D'Angelo - Black Messiah (2014)

Anybody ever listen to Raheem Devaughan's 'The Love & War MasterPeace'?

i did, but not very much, i guess i admired it but nothing stuck much? political music and great music don't correlate unfortch

I think where Black Messiah does withstand those There's a Riot Goin' On comparisons is the way it feels way more politically resonant than, line by line, it really is. It creates a charged mood, a climate, where everything feels charged even if (a) the lyric has no political content and (b) you can't hear what he's singing anyway. The way he chose to frame this, with the title, the timing and the press release, was so smart. He wrote his own narrative.

xp
Yeah I appreciated the sentiments behind it but he's generally quite boring and inoffensive in a way that feels almost studied.

Actually, some of the political lyrics on Black Messiah are pretty lame on the page. Cries/lies is protest-singing 101. but he makes it sound so good.

"Crawling through a systematic maze to demise
Pain in our eyes
Strain of drownin', wading through the lies
Degradation so loud that you can't hear the sound of our cries"

R&B "message" songs tend to be frustratingly vague lyrically, even if the general import is clear enough. cf. curtis mayfield.

I think where Black Messiah does withstand those There's a Riot Goin' On comparisons is the way it feels way more politically resonant than, line by line, it really is. It creates a charged mood, a climate, where everything feels charged even if (a) the lyric has no political content and (b) you can't hear what he's singing anyway. The way he chose to frame this, with the title, the timing and the press release, was so smart. He wrote his own narrative.

― Re-Make/Re-Model, Wednesday, January 7, 2015 5:52 PM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ha i was all ready for his new amerykah pt 1 but when i heard it i was happy to ascribe that to PR nonsense and take his new amerykah pt 2

there are two remotely political songs on it and one of them i find unlistenable

That's exactly it - a Part 2 pitched as a Part 1 and boy did it work.

RTJ is just a misogynist fairly disgusting male ego trip from what I heard.

No, you're thinking about the post where you called identity politics a huge clique.

btw, Modern Neo Feminism isn't political at all, it's a club. An identity club. They're not fighting for any cause.

― ..but is he a virtuoso? (Raccoon Tanuki), Wednesday, January 7, 2015 11:52 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

remind me why you guys are even dignifying this idiot by providing cogent arguments for him to brickwall with nonsense?

i wonder that too. i wondered that about geir.

i wonder something similar whenever i see the ott thread bumped, which is all the time

haha the ott thing I really don't understand since the dude doesn't even post here

well indeed, and yet and yet 100 new answers every fucking week

guys, feeding of raccoons raises their comfort level with human interaction which is dangerous for everyone involved

we'd probably warm to RT more if we could see the bushy tail.

Dont get too warm

we'd probably warm to RT more if we could see the bushy tail.

http://www.lyricsmode.com/i/bpictures/1797.jpg

Well, yeah.

The Apollo Theater Presents a Special Evening with D’Angelo & the Vanguard: Black Messiah
Saturday, Feb. 7 | 8 PM
Tickets go on sale to the general public on Wednesday, Jan. 21 at 10 AM.

this is the first time I've opened this thread…have been too intimated by the prospect of keeping up…just am curious if anyone has heard any of the songs via the radio or means other than making a decision to listen to it? I haven't: I listen to Sirius's modern R&B/hip-hop stations all day long and occasionally terrestrial like Hot 97 or Power 105 in the NYC area when I'm in the car, and I have not heard any songs via these means. Haven't tried WBLS or classic black music options.

Is this weird? is his shit too archaic, sounding old compared to, I dunno, rae sremmurd or K. Michelle or the guy who does "I don't fuck with you or anything that you do" or DJ mustard shit?

and has raccoon dude used the phrase "social justice warriors" yet?

i have not heard about d'angelo getting radio play in NYC; BLS is certainly where it would happen but I think you're right that this is "too weird" for pop radio right now. Plus, no video that I'm aware of and not much of an effort to push a single.

