Album Review: D’Angelo – “Black Messiah”

By: Daniel Gerichter (@ZenDonut) –

D’Angelo – “Black Messiah”

D’angelo is back. 14 years without a follow-up to his 2000 classic Voodoo is too long. With that album, D’angelo skirted the line between the weird, underground R&B of Jill Scott and Angie Stone and the ultra palatable stuff we all heard on the radio. It was soul and sex in their most ambitious form, never once losing sight of the man’s spectacular vocal range. Then, just like that, he was gone.

Till this week, when without so much as a social media campaign or ridiculous series of PR stunts, D’Angelo announced that he had recorded a new album with Vanguard called Black Messiah. Yeah, it’s a bit melodramatic, but for fans of D’Angelo’s previous work, the last 14 years have felt like the waiting was in vain.

Amid rumours of his health (both physical and mental), we didn’t see or hear much about what D’Angelo was up to. Save for a scant show or guest spot, D’Angelo kept a low profile over the years. Thing is, he does sound like the years have taken their toll – worse for the wear. But the brilliance never left. On the album’s second track “1000 deaths”, D’angelo laments, “Can’t believe I can’t get over my fear/They’re gonna send me over the hill/Ah, the moment of truth is near/They’re gonna send me over the hill.” See, Black Messiah is a kind of confessional for D’Angelo. The same thing that tortured him with impossible demands is the catharsis he needs.

The sound on Black Messiah is something completely alien too. Gone are the sweeping, minimalist backing melodies and simple riffs of Voodoo. On Black Messiah, D’Angelo finds a host of visionary musicians to keep his voice front and centre, but also add new layers that elicit Curtis Mayfield, Bootsie and Otis Redding. The Vanguard, his team on the album, consists of the Roots’ ?uestlove, bassist Pino Palladino, and drummer James Gadson, with additional contributions from Q-Tip. The instrumentation is tight as hell, but also dirty – funky and grimy in a way music simply doesn’t do anymore.

Then there’s Black Messiah’s lyrics that are not just about D’Angelo’s personal struggles, Black Messiah speaks to the issues that have been breathing down our collective necks this year, including race, war, exploitation, inequality, the destruction of the environment, the end. On “Til it’s done (TUTU)” he says, “In a world where we all circle the fiery sun/With a need for love/What have we become?” For someone who has been so far off the radar, D’Angelo is incredibly savvy of the world around him. On “The Charade”, D’Angelo speaks plainly about the mandated racism of places like Ferguson and Staten Island. “Degradation so loud that you can’t hear the sound of our cries (doo, doo)/All the dreamers have gone to the side of the road which we will lay on”.

But still, there’s the sex. The crooning, aching voice that was omnipresent on Voodoo is still here, and still smooth as fuck. In “Another Life”, he delivers lines like “I just wanna take you with me/To secret rooms in the mansions of my mind”. Damn.

Black Messiah sure as hell is a weighty title. But everything – from D’Angelo’s self-imposed exile, his crippling anxiety, even his documented weight gain – is on full display here. Finally, the album that D’Angelo spent over a decade laboring over, crafting is out, and it’s brilliant. Albums simply don’t do what Black Messiah does anymore; sounding this frank, relevant, funky, sexy and honest at once.

No matter which angle you come from, Black Messiah is one of the best albums of 2014. Textured, layered, emotional and funkier than anything, this is an album that a man poured his soul into – over and over again till he had the courage to share it with the world.

Essential Tracks: “1000 Deaths”, “Sugah Daddy”, “Till It’s Gone (TUTU)”, “Prayer”