In Our Lifetime is the sixteenth studio album by soul musician Marvin Gaye, released January 15, 1981, on Motown label Tamla Records.

That year, Gaye decided to reestablish his pop audience, first releasing a slightly autobiographical disco song he titled "Ego Tripping Out", in which he lyrically explained his larger-than-life ego and masked it with personal doubt ("turn the fear into energy/'cause the toot and the smoke won't fulfill the need").

For weeks, Gaye secluded himself in a bread van on the beach in Maui while still struggling from his now-crippling cocaine addiction.

[4] However, desperate for a fix, he called his mother Alberta and asked her to give away earrings he had bought her in exchange for money to buy cocaine.

After hearing a mix in Honolulu, a disillusioned Gaye shelved the album, fearing his music career was over.

One day, severely depressed, Gaye ingested a full ounce of cocaine, in his first suicide attempt since the late 1960s, thinking he would die.

"[4] During this time, British concert promoter Jeffrey Krueger got contact with Gaye through drug dealers.

The tour, which took place in 1980, featured performances in Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Switzerland, The Netherlands and England.

Gaye, now scared of a possible arrest warrant for avoiding the IRS, decided to settle in London where he partook on the city's nightlife and suffered a relapse.

"Far Cry" was the only newer song from the sessions in London to be featured along with the instrumental "Nuclear Juice".

However, around this time, one of Marvin's touring and recording musicians, bassist Frank Blair, decided to take the contents of the album's master tapes to Motown's Hollywood offices, which was done unbeknownst to Gaye, who was remixing and editing the album in Odyssey Studios in London.

Motown, still angered over Gaye's backing away from the Love Man project, revised the album for several weeks.

[8] When In Our Lifetime was finally issued in recording stores on January 15, 1981, Gaye was angry over its rush release.

Gaye's request was finally granted after CBS Records' urban division president Larkin Arnold bought him out of his Motown contract, thus ending the singer's 21-year relationship with the company in 1982 (Gaye then eventually recorded his final album to be released during his lifetime, Midnight Love, in Belgium and Germany).

Over the years, the album was forgotten, until it was re-released by Motown on compact disc in 1994 to coincide with the tenth anniversary of Gaye's death, including the song "Ego Tripping Out" as part of the track listing.

The second disc released what was from the Love Man sessions with instrumental productions that were included in Lifetime under different lyrics and different titles.