After 5437 days, it better be worth it

December 14, 2014 10:53 PM

After nearly 15 years of waiting, neo-soul artist D'Angelo released Black Messiah, a follow up to his 2000 release Voodoo.

After releasing a Soundcloud link to the track Sugah Daddy on Saturday, the full album was previewed at a listening session hosted by Nelson George on Sunday afternoon, then released on iTunes and Spotify late on Sunday night.

posted by elmer benson (45 comments total)

I've given it a first proper listen, and I don't want to get all into the premature hype thing with just-released albums. Yet here I am. This is epochal. It's just that good. I'm not thinking in terms of "album of the year"; that much is given. I'm thinking decade-defining.
posted by naju at 11:03 PM on December 14, 2014 [6 favorites]

No wine before its time.
posted by C.A.S. at 11:04 PM on December 14, 2014 [2 favorites]

One of the people I follow on Twitter had proof that listening to the album raised her temperature. That's some powerful stuff.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 11:06 PM on December 14, 2014

Whoa - this is great stuff. I was just wondering the other day whatever happened to D'Angelo, weirdly enough. This is awesome.
posted by koeselitz at 11:26 PM on December 14, 2014

Full lyric sheets and more from the listening party.
posted by naju at 11:50 PM on December 14, 2014

Goddamn this is good. It's like I was on my way to church and ended up at a Jimi Hendrix concert.
posted by phaedon at 12:03 AM on December 15, 2014 [3 favorites]

I think I'm pregnant.
posted by k8t at 12:18 AM on December 15, 2014 [25 favorites]

That groove on Prayer...

nitpicky note: D'Angelo himself said he doesn't like being labelled as a neo-soul artist in an interview earlier this year.
posted by turnips at 12:39 AM on December 15, 2014 [2 favorites]

Tomorrow morning, D'Angelo will be having a party at my house. Figuratively.
posted by flippant at 3:02 AM on December 15, 2014

i totally expected to be like "lay off guys, this is ok, but it's not that good" because yea that's usually the case when something gets blown up all over the place like this but nah, this is actually awesome.

i'm only a couple tracks in and i'm already like "damn, i gotta get this shit on my phone so i can listen to it all day tomorrow when i'm at work".
posted by emptythought at 3:03 AM on December 15, 2014 [1 favorite]

I think *I'm* pregnant.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 3:29 AM on December 15, 2014 [13 favorites]

This is exceptional.
posted by mountmccabe at 4:00 AM on December 15, 2014

"I listened to a D'Angelo album, and all I got was pregnant." - More people than you think.
posted by John Kennedy Toole Box at 5:29 AM on December 15, 2014 [8 favorites]

Someone is straight-up channeling Sly Stone circa There's a Riot Goin' On, that's for sure. This is how it's done, all you second-rate imitators and wanna-bes.
posted by blucevalo at 6:04 AM on December 15, 2014 [3 favorites]

With no solid personal foundation in funk or soul, it sounds to me like millions of ghostly layers of falsetto vocals just doing whatever they want over a bunch of strange / great beats and off-kilter chord changes by the truckload.

Kinda sounds like Prince having a seance. I'm super into it. Maybe this post will help others.
posted by SharkParty at 6:24 AM on December 15, 2014 [7 favorites]

It's great. I've only listened to it once but so far I'm pretty confident in saying that it's even better than Voodoo.

I AM REALLY PULLING FOR D'ANGELO. I want him to stay in a good place. I want him to be able to enjoy his success.
posted by 2or3whiskeysodas at 7:15 AM on December 15, 2014 [5 favorites]

whatever happened to D'Angelo

He had some personal problems. He learned how to play guitar, too.
posted by thelonius at 7:17 AM on December 15, 2014 [5 favorites]

Much like Maxwell (and whatever happened to him??), D'Angelo always fell under the "whoops, there went my pants" in terms of sexy sexy sound.

So...basically what I am saying is that I seem to have lost my pants this morning.
posted by Kitteh at 7:25 AM on December 15, 2014 [5 favorites]

GQ interview from 2012. He's been through some shit.
posted by naju at 7:32 AM on December 15, 2014 [7 favorites]

LA Times sez: "How does it sound? On first listen, like a continuation of 'Voodoo,' a strange, surreal record that hits on mid-'70s Parliament and Funkadelic, Sly and the Family Stone's 'There's a Riot Goin' On,' the tripped-out oeuvre of Betty Davis and a dose of Band of Gypsies-era Jimi Hendrix. At times it chugs like slowed-down Bad Brains, coupling distorted guitar with a heavy rhythm section."

