Marvin Gaye – Midnight Love (1982/5.1 Super Audio Compact Disc/SACD/SA-CD Edition) + Marvin Gaye – Greatest Hits Live In ’76 (DVD-Video/Eagle Vision Classics DVD)

 

Picture: C+     DVD Sound: C+     DSD 5.1 Sound: A-     DSD 2.0 Sound: B+     Extras: C-/D      Music: B+

 

 

His 1971 classic What’s Going On? remains one of the most important albums of all time, with its title song the precursor of all of Hip Hop urban, multi-layered sound.  He was one of the most important forces in R&B well into the Disco era, but it was personal fallout with the Gordy Family and not a new dance trend that ended Marvin Gaye’s reign at Motown Records with the brilliant Here, My Dear in 1978.  It was a concept album and double album about his divorce.  So it was a shock when, in 1982, Marvin Gaye was back at Columbia Records with a new album and single so big, it remains one of the biggest soul records ever made.

 

Sexual Healing was only a Top Three Pop hit, but it spend months at #1 on the Soul charts, inspired a response record and announced that an American Music Master was back at the top of his game.  Midnight Love was also his biggest album since the amazing I Want You in 1976.  Unfortunately, it would be his last before a dispute with his ever-begrudging, ill, domineering father led to his father shooting him to death.

 

Twenty five years later and counting, Midnight Love turns out to be an amazing, enduring masterwork that few people realized was so great because everyone was so stunned and even hung up on Sexual Healing, they might not have heard how good the other seven track are.  Yet, the album has always stayed in print, has seen a few special edition releases and was issued in the high definition audio format Super Audio CD.  The 5.1 version of the album is the one we are reviewing here, including the following:

 

1)     Midnight Lady

2)     Sexual Healing

3)     Rockin’ After Midnight

4)     ‘Til Tomorrow

5)     Turn On Some Music

6)     Third World Girl

7)     Joy

8)     My Love Is Waiting

9)     BONUS TRACK Rockin’ After Midnight(Instrumental)

 

 

The final track was especially created for this 5.1 edition and is a nice bonus to have on this best edition of the album you could ask for, though a CD-only version with more extras was issued, it cannot begin to match this Super Audio CD version.  This edition does not even have PCM CD tracks and therefore is not a hybrid disc, but the DSD (Direct Stream Digital) 2.0 Stereo mixes on here are very good better than the many times I have heard them on standard CD, but the 5.1 upgrades are even better to the point that they are just impressive enough to rate as high as they do.  Sure, they can reveal the limits of the tapes in their time, but smart choices have been made by Jimmy Douglass in this upgrade.  The DSD signal can be played on Playstation 3 machines, if not to full audiophile levels.  If you have a Super Audio CD player, you’ll want this disc.  Fortunately, many SACD players are out there at decent prices, also able to play regular CDs and even DVDs.  If you love music, look into it, especially if you love these albums as much as we do.

 

Other Gaye SACDs were issued by Universal Music from their Motown holdings,  including The Marvin Gaye Collection, with multi-channel mixes that did not always work but had two-channel versions as well.  It was also issued in the DVD-Audio format and a version was a DTS CD long ago, but those mixes sound contrived as compared to those of Midnight Love.  It sets a standard for 5.1 Soul Music that only the DVD-Audio of Al Green’s Greatest Hits (falling quickly out of print) can match.

 

 

In speaking of touring, Eagle Vision Classics has reissued Marvin Gaye – Greatest Hits Live in ’76 on DVD-Video featuring a taping of a remarkable concert performance in Holland at The Edenhalle Concert Hall in Amsterdam around the time of the release of I Want You.  He delivers a very heartfelt performance and the selections of songs are gems, as follows:

 

1)     All The Way Round

2)     Since I Had You

3)     Come Get To This

4)     Let’s Get It On

5)     Ain’t That Peculiar

6)     You’re A Wonderful One

7)     Stubborn Kind Of Fellow

8)     Pride & Joy

9)     Little Darling (I Need You)

10)  I Heard It Through The Grapevine

11)  Hitch Hike

12)  You

13)  Too Busy Thinking About My Baby

14)  How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)

15)  Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)

16)  What’s Happening?

17)  Save The Children

18)  Your All I Need

19)  Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing

20)  Heaven Must Have Sent You

21)  It Takes Two

22)  Ain’t No Mountain High Enough

23)  Distant Lover

 

 

Great set you could otherwise only imagine, but there it is.  The analog 1.33 X 1 video is colorful, but has some limits, though it may be PAL and not lesser NTSC, but it is hard to tell.  The PCM 2.0 16/48 Stereo is not bad for its age and under the circumstances, making for a better combination than expected.  Thank Eagle for not using Dolby Digital.  There are no extras.

 

 

Other Gaye titles we have covered of interest that you will want to look into include:

 

Let’s Get It On in SACD:

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/423/Marvin+Gaye+-+Let's+Get+It+On+(SA

 

Also see I Want You – Deluxe Edition CD Set

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/475/Marvin+Gaye+-+I+Want+You+(Deluxe

 

and Live In Montreux 1980 (DVD & CD Versions)

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/223/Marvin+Gaye+-+Live+At+Montreux

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo