The Rewind Button is a group blogging project that I’m participating in. We’re taking on Rolling Stone‘s Top 40 albums of all time and writing our own reviews of them. There will be a new album and review each Thursday.

I’ve put off writing this review for a while, because this is the first album in the blogging project that I’m unable to get excited or angry about. It has pretty much left me in an emotional purgatory. Repeated listens still have yet to move me either way.

Whenever I find myself unemotionally attached to an album, I start to question why. And through self-examination, I eventually get pushed pro or con. That’s yet to happen with What’s Going On. I’m still sitting in my best Rodin pose, fist under chin, eyes closed, listening to the music, the lyrics, mulling it all over in my head.

Perhaps the best route is to list a few things I like best about the album: most of the songs running together without pause, the variety of instruments used, Gaye’s voice. The two songs that stand out (perhaps because I’ve heard them hundreds of times) are “What’s Going On” and “Mercy Mercy Me.”

Outside of those elements, I’m having trouble connecting with this album. I listen to it and keep waiting for it to end, much like my younger self did in church attending a sermon. And just like then, nothing is sticking.

Please visit these other blogs participating in The Rewind Button project: