961 D’Angelo - Voodoo (2000) 

Studio Album - Neo Soul

About the Act:

D'Angelo is an American singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist. He is primarily associated with the musical genre "Neo Soul" which (simplistically) is an attempt to divorce Soul and R&B from the commercial pop state it has evolved into, by delving back in time to early Soul and R&B and to fork it off in a new direction, one primarily affected by Funk, Fusion and Afrobeat.

His career spans from 1991 until now, in which time he has created three studio albums, and spent a lot of time wandering in various wildernesses, particularly those associated with substance abuse.

About the Album:

This was D'Angelo's second studio album. It took a long time to record. It had quite a few musicians involved, and significant input from the collective the Soulqaurians. It received several awards and lots of accolades, and is widely regarded to be a masterpiece.

My History with this Album:

None

Review:

The last few albums have been quite straightforward reviewing for me. This, on the other hand, has been a challenge, which is good, because I was starting to feel in a rut.  Not being into hip-hip or in fact modern Soul or R&B, this has been a stretch for me, and on my immediate listening I didn't understand it musically. However, the nearest listening experiences I have had to this are a reasonable grounding in Funk (mostly 60s/70s) and some awareness of Prince.

There are lots of things going on here, so picking apart, describing it, is going to take a while. Firstly, while it is a set of distinct tracks, there is a continuity, with little linking sounds, with are not acted vignettes, but more like the sound of a band winding down rehearsal of one song and getting caught up in another, so the whole is one continuous listening experience. Musically, it has quite a bit in common with the hip-hop albums I have listened to, in that the backbone is a beat, and the music is hung off that. There are several ways in which it differs though, the first is that there is a predominance of live instruments rather than samples. Apparently a lot of the music was recorded effectively "live". In fact, even though the drums are "programmed" I think it would be better to say "performed" as I think they were sequenced live while the other instruments were playing. I especially love the basslines which are fat and dirty and played with the most exquisite feel. A lot of the other playing, mostly keys and guitars, but some horns also, are quite reminiscent of jazz and funk, and have a lightness of touch, and bounce that comes from those traditions. There is some improvisation going on, which is usually a good thing, and definitely in this case. The second thing that makes it different to my expectations of hip-hop is that for the most part the drum grooves are really, really simple, a straightforward "rock" beat of hi-hat, bass and snare, very little ornamentation. The third thing is the nature of the grooves, most noticeably that they are loose. Very loose. The drums are sometimes ahead, or behind the other instruments, sometimes by crazy amounts. To start off with it really did my head in. It must have been really strange to play, and I'm not sure if I like it. It certainly has an effect. There were musicians who were supposed to do some guest playing who said they couldn't because the beat was all messed up. It is certainly messed up. The other thing about the grooves is the tiny pauses and silences that have been inserted, probably by agreement between the musicians (but it could be a feature of production) which tends to produce a stuttery effect. This is something I have heard in some hip-hop, but I have always assumed it was a feature of samples that were slightly too short for what they were being used for.

The songs are not really structured, they are more of a flow of a groove, with space for some singing to be inserted. This is deliberate, and (apparently) reflects rap songs, or to my mind Funk grooves. These are not rap songs though, there is only one short section of rapping, the rest is singing, by Mr D'Angelo. This is very distinctive as his voice has been massively multitracked, often with the typical fast melodic runs of soul being harmonised in the multitracking in a way that is so tight I had assumed it was done with an auto-harmoniser. There are many examples of similar vocals previous to this, but I associate the sound primarily with Prince, especially in later years. On this album, though, it is all over, and the vocal lines are like intertwining threads of ivy climbing up the trellis of the music in seemingly random patterns. 

Harmonically, the music is pretty sophisticated, with extended chords and some effective but complex chord sequences going on. The nature of the floaty vocals means that the music kind of flows through the chords at times in a jazz kind of way.

Lyrically, often it's hard to make out what is being sung, and sometimes its a bit sweary, but mostly innocuous (to my mind). The focus here is the music.

So, after all this description, I need to give an opinion. My first reaction, particularly to the out-of-time-ness was "ugh!", but I kind of fell asleep last night soaking into the grooves, and it got under my skin. I still feel it is well out of my comfort areas, and so good experience for me. I heartily respect the musicianship and the funk aspects. I just, I don't know! On balance, taking the good and the more difficult aspects....

6.5/10

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/2lO9yuuIDgBpSJzxTh3ai8

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo3iqsOH_54&list=PLj0iicDFTqJq8CcEMDS1VUbT0DPjFYOm1

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voodoo_(D%27Angelo_album)