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.
― something totally new, it’s the AOR of the twenty first century (tipsy mothra), Monday, 20 July 2015 15:24 (eight years ago) link
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.
― rushomancy, Monday, 20 July 2015 22:56 (eight years ago) link
Cool thx, makes sense
― niels, Tuesday, 21 July 2015 07:12 (eight years ago) link
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.
― StillAdvance, Tuesday, 21 July 2015 09:47 (eight years ago) link
i will be seeing him at First Ave :)))))
― lil urbane (Jordan), Friday, 24 July 2015 17:48 (eight years ago) link
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley/interviews/singersongwriter-dangelo-part-1/
― marcos, Friday, 4 September 2015 18:37 (eight years ago) link
i recorded it, looking forward to watching!
― Flamenco Drop (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 4 September 2015 19:32 (eight years ago) link
he's not a very good interview, sadly.
― Meta Forksclove-Liebeskind (forksclovetofu), Friday, 4 September 2015 20:35 (eight years ago) link
:(
― Flamenco Drop (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 4 September 2015 23:41 (eight years ago) link
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
― Amira, Queen of Creativity (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 24 November 2015 14:30 (eight years ago) link
still listen to this all the time
― expertly crafted referential display name (Jordan), Tuesday, 24 November 2015 14:41 (eight years ago) link
Yeah it hasn't faded for me at all.
― something totally new, it’s the AOR of the twenty first century (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 24 November 2015 14:46 (eight years ago) link
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.
― Amira, Queen of Creativity (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 24 November 2015 15:04 (eight years ago) link
otm
― Evan R, Tuesday, 24 November 2015 15:28 (eight years ago) link
all things considered this is probly my favourite album of the last 12 months
― when's international me day? (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 24 November 2015 15:41 (eight years ago) link
same here, and it's had some very strong competition
― balls, Tuesday, 24 November 2015 16:05 (eight years ago) link
I'm not sure anything else even comes close
― Evan R, Tuesday, 24 November 2015 16:12 (eight years ago) link
some of the songs dont really work for me but yeah an incredible record
― J0rdan S., Tuesday, 24 November 2015 16:32 (eight years ago) link
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
― Amira, Queen of Creativity (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 24 November 2015 18:11 (eight years ago) link
this and the Kendrick album been in p much constant rotation for me all year, a very complimentary pair
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 24 November 2015 18:13 (eight years ago) link
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, 24 November 2015 18:25 (eight years ago) link
So who of the professionals or p&j voters among us is including this in their best of 2015 albums?
― Eugene Goostman (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 24 November 2015 18:29 (eight years ago) link
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
― Amira, Queen of Creativity (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 24 November 2015 18:32 (eight years ago) link
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, November 24, 2015 1:13 PM (45 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― 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.
― balls, Tuesday, 24 November 2015 19:02 (eight years ago) link
i listen to this all the time still but i hate The Door lol
― kurt schwitterz, Tuesday, 24 November 2015 19:22 (eight years ago) link
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
― Evan R, Tuesday, 24 November 2015 19:30 (eight years ago) link
it won last year right?
― balls, Tuesday, 24 November 2015 21:08 (eight years ago) link
I love this album so much, ums otm I play this all the time (voodoo too tbh)
― marcos, Tuesday, 24 November 2015 21:28 (eight years ago) link
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.
― chr1sb3singer, Tuesday, 24 November 2015 21:34 (eight years ago) link
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 don't have the time or energy to make a counterargument (stevie), Wednesday, 25 November 2015 10:51 (eight years ago) link
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.
― canoon fooder (dog latin), Wednesday, 25 November 2015 12:00 (eight years ago) link
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!
― The Cuddling Of The American Mind (some dude), Wednesday, 25 November 2015 12:23 (eight years ago) link
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.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 25 November 2015 12:26 (eight years ago) link
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.
― StillAdvance, Wednesday, 25 November 2015 12:38 (eight years ago) link
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.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 25 November 2015 12:47 (eight years ago) link
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.
― The Cuddling Of The American Mind (some dude), Wednesday, 25 November 2015 13:41 (eight years ago) link
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
― lex pretend, Wednesday, 25 November 2015 14:14 (eight years ago) link
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.
― on entre O.K. on sort K.O. (man alive), Saturday, 9 January 2016 04:45 (eight years ago) link
yea I've been playing this a lot lately, it's really really good
― marcos, Saturday, 9 January 2016 15:46 (eight years ago) link
Also the rhythm section is so fucking sick, like on par with prime motown, stax, James Brown band, p much any groove rhythm section.
― on entre O.K. on sort K.O. (man alive), Monday, 11 January 2016 02:21 (eight years ago) link
could see it wind up being my album of the decade
― on entre O.K. on sort K.O. (man alive), Friday, 15 January 2016 03:39 (eight years ago) link
It's not as good as Voodoo but very few albums are.
― gaz "puffy" coombes (The Reverend), Friday, 15 January 2016 04:54 (eight years ago) link
literally none, imho
― art baengels (monotony), Friday, 15 January 2016 05:04 (eight years ago) link
IDK, it's such a different feeling album to me, almost hard to compare
― on entre O.K. on sort K.O. (man alive), Friday, 15 January 2016 05:09 (eight years ago) link
This is my 2nd favorite album ever.
― billstevejim, Friday, 15 January 2016 06:32 (eight years ago) link
Voodoo is my 2nd fav ever
― Spottie, Friday, 15 January 2016 06:43 (eight years ago) link
<3
― j., Thursday, 2 February 2017 17:54 (seven years ago) link
yup
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 2 February 2017 18:05 (seven years ago) link
Clicked on this hoping that Trump spurred him to finish his next album.
― change display name (Jordan), Thursday, 2 February 2017 18:09 (seven years ago) link
Chris Dave, the drummer on this album, has made an album of his own which will be out on Blue Note next month.
― grawlix (unperson), Friday, 8 December 2017 17:05 (six years ago) link