It's only strange or surreal if you think the artists mentioned in that paragraph are surreal and strange. It's only surreal or strange in contrast with the banality of the landscape of a lot of current popular music. It's only strange or surreal if you have no imagination or taste for music that doesn't fit tightly in a box.
posted by blucevalo at 9:18 AM on December 15, 2014 [4 favorites]

Spotify is serving me up a Cialis ad as I listen to this. I'm not sure whether to be amused, or horrified that their algorithm thinks I am listening to this as some sort of audio erectile dysfunction aid.
posted by thelonius at 10:10 AM on December 15, 2014 [1 favorite]

"I too find my belly grows heavy with child, listening to the ethnic sounds of Angelo D." - John Kerry
posted by fleetmouse at 10:41 AM on December 15, 2014 [6 favorites]

I wonder how many 14-year-olds whose name start with D' are walking around now.
posted by sidereal at 11:15 AM on December 15, 2014

LOL @ places that now regret having their Best Of 2014 lists published December 1st.
posted by Theta States at 12:07 PM on December 15, 2014 [6 favorites]

This is brilliant.

And I mostly listen to metal and prog.
posted by Pyrogenesis at 12:30 PM on December 15, 2014

I'M WHITE AND I LOVE THIS
posted by blue t-shirt at 12:49 PM on December 15, 2014

I listened to Black Messiah after Voodoo and Brown Sugar, in chronological order. Voodoo clearly shows growth and refinement from his debut album, but Black Messiah really does seem like a great extension of Voodoo. Time for another listen to hear if it gets elevated beyond "solid."
posted by filthy light thief at 12:58 PM on December 15, 2014

Given the re-issue and "deluxe edition" craze of recent years, I'm surprised the first two D'Angelo albums haven't been expanded beyond their original forms.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:49 PM on December 15, 2014

This is pretty good. Don't know about the hype just yet, but it's fun and I'm glad that D'Angelo came back to make something that really stands out. Cee-Low had been heading down this road, then took an abrupt turn toward pop success with Gnarls Barkley (D'Angelo's vocals remind me a lot of Cee-Lo).

Kinda hope that someone mashes it with the last great Black Messiah.
posted by klangklangston at 2:59 PM on December 15, 2014 [1 favorite]

Of all places, this first popped up on my Twitter feed via ThinkProgress, which focused on the political content of the lyrics.

In what’s arguably the most political song on the album, ‘Charade,’ D’Angelo describes the illusion that change is possible. Instead the singer contends that society is actually resistant to change. In the chorus he says, “All we wanted was a chance to talk/’Stead we only got outlined in chalk/Feet have bled a million miles we’ve walked/Revealing at the end of the day, the charade.

posted by spamandkimchi at 6:48 PM on December 15, 2014 [1 favorite]

From the listening party link:

Questlove described Black Messiah as "the Apocalypse Now of black music."

yes
posted by hap_hazard at 7:43 PM on December 15, 2014 [1 favorite]

The more I listen to this, the more I love it. The richness of the sound, my god. And the beautiful guitar work! Not to pit it against any other work specifically, but I listened a couple times to the St. Vincent album that keeps topping lists and found it interesting...but it's not even in the same universe as this.
posted by sallybrown at 10:02 AM on December 16, 2014 [1 favorite]

God. It's such a phenomenal, phenomenal album. What's the best song on it? Who knows. "The Charade", "Really Love", "The Door" and "Another Life" stand out to me. I'm going with "The Charade" as my pick - dense, amazing arrangement, and lyrics that fit the political/emotional zeitgeist of 2014 better than any song recorded this year.

Also, if you haven't listened to this with a quality pair of headphones, I'd highly recommend doing so. I'm not an audiophile by any means, but the soundstage, depth, everything stands apart. The liner notes say that no digital plug-ins or computers were involved. It was all recorded to analog tape and engineered/mixed/mastered with vintage equipment.
posted by naju at 10:55 AM on December 16, 2014 [3 favorites]

Yup, it has been tough over the repeated listens to separate my opinion of the music from the anticipation of D actually putting something out. So I've been second-guessing myself: this can't really be as good as I think it is, can it? Are my ears aying tricks on me?

