D'Angelo - Voodoo (Virgin) It has been five long years since D'Angelo blessed the soul-music world with his devilishly sweet debut, Brown Sugar. He reinvented the genre then and he has done so again with Voodoo. This is the album soul fans have been waiting for.
Let Voodoo take you back to the days of Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield, with a little bit of Jimi Hendrix thrown in for good measure. He even takes a Roberta Flack classic, Feel Like Makin' Love, and makes it his own.
Using some amazing musical magic, D'Angelo recalls the essence of soul music, with Voodoo brimming with sexuality, sensuality, pain and pleasure, with his slinky vocals and seductive lyrics. It is devoid of radio-friendly hooks, every song taking an unexpected turn yet fluidly merging with the next.
A bit like those early Prince albums, before the Purple one got obsessed with not having a name, Voodoo flows like a dream. With hip-hop drummer Ahmir Thompson of the Roots playing his funky heart out, Voodoo seamlessly weaves a stunning tapestry of funk, hip-hop, soul and blues. Deliciously languid, even rappers Method Man and Redman on the hip-hopping Left And Right cannot interrupt this righteous soul ride.
The dreamy-eyed D'Angelo has created an album so stunning in its soul-injected groove, listening to it is like guilty pleasure: savour it.
