Songbook

Songbook is essentially Marvin Gaye's 1982 album Midnight Love from Columbia Records with a couple of odds and ends from the same time period thrown in, and while there is one absolute classic here, the wonderful "Sexual Healing," and a song or two, like "Rockin' After Midnight" and "Third World Girl," that can be a lot of fun, the fact remains that Gaye's best and most enduring work was done for Motown Records, and "Sexual Healing" aside, nothing here rises to that level. ~ Steve Leggett