Candy Licker: The Sex & Soul of Marvin Sease

Horny, swaggering, and often heartbroken soul man Marvin Sease didn't record his best material for Jive, but this collection serves a purpose. Rounding up his Jive years, Candy Licker: The Sex & Soul of Marvin Sease saves all but the most hardcore fan the trouble of wading through some horribly dated-sounding albums to get to the good stuff, and there was good stuff. Rightfully so, Candy Licker focuses heavily on his debut for the label, 1994's Do You Need a Licker? The title track from that album, the slinking "Don't Go," and the cheater's epic tale "I'm Mr. Jody" — which has a two-minute, talky intro that must have influenced R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet" series — all sound much more "live" than the cheaper, synthetic sounds found on later tracks. Other albums are handled accordingly except for the solid A Woman Would Rather Be Licked, which only gets one track, meaning you'll still have to keep your wallet open to get all of his worthy '90s material. While the version of his naughty signature song, "Candy Licker," is exciting and nasty, it's from the 2005 Malaco album Live with the Candy Licker and not from the original single. Start your collection with Polygram's superior The Best of Marvin Sease, which has the single version, and then grab this when you've decided to explore the man's later work.