but my two favorites are undoubtedly TROUBLE MAN and IN OUR LIFETIME?

the former, because I have an innate love of soundtracks, movie/TV cues and things like that... and there, Marvin was letting his inner instrumentalist out in a way that I'll always point to when discussing him as a musician. In his catalog it's kind of looked as a slightly more favorable JOURNEY INTO THE SECRET LIFE OF PLANTS. I love that one.

IN OUR LIFETIME? was the last album that sounded like the "real" Marvin to me. Unfortunately, the drama behind this album had it released about 2 years after it really should have been. The album sounds straight up out of 1979... by '81 R&B was sounding a lot more like The Commodores' IN THE POCKET and Rick James's STREET SONGS and I imagine all the "extras" on the songs was a little too much. Still, it's got a lot of the things that made Marvin great in the '70s but unlike the solemn tone of many of his albums in the period, this one mostly felt like some fun. "Ego Trippin' Out" reminds me a lot of my uncle (that favored Marvin strangely enough) when I hear it. I'm not really clear on how it was receieved by critics, but I figure it must have been middle of the road.