Nu Civilisation Orchestra: What’s Going On
Royal Festival Hall, London

THERE has been plenty of focus on the politics of What’s Going On this year, as Marvin Gaye’s crowning achievement turns 50. Soaked in the blood of war, of racial hatred, poverty, struggle, and a crumbling ecology, there’s likely no better expression of our current predicament than the one he put on record in Detroit and West Hollywood five decades ago.

As with so much great political art, its relevance is sustained more by the questions it asks than any concrete answer it gives; the album never really finds the solution to its title’s query except to reaffirm it as a statement — on telling harsh truths, and offering solidarity to those suffering through them.