# What is the best Motown soul album of all time?

> Motown's Sound of Young America produced some of the most beloved recordings in history — polished, joyful, and emotionally direct. Which Motown soul album is the greatest of them all?

*By YPB Team · Published April 21, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-motown-soul-album-of-all-time*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **What's Going On**
   Marvin Gaye's 1971 Motown masterpiece — a conceptual suite addressing war, poverty, and environmental destruction — is the greatest album the label ever released.
2. **Songs in the Key of Life**
   Stevie Wonder's 1976 double album is Motown's crowning artistic achievement — a joyful, socially engaged, and technically revolutionary record that no label has surpassed.
3. **Innervisions**
   Stevie Wonder's 1973 Motown album is a genre-defining synthesis of soul, rock, and synthesizer innovation, earning him a Grammy for Album of the Year.
4. **Talking Book**
   Stevie Wonder's 1972 Motown statement of artistic independence introduced synthesizers and rock influences to soul music in ways the label had never heard before.
5. **Let's Get It On**
   Marvin Gaye's 1973 Motown album is an unabashedly erotic soul statement — lush, warm, and intimate — that defined a new mode of adult contemporary soul.
6. **Cloud Nine**
   The Temptations' 1969 Motown album marked a dramatic shift toward psychedelic soul and socially conscious lyrics, pioneering a harder-edged direction for the label.
7. **Going to a Go-Go**
   Smokey Robinson & The Miracles' 1965 Motown classic captures peak Brill Building soul craft — infectious, beautifully produced, and packed with era-defining hits.
8. **Here, My Dear**
   Marvin Gaye's 1978 double album — a divorce settlement paid in music — is Motown's most daring and painfully personal artistic statement.
9. **Fulfillingness' First Finale**
   Stevie Wonder's 1974 Grammy-winning Motown album is a reflective, intimate masterwork featuring 'Boogie On Reggae Woman' and 'They Won't Go When I Go'.
10. **All Directions**
   The Temptations' 1972 Motown album featured the epic 12-minute 'Papa Was a Rolling Stone' — one of the most ambitious productions in the label's history.
11. **Imagination**
   Gladys Knight & The Pips' 1973 Motown album is a showcase of soul sophistication, featuring 'Midnight Train to Georgia' — one of the greatest soul singles ever recorded.
12. **Reach Out**
   The Four Tops' 1967 Motown album captures the label's classic Hitsville USA sound at its peak, featuring lush orchestrations and Levi Stubbs' soaring baritone.
13. **Diana Ross and the Supremes Join the Temptations**
   This 1968 Motown collaboration brought together two of the label's biggest acts for a joyful, hit-filled showcase of Gordy's polished pop-soul formula.

Tags: music, 70s, 60s, classics, soul