D'Angelo - Black Messiah (2014)

dangelo has only rarely sounded 'live' on record

while i appreciate the on-record delicacy to the on-stage muscle, i wish more of that energy was present in the albums sometimes

"restraint" is probably a more correct description of the band's playing since I'm sure it's on purpose.

I do find To Pimp a Butterfly more accessible - actually even more than mAAd city which was a bit tricky for me, too. When I saw Kendrick live a couple of weeks ago the set was mainly mAAd city and it actually made a bigger impression on me live than it ever did on record - so maybe I'll just have to see D'Angelo live to "get" it.

I should maybe add that I am very intrigued by this record, I just also find it very frustrating to listen to

I was impressed by this record when it first came out, but I kind of agree with a lot of niels' points. It has some extremely lush moments and I love the arrangements, but I totally get the 'wish I could turn it up a bit' feeling. i find myself listening to maybe 1-2 songs at a time but the whole thing through is a bit too much for me to take.

yeah the album is sort of a hermetic listening experience, like it sucks you in, its introverted... theres just something heavy about the whole thing, even as you can hear all the work thats gone into it (or maybe cos of it), to make it tighter and more concise than his previous albums

people compared this to riot, but that is a record that has a sense or irony, humour, or just light footedness about it, even when its bitter and sour and down. BM does not have any of those things.

obv i dont mean irony in the regrettable modern sense

the sitar (?)

iirc it's an electric sitar, played by Pino

thx jordan

yeah the album is sort of a hermetic listening experience, like it sucks you in, its introverted

I agree with this but it feels more extroverted than Voodoo. It almost feels weird or intrusive to listen to Voodoo with other people, but I can listen to BM while making dinner with my girlfriend and she's singing all the hooks.

is shaka zulu good? not really in that area for food much and not a fan of the stables vibe but if it is i'd certainly be tempted
The combination of barely any Zulu cuisine (mostly Afrikaner fusion if anything), the garish tacky tribal motifs and "elephants and jungle = African decor" grated badly and the food wasn't really good enough to distract from that.

Wouldn't recommend it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3-8Nyn4SNU

Black Messiah to me is way more accessible and enveloping than TPAB -- it's an album I can put on in the background and just enjoy the grooves. TPAB would require a lot of editing and resequencing to serve as background grooves. Not that "background music" is something to aspire to per se, but I think this album works both in the foreground and the background, where Kendrick pretty much needs to be something you're paying attention to.

Also, having seen both of them on consecutive nights, D wins going away as a live experience.

niels: yeah, it's american colloquial. d'angelo's way of putting it feels more natural and less forced than your rephrase to my american ear.

Cool thx, makes sense

i think hip hop in general is harder to use as background music. but yeah, TPAB is just more propulsive and generally pushes itself into you, while BM kinda invites you in. but theyre not really great comparisons, other than albums with political themes (less so in BMs case) made by black artists in the last year. erykahs nu amerykah is closer.

i will be seeing him at First Ave :)))))

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley/interviews/singersongwriter-dangelo-part-1/

i recorded it, looking forward to watching!

he's not a very good interview, sadly.

:(

listening to this right now.
really love going back to albums like this after the hype has subsided and I can just really vibe out to this really cool, loose funky oddball R&B album without worrying about if it's a major "statement" or milestone or w/e

so many cool little details all over this

still listen to this all the time

Yeah it hasn't faded for me at all.

also, this is more urgent for me because of what's going on in Minneapolis right now but....

"All we wanted was a chance to talk
'stead we only got outlined in chalk"

from The Charade is like an all-time lyric, such economy, like on par with any Dylan or Woody Guthrie protest lyric ever.

otm

all things considered this is probly my favourite album of the last 12 months

same here, and it's had some very strong competition

I'm not sure anything else even comes close

some of the songs dont really work for me but yeah an incredible record

while there are definitely some songs that are standouts i guess i tend to just vibe out to the whole thing, it's a very cool sound world to be in

this and the Kendrick album been in p much constant rotation for me all year, a very complimentary pair

yah also has made me go back to both the New Amerykah albums by Badu which seem a piece with both those as well

So who of the professionals or p&j voters among us is including this in their best of 2015 albums?

I've been posting stupid shit about Neil Young and gangster rap on this site for years but I still don't get to vote in Pazz & Jop

this and the Kendrick album been in p much constant rotation for me all year, a very complimentary pair

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, November 24, 2015 1:13 PM (45 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yah also has made me go back to both the New Amerykah albums by Badu which seem a piece with both those as well

― Amira, Queen of Creativity (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, November 24, 2015 1:25 PM (33 minutes ago)

ditto to both of these. partly i know i'm just waiting for badu to release another album already but it meshes well w/ black messiah and tupab.

i listen to this all the time still but i hate The Door lol

who of the professionals or p&j voters among us is including this in their best of 2015 albums?

I can't bring myself to do it; too OCD about the "2015 albums have to have been released in 2015" thing. I feel like it'd also seem like a slight to everything that came out this year if my 2015 list were topped by a 2014 album

it won last year right?

I love this album so much, ums otm I play this all the time (voodoo too tbh)

I really dug this on first listen but honestly the more I've lived with it the better its gotten.

and yah, UMS told me I needed to go back to those Badu records and I'm glad I did.

So who of the professionals or p&j voters among us is including this in their best of 2015 albums?

Had to compile my 2015 Top 10 for MOJO last month, and Black Messiah was on the list of albums we'd reviewed in 2015, and I was like, some great, great albums this year but yes, Black Messiah is still the best album of that bunch.

I absolutely love just about over a third of this (The Charade, Sugah Daddy, Really Love, Betray My Heart, The Door, Back To The Future). The other parts I find either over-busy or a little bit too backgroundy for me to truly love.

yeah i voted for Black Messiah in P&J in 2014 but not for my local paper's year-end list that's due in November, and as i do the paper's list this year i'm sticking to 2015 releases. i'm not really worried about this album being overlooked!

I've thought about including it because I didn't last year (I've a vivid memory of downloading and listening to it on my way to jury duty on Dec. 15). I included Beyonce's album on my 2014 ballot. But I don't wanna deny a good album a spot.

it should still be on ballots (speaking as someone who has nothing to do with P&J). tail end of a year has always basically meant the next year, for these kinds of things.

It depends on the critic. If I've been assigned to review it, thus forcing me to concentrate for a deadline's sake, I'd have included it. I wasn't, so I absorbed it in leisurely fashion over the holiday.

even before Beyonce and D'Angelo dropped their buzzer beaters, i've always been pretty big on keeping my ears open to December releases on my year-end lists, some of my favorite albums in recent memory (including Last Train To Paris) got in under the wire on my lists that way. and that's partly because i know i'll have no desire to fit them into the next year's list.

depends when you (have to) make your EOY lists, right? most critics will prob submit multiple ones (i've submitted a couple already) but i don't really consider them ~official until my own final one on 31 dec. then that's it, done, not revisiting or thinking or carrying over

Coming back to this for the first time in a while, enjoying it even more now that the critical buzz haze has dissipated. The arrangements and production are just fucking masterful.

yea I've been playing this a lot lately, it's really really good