EL DEBARGE “Gemini.” Motown ***: POP STARS ***** Great Balls of Fire **** Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door *** Good Vibrations ** Maybe Baby * Ain’t That a Shame

“If we pray together, maybe we can stay together,” El DeBarge earnestly sings on one track in a manner that recalls Marvin Gaye’s classic “What’s Going On.” The Gaye influence has always been obvious in this singer-songwriter’s music, and “Gemini” sounds like Gaye-meets-Guy, especially on the aggressively sexy “Real Love” and the even more blatantly amorous “Make You Mine.” Where there once was an element of boyish sweetness to DeBarge’s delivery, there’s some very adult-sounding regret and resolution to his voice on such tracks as “Turn the Page” and “Broken Dreams.” The religious references on the latter cut may be there in order to defuse--or excuse-- the raw sexuality that appears elsewhere on the album. But, of course, it’s precisely that type of contradiction that always made Gaye such a complex and interesting artist.