Pure Soul Genius That Redefined Pop Music and Motown: Marvin Gaye's What's Going On Pulses with Vitality and Urgency, Named One of the 10 Greatest Albums of All Time by Rolling Stone

Mastered from the Original Tapes, Pressed on MoFi SuperVinyl, Strictly Limited to 7,500 Numbered Copies: What's Going On Mobile Fidelity UD1S 45RPM 2LP Box Set Is the Ultimate Version of Gaye's Landmark

1/4" / 15 IPS analog master to DSD 64 to analog console to lathe

Named the 6th best album in music history by Rolling Stone, Marvin Gaye's staggeringly influential What's Going On is pure soul genius and an ageless document about urban ills, employment issues, environmental concerns, and social responsibilities that's as relevant today as it was upon release in 1971. At once, the singer both revolutionized Motown's cache and upped the ante for his fellow artists. And now, the song cycle that toes the line between optimism, dismay, healing, futility, and urgency features sound and packaging that matches the groundbreaking arrangements, singing, and lyrical content within.

Gaye's definitive statement reaches three-dimensional sonic and emotional heights never before attained on Mobile Fidelity's opulent UD1S (UltraDisc One-Step) box set. Strictly limited to 7,500 numbered copies and pressed on MoFi SuperVinyl, this collector's edition literally and figuratively brings you closer to music that redefined pop. You'll enjoy deep-black backgrounds, boundless soundstaging, pointillist details, staggering dynamics, and arguably, the most lifelike tonalities and nuances ever committed to vinyl. Experienced via UD1S, What's Going On basically places Gaye and his cadre of session pros in your listening room. Each note is reproduced with exquisite accuracy, wowing clarity, and impeccable balance. 

The beautiful presentation of this UD1S pressing befit its extremely select status. Housed in a deluxe box, the collectible version contains special foil-stamped jackets and faithful-to-the-original graphics that illuminate the splendor of the recording. Aurally and visually, this reissue of What's Going On is made for discerning listeners who desire to fully immerse themselves in everything involved with the album.

Incredibly, the record almost didn't get made. Motown head honcho Barry Gordy detested the iconic title track but soon realized Gaye's ultimatum to issue it as a single had merit. After selling 100,000 copies in its first days on the market, the release allowed Gaye carte blanche to make the remainder of the album on his terms and to serve as its producer, effectively signaling his split from the Detroit label's iron-clad hit-factory approach. The results forever changed soul, Motown, and Gaye, turning him from a crooner and sex symbol into someone far more complex, vital, and relatable on a human level.

The societal themes coursing through What's Going On largely concerning the American Dream and what it really meant, and if it could still be attained, and if so, by whom and for what cost were largely informed by events of the time. Civil Rights riots, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., the Kent State shootings, as well as Gaye's own losses, the death of his duet partner Tammi Terrell, the unraveling of his marriage, the pressures he faced from the IRS for unpaid taxes, all prominently figured in the songwriting. Yet no subject mattered more than the Vietnam war and its returning veterans, one of whom was his brother.

"I was very much affected by letters my brother was sending me from Vietnam, as well as the social situation here at home," the singer told Rolling Stone in an interview. "I realized that I had to put my own fantasies behind me if I wanted to write songs that would reach the souls of people. I wanted them to take a look at what was happening in the world."

Gaye matched the scope of his expanded lyrical palette with equally innovative arrangements steeped in jazz hues. Songs effortlessly flow into one another with layers of strings, brass, and vocal overdubs laid over the rhythm tracks. Vocally, Gaye pioneered a new dual-vocal approach by relaxing and taking inspiration from a Lester Young album, distinguishing the tracks with an unhurried feel reminiscent of a conversation albeit one imbued with of-the-moment urgency. The sessions' vibes, developed in an atmosphere rich with marijuana smoke, are reflected in tunes such as "Flyin' High (In the Friendly Sky)." Environmental anxieties and spiritual dramas, meanwhile, form the core of staples like "What's Happening Brother," "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)," and "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)."

No less of an authority than "Sound Opinions" co-host, longtime Chicago Tribune critic, and award-winning author Greg Kot smartly observed that with What's Going On, Gaye "created soul music's first 'art' album, an inner-city response to the Celtic mysticism of Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, the psychedelic pop of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the rewired blues of Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited." And that's just scratching the surface of this singular record.

"I compared my original RCA mastered and pressed original (Tamla TS310) with Mobile Fidelity's 2008 1/2 speed mastered reissue (MFSL 1-314) and then with this '1 Step' version (UD1S 2-008) pressed on the new MoFi 'Supervinyl' manufactured by NEOTECH and it's difficult to believe these are sourced from the same tape. The "one step" destroys the others by a wide margin."
— Michael Fremer, Analogplanet.com

"My original pressing of the album is edgy and harsh, with pinched dynamics, a thin bottom end, and flat perspective. Behold, then, this mind-popping reissue. Gaye's voice is suddenly highly present and integrated into the whole - as are his own accompanying vocals. The bottom end is deeper, richer, and it really moves. There's dynamic range and a sense of freedom to the sound, with a notable sense of air and space. Most importantly, the music's already powerful emotional impact is that much greater. I couldn't - and can't - stop playing it."
— Wayne Garcia, The Absolute Sound

More About Mobile Fidelity UltraDisc One-Step and Why It Is Superior
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab’s UltraDisc One-Step (UD1S) technique bypasses generational losses inherent to the traditional three-step plating process by removing two steps: the production of father and mother plates, which are created to yield numerous stampers from each lacquer that is cut. For UD1S plating, stampers (also called “converts”) are made directly from the lacquers. Since each lacquer yields only one stamper, multiple lacquers need to be cut. Mobile Fidelity's UD1S process produces a final LP with the lowest-possible noise floor. The removal of two steps of the plating process also reveals musical details and dynamics that would otherwise be lost due to the standard multi-step process. With UD1S, every aspect of vinyl production is optimized to produce the best-sounding vinyl album available today.