Many say Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On?” is the greatest album of all time. Marvin Stumbles, content to allow the other Marvin his time in the limelight, thinks his “Seasons” album could be a close second. Maybe third.

Regardless of Marvin Stumbles’ place in the all-time album pantheon, his music speaks (and plays and sings) for itself. The Chicago-based songwriter and musician joins forces with a cabal of “extraterrestrial misfits and gamblers” (his words, translated from whatever made-up language he has chosen to speak today) to expand the space between time.

Longing, dismay, and epic peril permeate the Marvin Stumbles catalog. “Waiting On The Wind” headlines the 2022 album Seasons, and the song opens with a powerful acknowledgment of mortality: “Bury me in my boots, he said. I know I’ll have them on. ” Marvin Stumbles builds carefully crafted caricatures woven into cosmic cadences to tell stories with thematic layers. While the melancholy ponerances play a role, they’re accompanied by a sense of adventure, fervent hope, and irrational faith in humanity. 

In “River Rolls, ” Stumbles plays his guitar like a rippling brook over the sounds of the very nature the song celebrates. There are no lyrics. They aren’t necessary. The song lilts and lurches like smooth water. There are no obstacles, only new paths, and Stumbles finds them on the fretboard. “River Rolls” is the musical equivalent of sitting riverside and becoming one with the world, if only for a few minutes. It flows into “Seasons, ” the title track on Marvin Stumbles’ 2022 album. It’s a worthy climax befitting the guitar- and voice-driven songwriting of Marvin Stumbles. It transforms the albums energy into pure, kinetic momentum while retaining the thematic and melodic integrity of the tracks that came before and those that follow.

He may stumble, he may trip…but he never falls.

Written by Cole Rush