More impressive once you realize Gaye produced the album himself, and provided almost all instrument tracks. Hints of classic R&B, disco, funk and soul. Generally, very easy listening. This is sometimes 'disturbed' by erratic saxophone playing, which reflects the emotions and thoughts of the album much more than the lyrics do. Can be a bit monotonous, but no song is the same.
Normally not a fan of falsetto whiny high pitched voices in soul music, but wow do the instrumentals and lyrics compensate. Listened to it twice in a row because I couldn’t get enough, and spent the trainride home reading his biography. Fascinating person who wrote some fascinating music. If some good music with some great societal critique isn’t worth 5 stars, I don’t know what is.
Learned to play bass with this album, honestly great instrumentals but the drums are a constant highlight. Maybe it’s because I knew it note for note already, but there was no wow factor to the songs. That being said, great rock album with a lot of musical variety!
Vocals carry a huge amount of emotion, and the music is wonderfully dynamic. Hits like Cry Baby have definitely earned their legendary status. Trust Me is also a big highlight. Easy listening but great instrumentals as well as vocals. Despite this being a solo album, especially the piano really stood out to me. Great blues rock sound and fits perfectly with the rest of the band. Overall, great, but the sometimes large differences between the consecutive tracks were distracting.
The Model is a banger, but besides that not really my type of music. Honestly fascinating that they did this in the 70s, but overall very repetitive. Gotta love the German accents in the vocals though!
Mixed feeling ‘boot this one. Love the jazz influences, but soft/folk rock guitar and vocal harmonies isn’t my thing. The songs felt identical, both in instrumental style and themes, but the lyrics were well-written. Overall, good if you enjoy the genre in the first place, and I'm sure there are many who can appreciate this more than me. Twisted was freaking funny though hahah.