album’s cover, which depicts a split in his morality as he sits atop the clouds, floating high above an impending apocalypse. The image is one of conflict, but the tormented soul came to terms in his music. In a manner he had practiced since 1971’s landmark What’s Going On, Gaye would bare his soul on tape, exploring themes of religion, destruction and, of course, love.
On this expanded edition containing Love Man and outtakes from the retail Air Studios mix, themes from the Love Man sessions run throughout Gaye’s previously unreleased work at London’s Odyssey Studios (where the Who’s Pete Townshend was a regular visitor). “Created out of the depths of personal despair, In Our Lifetime is a portrait of a man at war with himself,” writes Gaye biographer David Ritz in the album’s liner notes. As “Life’s a Game of Give and Take” becomes the driving, cathartic “Heavy Love Affair” and “Funk Me, Funk Me, Funk Me” is pared down to a singular “Funk Me,” the music on this classic record remains intensely personal while sparing listeners the anguish that nearly drove its composer insane.