D'Angelo - "Black Messiah" (15-Dec-2014)

Have only 2 listens on it, waiting for the weekend and the long holiday following to really let it soak in. Really enjoyed the second spin an awful lot, there is a LOT going on, first time thru i thought Prince must be listening to it saying "How old hat, i did that &*%$ 25 years ago", but that second listen, D's not just biting off of Prince & Sly, he genuinely is moving that ball forward.

It always makes me roll my eyes a bit when people don't want to take the time listen to an album, i always try and break in a new hyped/abstract jazzl listening with it playing about at half normal volume, not background noise level exactly, but you know it's there and you could have a conversation with it on. Don't pay any real focused attention to it, and soon things will start to pull at your ear. Something odd, something new in there, something you can't quite figure out what it is. You don't take it in like a hamburger, you sip it like wine and let it take YOU in.

I tend to find if i get a real strong negative first reaction, it's probably something that really is more about my preconceptions as opposed to the music itself. (except for Yoko Ono, i just canNOT even begin with that...ugh...whatever you want to call it)

 

Well said. For an album that's so superficially smooth, it's pretty disconcerting. Most especially thanks to D'Angelo's strange sense of time -- they way that not only he drags so far behind the beat, but often has the whole band dragging too and at different rates of drag; especially on "Till It's Done" (where, frankly, I'm not convinced he hasn't pushed it too far towards a state of chaos) and, to a lesser degree on "Prayer" but really throughout the album. Idiosyncratic doesn't begin to describe it's strangeness and strong personality.

But the arrangements -- the horn voicings on "Betray My Heart," the way horn tails and keyboard tails dissolve into flangey washes on "Sugah Daddy," the layers of vocals, the music is at once subtle smooth, and incredibly busy and dense, it's an amazing sonic landscape that you might not even hear if you don't listen closely. Or I dunno, maybe if you listen over and over you'll find it bubbling up in your head the way the parts bubble up in the arrangements. And the bass playing....goodness gracious, it's a tour de force.

It's often the things that seem odd, wrong, and even unsettling that later reveal to be the thing that's just new, fresh, and individual. And in this era of pop music that's so, I don't want to say formulaic but conformist -- everyone using the same songwriters and producers to make the same kind of sounding songs with the same structures -- I mean, heck, I love a lot of that music, but this is sonically such a contrast and so different, even as it calls to mind so much that's familiar: Sly Stone of the early '70s most especially but also mid-70s Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Funkadelic, later Prince, latter day George Clinton solo stuff. It's quite something.

I've been through it start to finish maybe 4 times, and I've been through a bunch of tracks more than that and I find so much new in it each time, it's amazing. Also the more I hear it -- and I feel like I just want to keep playing it -- the more conventionally tuneful it sounds too.

 

Love it. It's been a while since I have loved an album this much so soon after release. Absolutely love the arrangements

 

Has anybody seen this on vinyl? There's a pre-order on Soundstage.

 

Feb 10 release date.

 

Thanks!

 

Just bought it. Can't wait until I get home and pop this tasty little sucker in.

 

Today was the official release day in Finland and "Black Messiah" became one of only three new (not rereleased) albums I've bought in the release week this year (St.Vincent & Taylor Swift albums were the other two). Usually I wait for the price to drop, but this one I just had to have in my hands as soon as possible.

I love Brown Sugar and Voodoo, but for some reason I just assumed that D'Angelo was retired from music business. So this album came as a total (and wonderful) surprise to me.

 

Wow, that's the late, great Spanky Alford playing guitar on "Betray My Heart"! Some of the crispest axe-work I've EVER heard on record! Him and Pino are locked into some next-level grooves.

This record just keeps on giving. Every day I've got a new favourite track.

 

Have to chime in here at this point and say that I'm amazed not only at the musical astuteness of the commentary in this thread, but also how gratifying it is to see a modern black R&B artist taken this seriously and getting this kind of coverage in this forum - really doesn't happen too often.

A big fan myself of D's previous two (especially Voodoo), this one at first listen is a touch more challenging - there isn't anything with the immediate hook appeal of say, "Devil's Pie", but I'm already getting the feeling that the rewards in the end are going to be even more substantial.

Just hope it's not another 13-or-whatever years before we get the next one...

 

I don't know if I'd call myself musically astute, but I'd like to think I know good black music when I hear it. This is the freshest sounding release by a black artist in recent memory (with the exception of Valerie June). I love artists like Sharon Jones, Charles Bradley, and Lee Fields, but they're doing a (very credible) revival thing rather than pushing boundaries. So much of music, black or white, is made within an existing hegemony -- what the artist hears all around them, or, more cynically, what they know will sell. As listeners, what we're looking for is fundamentally the same, so when something comes along that breaks the mold and works, it's a total game changer. For me, I only heard Voodoo for the first time a few years ago, and it grabbed me b/c it sounded like nothing else I'd ever heard. Like, the same way that Bitches Brew changed jazz. It was just so innovative and different. So, in some ways, I was only waiting 3-4 years for the follow-up, but in another way, I've been waiting my whole life.

