d'angelo - voodoo - classic or dud?

less "new music" and more "songs that were covers that I couldn't name" than i thought

I passed on a brand new copy of this for £1 in my local pound-land today. I thought about getting it, because I've heard v. good things, but every time I listen to it, nothing sticks. What's the attraction for people (genuine question)?

I'm kinda regretting not buying it anyway, cause I feel I'm missing some crucial element.... but really, how come this is so acclaimed in critical circles?

if you wouldn't spend $1.50 on a new copy of anything involving d'angelo let alone voodoo i think you're beyond help

yeah...

in my defense, there is barely any room left to put new CDs atm.

this is not an adequate defense, i know.

because every song on it is a jam????! i mean, if you doesn't grab you don't sweat it but i am having a hard time imagining anyone, much less somebody who posts on a discussion board called i love music, not hearing anything in a tough and beguiling song like "spanish joint"

lol @ this thread started by poster called "the_splooge"

appropriate imo

Tracer: well, I've only ever listened to it on spotify, which is probably not the best medium, but it just seems to drift endlessly, my eyes glaze over and I'm lost.

Still, it'll probably sound better on my stereo, so I'll head back tomorrow and grab it.

If you need something extra to get you kickstarted on "Spanish joint" keep in mind that Charlie hunter is playing the bass and lead guitar parts simultaneously on a crazy custom guitar thing

You know, if you need to distract yourself, delay the_splooge

It took me a lot of time to understand this album before it became the greatest thing ever.

Yeah it's not really THAT immediate. Although if the groove of Devils Pie doesnt move you from the jump then something may be really wrong with you.

i heard "Spanish Joint" for the first time in forever outta nowhere recently, that song is pretty nuts.

this is one of those albums that doesn't make a ton of sense playing it at moderate volume via some lossy mp3s on your computer, pop in the CD and turn it up loud and it makes perfect, beautiful sense. it's all about the details.

which is to say, but that CD for fuck's sake

i played it so loud the other week that my downstairs neighbor started banging on the ceiling

it was only 9 PM, he can fuck off

also that weird descending flutter thing in devil's pie.

HOW
DOES
IT
FEEL

can't see much here but they used to start off the show with that devil's pie guitar thing, everyone wearing robes and hoods, so sick:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr5nYtxUfxw

Went back and bought this today.

After one listen on my stereo, I can tell I was missing an awful lot of detail from listening on my meager laptop speakers. I'm appreciating the grooves a lot more. Like someone said upthread, there are a lot of details to absorb. I dunno if I can consider it one of the greatest albums ever just yet, but I'm willing to entertain the notion, and look forward to the next few listens ahead!

How's Brown Sugar?

i've said this before but this album is like a dance record, imo

It took me a lot of time to understand this album before it became the greatest thing ever.

― old homophobic boom bap rap traditionalist (The Reverend), Wednesday, October 16, 2013 9:53 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i_splooged the first time i heard it

but it's true that it does just keep getting better & better

nah this is totally a slow grower, still not sure i've fully appreciated it yet

woah

http://insideplaya.wordpress.com/2014/05/25/an-open-letter-to-dangelo/

Hell of a read.

i made it like 15mins in to that red bull npr interview but it was really boring

there was some discussion on the other d'angelo thread...idk, i didn't find this super revelatory but i've been reading everything i can about about the dude for awhile. it's so bitter...like, if D had given him a proper thank you, would he no longer be a 'charlatan and a pimp'?

It seems more than that, doesn't it? Like, this guy was key to giving the guy his career, but also the implication is that in his absence D'Angelo's reputation as some sort of reclusive genius has only increased, yet this dude basically calls that out as a ruse, and that D absolutely needs someone around him providing direction and guidance to write or write well and actual produce. So that ties in with his resentment as one of those folks absolutely (allegedly) essential to D'Angelo and yet absent from the story. The thing is, D'Angelo's songs themselves aren't terribly earth shattering, are they? It's really the whole package, from production to approach. Frankly, I could imagine putting, say, ?uestlove and Pino Palladino in a room together with only the sketchiest of a song idea and getting something awesome out of it by the end of the day. By turning his back on all the people who helped him, D'Angelo makes it seem like he's the reclusive mastermind rather than the holdup. The lesson I got from this missive/rant is basically: this is what happens when you turn your back on all the people who helped you.

