11. Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On
As much as I tried to avoid the classic album lists or whatever, I just think this is one of the most perfect records ever made. The other day I was in a taxi and ‘What’s Going On’ came on, and even though I’ve heard it a fucking hundred billion times, I still sat there thinking this might be as perfect as music can possibly be.
Musically everything [is perfect], but it also manages to access political ideas in a way that isn’t overbearing; there’s no diatribe. I can’t even imagine the kind of impact it had on people listening to it for the first time. It’s so defiant and it’s so self-contained, do you know what I mean? I just find that astonishing. It’s something I’ve been thinking about a bit more – especially considering the fucking horrorshow that is the world at the moment. But how do you approach writing music that is looking a bit more broadly out into the world without it becoming, and without dissing Billy Bragg, that kind of standing on your soapbox moaning about the state of the world, and still find musical escapism within it? That is such an incredibly difficult thing to do.
It feels so free, and it’s not all doom and gloom either. It’s from when music had the opportunity to serve and do that job, culturally; when it had that potency, which I don’t think it does right now. Everyone keeps saying one of the upshots of this shitshow is that music and art are going to breed the next punk or whatever. I wonder how that’s going to be true, because it requires such nuance and intelligence to come up with something like that. Amanda Palmer? Ah, she can get fucked.
