Published today 11:10
After the success of his first two albums did it end for D’Angelo who disappeared in a haze of drugs and performance anxiety. Yesterday he suddenly came back with an album that picks up where success “Vodoo” ended.
After the success of his first two albums did it end for D’Angelo who disappeared in a haze of drugs and performance anxiety. Yesterday he suddenly came back with an album that picks up where success “Vodoo” ended.
Soul music’s equivalent of The Beach Boys ‘Smile’ is here, as shocking as suddenly as when Beyoncé impromptu released his fifth solo album a year ago. And despite fourteen years of waiting and ridiculously inflated expectations succeed D’Angelo accomplish something strong and engaging.
With their debut album “Brown Sugar” from 1995 linked D’Angelo together of soul organic grooves with hiphoppens attitude and kick-started neosoulen, a genre which achieved its definitive masterpiece when he returned five years later with the second album “Voodoo”. A magical melting pot of tender-hearted soul, sweaty funk, dark blues and sassy hip-hop with lyrics that oscillated between the intimate and the political.
The world tour that followed was a triumph seldom seen – by re-arranging their songs for swinging ensemble numbers were D’Angelo a James Brown for their time. He had the whole soul history in his hands, he played with it, juggled with it, honored it, let it shine. D’Angelo differed from all other neosoulartister in that he never sounded nostalgic – he sounded as if he discovered throughout the African-American music history yesterday, writing songs all night and recorded them in the morning. He had everything: vocals, låtskrivartalangen, musicians, talent, stage charisma, a divine body. He was an equation that really should not go together: he was outrageously
cool in the clear and untroubled way, while chockfull of musical wisdom. He was perfect.
But afterward lost himself D’Angelo in a fog of performance anxiety, drugs and mental illness. He worked constantly on the sequel to “Voodoo”, but the new album was postponed again and again, and finally did get that it would ever be released.
When D’Angelo gave embarks on a new world tour three years ago ignited a new cautiously hope to all soul fans. But no one disk then again, no one really was surprised, it would have been too much to hope for. But last Friday it was announced suddenly that D’Angelo’s third album “Black Messiah” was finished and would be released, and a few days later, it is thus here.
“Black Messiah” picks up where “Voodoo” ended and based on the same sound: it is dark, raw, jammigt and groovy. To the extent D’Angelo has evolved musically, he has moved from the soft soul and approached funky rock: this is not so much Neo soul as it is neoblues. It is D’Angelo’s first album without an innovative sound, and the epic songs are conspicuous by their absence. On the other hand, let D’Angelo still like no other. Even more so in today’s music climate, when Neo soul long since died and the soul is synthesizer-based with bombastic sound images. The raw and earthy in the “Black Messiah” will be a breath of fresh air, and D’Angelo sings as only he can, with distinctive melodies and ghostly falsetto.
This older and more experienced D’Angelo portrays with a new depth physical attraction, existential issues, political pessimism, religious doubt, angry self-preservation, bittersweet soul-searching and rock solid love. And even though the songwriting is not as sharp as it once was, there embers and nerve there. I’m already looking forward to next disc. Now, it can only go forward. Cause for concern is finally dissolved.
Best tracks: “Really Love”, “The Prayer”
Nicholas Ringskog Ferrada-Noli
musik@dn.se
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