If you need proof that relevancy doesn't depend on an album release schedule, then look at the curious case of Michael Eugene Archer, better known as D’Angelo.
The 40-year-old soul crooner supreme has released all of two albums in the last two decades, but the Internets have been on fire since he released his brand-new effort, Black Messiah, at a New York City listening party yesterday. The 12-track effort is the follow-up to D’Angelo’s 2000 masterpiece, Voodoo, which is widely regarded as one of soul music’s all-time best, and most genre-redefining, albums.
Messiah features backup from the Vanguard, and contributions from Q-Tip, The Roots’ Questlove (a co-producer of the LP), bassist Pino Palladino, drummer James Gadson, and Kendra Foster. Sonically. the whole thing is a texturally rich, melody-ridden goulash of horns, guitar, bass, and grooves for days that coalesces like it's on its third Viagra at a Greek orgy. And if you’re worried that all you’ll want to do is have sex while listening to the record, consider the fact that D’Angelo also considers this his most political album to date.
“It’s about people rising up,” he wrote in promo materials, “in Ferguson and in Egypt and in Occupy Wall Street and in every place where a community has had enough and decides to make change happen…[it's the] Apocalypse Now of black music.”
You can hear this manifesto now via Spotify and buy it on iTunes.
This article appears in Dec 11-17, 2014.