Both these sets have been previously available, but now Universal has repackaged them as svelte four-CD "digibooks". Very nice they are too, both collections being crammed with new photographs and benefiting from a comprehensive graphics and layout makeover. No updates were needed for the music, which remains indispensable.

Gaye and Brown each hacked their own huge swathe through soul music from drastically different places. Gaye was the sweet-voiced ladies' man who originally saw himself as a crooner, but his music evolved from Motown's polished pop factory gems into epic depictions of struggle, Armageddon and spirituality. The Master, released to mark the 20th anniversary of Gaye's fatal shooting by his father, is inevitably dominated by recordings from Marvin's 20-year relationship with Motown, but it does take in his great final flourish, Midnight Love.

Brown, meanwhile, was rude, raw and funky, and Star Time charts the Funkmeister's progress from the doowop-with-attitude he was singing as long ago as 1956 through several decades of landmarks - Papa's Got a Brand New Bag, It's a Man's Man's Man's World, Sex Machine - and a swarm of rarities. But why no Living in America?