395. D’Angelo and the Vanguard, "Black Messiah"


 Man, what a sound.  What's really amazing is that this album was recorded over the course of 10+ years and sounds so cohesive and unified in its sound, like it was all laid down in a continuous recording session.  But wait, it gets better - the liner notes say "No digital 'plug-ins' of any kind were used in this recording. All of the recording, processing, effects, and mixing was done in the analog domain using tape and mostly vintage equipment."  I'm sure I wrecked the whole thing by listening to it over the Internet but there is definitely a warmth and a presence that you don't get from digital recordings, or maybe I'm just kidding myself.

The backstory to this album is kind of incredible, especially if, like me, you weren't that familiar with D'Angelo when this album appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, one day in 2014.  D'Angelo had a couple of huge albums then grew uncomfortable with his sex symbol image, descended into substance abuse problems, and more or less disappeared for 14 years, only to re-emerge with this amazing album.  

The album won the Grammy for Best R&B album but that's just because that's the closest genre fit you can put it in.  It's more like R&B/soul/jazz/funk but the real star here is D'Angelo's gorgeous, haunting vocals, often layered two or three deep, with a high reedy quality that just sticks in your brain.  Questlove said, "For all intents and purposes, this album is the black version of [The Beach Boys'] Smile-- at best, it will go down in the Smile/There's a Riot Goin' On/Miles Davis' On the Corner category."  Since I so recently listened to Smile, I have to say that's pretty accurate, but this album, for my money, is way better than Smile.

There are two tracks I can't get out of my head.  First, I think "Really Love," which was the single, is a perfect synecdoche for the whole album - like an overture, it's got a little bit of everything that makes the album great, with a melody that I can't get out of my head and those vocals I mentioned.  Just beautiful.  And then there's a song like "The Door," with stomps and handclaps and whistling and an acoustic guitar.  It sounds like it's being played on a front porch on a hot day.  Pull up a chair and listen.

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