 

Not to threadcrap, but that Valerie June album is really good as well.

I've been listening to almost nothing but the new D album all week. What a fantastic album. Hoping he does a US tour and swings through my town. I saw him on the Voodoo tour years ago, and it's one of the best live shows I've ever been to.

 

The energy in this thread is the most infectious since all that AAA mono vinyl Beatlemania hype — like a secondhand-smoke buzz while cruising in Cheech & Chong's backseat.

Loved this little write-up at omgvinyl.com:

I’ve only listened to it 30 times in the past three days so can’t for certain say whether Black Messiah is one of the best albums released this year or merely one of the best released this decade... It’s 56 minutes long – let’s hope for two LPs, folks. In any case, you can get a February 10th pre-order in over at myplaydirect.com and watch the birth-rate skyrocket nine months from then.

 

The circle-jerk is strong in this thread.

I don't get it: listened at work and it sounded murky and flat, indistinct and way too overdubbed/multi-tracked. The guitar playing is pretty weak on specific tracks (Till It's Done), and some tracks are a straight up mess (1,000 Deaths). A friend pointed out how "dope" some of the lyrics were ("All we wanted was a chance to talk
/'Stead we only got outlined in chalk), but even knowing that lyric, I can barely decipher it on the song.

Listened through it a few times at home (24/96) and thought the same...

The best I can say about the album is that it forced me to throw on Voodoo. All of a sudden D'Angelo is coming through clearly, forcefully and beautifully.

 

Thanks for that. Except for Scott S.’s threadcrap, the discussion has been sorely missing the “today's music sucks” perspective.

 

If 1000 Deaths, The Charade and Sugah Daddy aren't grabbing you try focusing on the 8th track - Prayer, I played it 4 times in a row last night.

It's becoming my "The Line" on this record. Since you don't own Voodoo this is for the others in the this thread, while there were other tracks on Voodoo that grabbed me at first it was still an album I liked, not loved. I had to find that deep track that got to me, I think there was a week where I only played The Line over and over again, I had to live with its behind the beat phrasing, the bass playing, decipher the lyrics, swim in it so to speak and then I ventured out into the other waters of Voodoo and it became this huge record in my life and a classic. Thats just me, I am sure there are some people who may skip the Line but I couldn't be friends with them.

 

Here's D'Angelo talking about the new material, not the recording specifically (emphasis mine). Seems relevant.

I'm guessing that by saying confusion is a good thing he's saying that if people are confused at first then maybe he is doing something new that people haven't heard before and it may take folks a while to absorb it all.

I'll admit that some of the odd rhythmic elements still confuse me a bit while the elements coming through from his musical influences keep it familiar enough to encourage repeated plays and deeper discovery. But between listening to Myron's second and third albums and Voodoo I'm slowly coming around to appreciating what's going on here rhythmically.

EDIT: I see that @WorldB3 better stated some of what I was getting at just now.

 

In all fairness he did say he enjoys Voodoo.

 

I agree some will not like this album, doesn't mean they are NOT music fans, or don't get it, just may not be their thing.

What I do hope is that even those that don't like it can see that it is pushing elements of conventional soul music and even pop if you like.

This is good for all as I really didn't need another Stevie Wonder album, as I have those and cherish those, or a neo soul album by the numbers.

This is an unapologetic vision, the mumbling is the intent of the artist, the bass clogging kick drum range is his vision, I would love to make some tweaks, but too often I think we miss the statement.

I moved onto a bunch of new Buckethead albums today> $2 at his store.... but I came back to Black Messiah.

 

I really love that sentiment... when it comes to making new music, confusion can definitely be a good thing. If everything you're hearing sounds immediately familiar, there is no new ground being broken. I love that D'Angelo didn't set out to make "Voodoo II" and instead has made something uniquely fresh and creative.

While I liked the album on first listen, I have been getting more and more out of it with repeated listens. I much prefer "grower" albums like this... Sometimes I'll love an album on first listen, but shortly after that, I'm done with it for good.

 

Great call on "The Line" and "Prayer." 'Back To The Future" can be connected to "The Line" as well.

 

I hear a 90's hip hop influence on The Charade... that beat during the verses takes me back to that time. Really cool.

 

Also having 1000 Deaths cranked up in the car with that BASS is the "teh Awesome" as they say.

 

"The Charade" or "Back To The Future?" "The Charade" definitely has a psychedelic rock sound.

 

The Charade... the backing track, it's like three notes that repeat each other. I think they are made by a synthesizer but I'm not sure how to describe it.