I have never used the term instant classic before, but damn...
posted by 2or3whiskeysodas at 1:06 PM on December 16, 2014

Dunno. What I heard sounds like warmed over Ohio Players. Guess it's OK...
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 4:03 PM on December 16, 2014

I don't think you know very much about the Ohio Players or '70s funk, then. Ohio Players never got this far out, even on Westbound; the closest they got was a mediocre psych-n'b debut that they retooled after. They were always much more arranged around the horns, had a much more languid groove than Black Messiah, and are best known for tracks like Fire and Love Rollercoaster, which don't really sound anything like any of the tracks on Black Messiah.

It's also weird to go to them as your "warmed over," when other folks in the thread have been much closer on the influences: Sly, Funkadelic, Prince. Those are all pretty up front and obvious. It's like describing Zapp and Roger as warmed-over Sly and Robbie, going the extra mile to make yourself seem uninformed.
posted by klangklangston at 6:57 PM on December 16, 2014

(I mean, I do think the "instant classic" and "defining album of the decade" stuff is bullshit too, but it's really good and worth another listen if Ohio Players is what you get out of it.)
posted by klangklangston at 6:58 PM on December 16, 2014

Kinda sounds like Prince having a seance.

OMG, SharkParty - that is perfect.
posted by hapax_legomenon at 7:32 PM on December 16, 2014

Finally got around to listening to this tonight, and 2-3 songs in, yeah . . . classic shit.

As birthday presents go (I'm 40 today), you could do a hell of a lot worse, Universe.
posted by CommonSense at 11:10 PM on December 16, 2014 [1 favorite]

Pitchfork gives it a 9.4 (highest scored album of the year)
posted by naju at 10:32 PM on December 18, 2014

Also from Pitchfork: D’Angelo’s Black Messiah Is #1 In Our Hearts, But Not On The Charts--What Gives?
posted by Going To Maine at 9:13 AM on December 19, 2014 [2 favorites]

All the hype about being an instant classic and album of the decade is interesting because I totally fell prey to it myself on the basis of the music alone. The album just dropped from nowhere and appeared like Athena from the thigh of Zeus fully-formed radiant and etc. Really I remember D'Angelo's stuff vaguely from when I was a teenager but it wasn't really my groove (except the Method Man & Redman track) and I wasn't anticipating anything from him at all. I thought, huh, yeah, D'Angelo, I guess I remember his slow-jam sex-music video from ages ago. But this album is just incredible. I can't turn it off. I've had to take a break from listening to it just to remind myself that there is other music out there.

Just 3 days ago I would've said that the one album that will really be impossible to top, the definitive pop work of the last 15 years, I would've said it's definitely LCD Soundsystem's This is Happening. But now, I dunno. D'Angelo broke it wide open with his garbled indecipherable lyrics and his infectious, unstoppable groove. "Back To the Future" is probably the standout for me, but it's a Khan of Khans kind of thing. Nothing in life is perfect. But this album is perfect.

Maybe it's just the perfect moment for me, to go from a We Can't Breathe march, low key and ignored but whatever, to go from being rocked by the insanity of this worst-fucking-year standout in a string of really shit years, to finding this album that really responds to it, that hears it and calls back with a guarded, knowing, cautious message of anger & love & maybe a little hope. I've never felt the connection between a piece of music and the politics of the moment before as much as I have between Black Messiah and December 2014.
posted by dis_integration at 8:14 PM on December 19, 2014 [3 favorites]

So, so wonderful. My favorites are "The Charade", "Sugah Daddy", and "Another Life". In fact, I think "Another Life" comes really close to bringing the "How Does it Feel" seductive heat.

I think Back to the Future (Part I) is reminiscent of "Geto Heaven", a Common tune which featured D'Angelo back in 2000. This is the instrumental version.

Also, I wouldn't call it "warmed over" but I caught a bit of the Ohio Player vibe in "Another Life".
posted by fuse theorem at 3:13 PM on December 20, 2014

After having listened to "Another Life" 5437 times, I'm also getting a Todd Rundgren vibe, specifically his "Can We Still Be Friends?". I think it's the choir-like parts in both songs.
posted by fuse theorem at 7:38 PM on December 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

Geez I even heard shades of 'Southern Can Is Mine' in The Door.
What a fantastic album!!
posted by wats at 9:56 PM on December 21, 2014