The dude made it sound like he was the only one who really helped D. The rant would have been more effective without the disses of Nelson George and others, and all the sanctimonious self-praise and bitterness.

Oh, absolutely, but it sounds like he was pretty essential, and iirc, it ends with basically D'Angelo asking him for help again after years of blowing him off and then going back to ignoring him again. Basically the behavior of an addict, really, and also par for the course from an act; the comments are illustrative in this case, basically saying you shouldn't be in this for thanks and credit. Then again, it's been 15 years between albums, so clearly something is missing from the equation when even the ace, dogged direction of ?uestlove can't get results.

if anything Gary Harris doesn't take as much credit or discredit D'Angelo as much as he could've in that post. he was the person who put D in the studio with Raphael Saadiq, who co-wrote the biggest singles on BOTH of D's albums, which is something that always made me kind of look askance at D's songwriting abilities.

i'm totally comfortable placing his genius in interpretation/performance/style/production rather than songwriting.

it doesn't take a psychiatrist to sense bad blood in that essay. without an unbiased appraisal, i'm taking it with a grain of salt. Looks like a good jumping off point for an article about the powers that brought D'Angelo to prominence and have continued to keep him levitating through this extended (and apparently self-abusive) fallow period... there's a few people in this thread who should have a go at that piece!

also the whole penultimate paragraph about dissing d'angelo's lack of 'funk' makes me think that he's a little deaf to what makes 'voodoo' special. sure, the saadiq single + sexy video blew it up in the first place, but that's not why it's continued to find a new audience over the last ~14 years.

i think its a direct response to stuff that was discussed in the recent RBMA/NPR thing too tho

re: "funk"

also the whole penultimate paragraph about dissing d'angelo's lack of 'funk' makes me think that he's a little deaf to what makes 'voodoo' special. sure, the saadiq single + sexy video blew it up in the first place, but that's not why it's continued to find a new audience over the last ~14 years.

― festival culture (Jordan), Wednesday, May 28, 2014 11:33 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

isn't he arguing that d'angelo isn't responsible for that part of the record, not that his albums lack it altogether

it seems pretty evident to me that d'angelo's albums were always collaborative efforts. that's the soulquarians era ... obviously though he brought something to the table or itd be electric circus lol

wasn't D "yoda" in that round table?

didn't D produce & play almost everything on 'brown sugar' himself? and yeah, voodoo is definitely the ultimate result of that collaborative era/space, but i don't think that takes anything away from him. i've read a lot about D writing all the basslines for pino, nudging the grooves around in Pro Tools to get the feel just right (although i can't find confirmation of that right now), and basically being involved in every aspect.

but i'm also sure that he needs people to push him in just the right fashion and is probably a nightmare to work with in any sort of conventional, professional way.

do we have anything approaching an actual reason that the album is not out beyond "D is kinda crazy"? Did George seriously not ask when the album was due? If so, that omission had to be some sort of contractual stipulation for the conversation to take place.

^my assumption as well

I assume that when this album eventually comes out it will be some Chinese Democracy-style trainwreck. if it ever comes out. nothing that gestates this long is ever any good (I certainly can't think of any precedents)

probably only going to get a posthumous release

Jordan: your assumption on the former, the latter or both?
Shakey, I disagree: the new songs i heard from d'angelo from the brooklyn bowl show sounded pretty dang good to me. my guess is that his label needs reassurance that D's mental state to a place where he can tour before they release the album and that's the hold up.

this discussion is getting kinda rockist fwiw