Racoon dude has been banned but you should check this thread out; it's his thesis statement:
What happened to socially/politically concious rappers

I heard "Really Love" on the radio every couple days now, it's slowly rising up the R&B airplay charts. it definitely sounds unlike most other stuff on the air but R&B is pretty varied right now, there's always room for outliers. i don't think it'll hit heavy rotation like "Untitled" or "Lady" or anything, though. curious what else they release as a single.

is it that its truly weird? or do you mean that in the present black radio context, he sounds old-fashioned? to me DJ mustard's shit and any number of popular R&B songs are pretty bizarre and advanced…it seems a lot of the time Dangelo's support is somewhat…rockist. Like "this is real music made with real instruments about important shit, not going to the club, strippers, etc etc."

maybe my argument is off but i dunno that these songs have the same impact, out of the context of the album, as singles on the radio. Maybe i'm being naive.

i wouldn't say 'weird' per se, although D'Angelo's vocal style started out pretty idiosyncratic and has gotten moreso. but the fact that they picked the most traditional romantic ballad on the album to work the radio and it still has a long string intro and classical guitar very heavy in the mix, it's bound to stand out a little bit. the Kem and Charlie Wilson songs that dominate 'adult' R&B radio are downtempo and old-fashioned, but still really polished and slick compared to Black Messiah.

i don't want to make an either/or thing out of Black Messiah or DJ Mustard being way more creative or authentic or whatever than the other, they're both great and brought me a lot of happiness in 2014/2015.

This is one of those cases where sequencing is shaping the perception of weirdness. Cut "1000 Deaths," or even just move it to the back of the album, and you have an album that's a lot more immediately inviting. Placed as it is, though, that song is like a moat

I heard the whole album in a cafe a couple days ago.

xxp Are they playing the intro when they play it on the radio?

i'm not even really sure, it feels like all of the dozen or so times i've heard "Really Love" on the radio so far i've tuned into a station after the song had already started.

I heard it twice this weekend on adult R&B, once after Johnny Gil's "My My My" and the other time before TTT's "Let's Get Down."

<i>This is one of those cases where sequencing is shaping the perception of weirdness. Cut "1000 Deaths," or even just move it to the back of the album, and you have an album that's a lot more immediately inviting. Placed as it is, though, that song is like a moat</i>

on point

welp, guessed i learned my HTMLesson

His Apollo show sold out in seconds, anyone get a ticket?

I failed, sadface

Got a press release announcing a new EP from some act called Danglo and got briefly excited.

This album sounds like musical heaven. It's awesome.

A bunch of drongos griping about this album on my FB feed the other weekend, describing it as "critics music" that people only pretend they love.

i was trying to get a house ticket at the apollo via a friend... they had no house tix. big sadface.
coulda bought one of those $250 seats but couldn't justify it as a solo thing.

I'm sure a bunch of critics just bought out the Apollo in seconds.

Lol

BM has already become one of my favorite ear candy records ever. just 1 or 2 tracks that I find merely good, rest are great or better. each is strikingly funky/groove-y or strikingly beautiful or strikingly eerie or some combination of those. all the lil flourishes, whether they be from the players or the producer/engineer, just such an interesting listen. The textures are so inviting. When each song starts up, there's a spark of excitement of "oh this is the one where this this and this happens...can't wait." I love this album. And I'm not even too keen on D's singing! (his style always struck me as an affectation, and it seems even more so now. not saying I don't enjoy it, but relative to everything else...)

Otm; this is one of the best sounding albums I've ever heard

is there some really drastic diff b/w the 320 mp3 and CD or vinyl? i think it sounds good but nothing exceptional, as far as prod/mix goes.

I bought the cd but have only listened to 320 mp3 of it. 1st couple listens on smallish bose ipod dock speaker thingee, thought it was pretty good album but wasn't til hiking around with it in my headphones that it hit me fully.

I've been pretty immersed in older music for awhile now, mainly 70s stuff, and haven't been too excited about anything made this century sadly (only recent thing I can think of where I really really dig 3/4 or more of the tracks is RTJ2), everything is either sounding like an inferior rehash or just not suited to my tastes, so BM has made me hopeful that new music can come out that I will fall head over heels for.

this dude is so OTM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ2Nq1EdrAA

yah, i lost my mind when i hit play on that first track

"Voodoo" is a fuckin' masterpiece. It's one of my favorites, out of the two.

xp "Really Love" is #6 on WBLS this week. I didn't realize there had been recent thread discussion about this, but I was wondering too. I expected "Sugah Daddy" to be the choice, but I guess "Really Love" is pretty safe for their format.

climbs to #28 on national R&B airplay chart this week

snl this weekend

oh sweet