Music Monday: Here, My Dear by Marvin Gaye

Here, My Dear By Marvin Gaye

Marvin Gaye's 1978 masterpiece went greatly unappreciated and forgotten for nearly twenty years after its release. After debuting at a lukewarm 26 on the Top 40 Albums charts (his last two albums were #2 and #1 hits, both with top 40 singles), Motown just stopped promoting it and left it out of print until 1994. Thankfully, the world saw their error and this album has finally gotten the recognition it deserves.

It is not surprising that nobody knew what to do with such an album. To follow up two of the sexiest make-out albums of all time with a painful, reflective double album about the disintegration of a marriage was a bold move. Marvin Gaye is supposed to sing about making love, not losing love. It didn't help that his sound was generally the same, only a bit sadder. At times listening to this album, one finds themselves shaking their hips until they notice Marvin is singing lines like, "Pains of love, miles of tears enough to last me for a lifetime."

The album was born from a divorce with his wife Anna, sister of the boss, head of Motown records. As a part of the settlement, Marvin had to give pretty much all profits from his next album to his ex. Originally, he planned to hastily record a terrible album that would not sell, keeping Anna from making any money from him. After a while, the idea of making an album for Anna consumed his mind, so he ended up laying down all of their marriage problems throughout albums fifteen tracks. What resulted is arguably the greatest breakup album all time. A soul masterpiece that's as funky as it is sad. It still didn't sell well and Anna didn't make much money from it.

The primary theme tying the album together is the superb, "When Did you Stop loving me, when did I stop loving you" which is a classic of the genre. Many of the albums best tracks such as, "Here, My Dear" and "Anna's Song" are drenched in the layered harmonies of Marvin's doo-wop past when his marriage began. As the album continues and time goes on, he jumps to the present disco sounds, jumping back and forth, finally finding peace in the marriage of the past and present with the hybrid doo-wop disco of "Falling in Love Again", leaving the possibility that there could be an end to his pain for the future. He ends the album with a outro of the main theme, showing that despite the potential of the future, he will always have the pain there, creeping back to remind him of the past. Soul concept albums are hard to come by, especially ones that work as well as this. It is a difficult, dense, and painful album. It is also arguably the best work Marvin Gaye has ever done.