Initial thoughts after my first listen: this blows Brown Sugar and Voodoo out of the water. Ive bought all three albums on release date and can easily name Dangelo in my top five artists of all time. For rhythm section players, his work sits alongside the masters from the Funk Brothers, the James Brown rhythm sections, the Meters, Brothers Johnson, Tower of Power, etc. This album pushes his melodic and harmonic sense further than on Voodoo and combines it with more sonic textures. The familiar behind the beat grooves with handclaps that flam with the snare are all there. But on top we get acid drenched distorted guitar solos, jazz Rhodes, delayed vocal layers, and lyrics that talk about a lot more than chicken grease (although that is one of my favorites from the past). Chord progressions are rarely static as on previous releases, moving from inversion to inversion, modulating in and out of key. What Roy Hargrove pulls off on Sugah Daddy is nothing less than extraordinary. His trumpet fillagrees spin off with bizarre backwards delays that are being modulated by LFOs. Then DAngelo responds with roaring twenties jazz bugle boy falsetto bebop lines. The vocals pan from side to side, morph from lofi to clear as day all while piling on his signature dragging backgrounds. Stride piano slams into Ray Charles style double stops. This is headphone music for the twenty-first century, with one foot in the future and the booty in the past. There are string quartet sections that would stop Samuel Barber in his tracks before dissolving into flamenco nylon guitar and whispered intimations of love from a seductress in Spanish. Pino Palladinos bass gurgles and bubbles around ?uestloves drums (although a year or so ago it was stated that studio great James Gadson also played drums on some tracks). What else is there to say other than Album Of The Year and hopefully we dont have to wait fourteen years for the next one. #blackmessiah #dangelo
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 08:14:32 +0000