He's made us wait a long time for this. D'Angelo's two million-selling debut 'Brown Sugar' was an R&B revelation when it hit the streets back in 95, its creator then just 20-years-old. The album had a stripped down, organic sound – with more than a few nods to Stax and Motown - that brought the glossy R&B that dominated at the time back to earth with a crash.
It shouldn't surprise anyone that this latest album remains true to that soul ethic, despite the involvement of hip hop artists Method Man and Redman, producer DJ Premier (does this man never sleep??) and Roots drummer, Amir ?uestlove Thompson. D'Angelo describes Thomson as his "co-pilot" on 'Voodoo' and this is clear in the way in which the Roots' drummer's snapping rim-shots propel the album's lazy pace. Despite its production polish 'Voodoo' often sounds like one long extended jam session, as the musicians work around grooves and the vocalists improvise their unstructured harmonies.
With such a consistently lazy tempo in place throughout, it comes as a pleasant surprise when 'Spanish Joint' flashes out of the freeform and jumps to life with a tighter, faster groove and jazz instrumentation. It's a shame that there aren't more tracks like this that pick up the scatted sweet soul vocals and toss them into a more energised musical structure. At times, D'Angelo perfectly conjures the sound of total relaxation and spiritual content. But what about the energy of celebration, surely equally crucial to the soul sound that's his precedent?
