D'Angelo and The Vanguard - Black Messiah ALBUM REVIEW

-
D’Angelo is one of the most revered musicians of the 90s and early 2000s. After his classic album Voodoo, his career began to tumble down after entering rehab. Throughout that time, he was dropped from his label and his career eventually came to an end. Throughout the late 2000s and early 2010s, he slowly collaborated with other artists while rumblings of a new album were popping up left and right. Then, nearly fifteen years after Voodoo, D’Angelo is back with Black Messiah, one of the most anticipated albums in recent memory. Let’s get into Black Messiah.

Black Messiah is a neo-soul album with jazz, funk, R&B, and rock influences. This album is pure atmosphere. While funk and R&B are well-played genres, Black Messiah leans into this sound to a large degree to much success. This feels like an experience that is meant to listen through, and that’s the least positive thing I could say about Black Messiah. I have to compare this to Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly because of its similar themes in racial awareness and things like that. The production on this album is absolutely perfect. Every single instrument can be heard. It’s complex, but it’s mixed so well that you can hear every little detail in the track. This is also so experimental, with each track being its own special beast, but it’s also still exceptionally D’Angelo. I have to admit, there’s not a lot of negatives in this record, and I’m just gonna keep it at that.

Black Messiah is what To Pimp A Butterfly is to a lot of people. This is one of the most important albums ever because of its themes and vulnerable writing, and the great sounding music backs that up. I’m going to be honest with you in saying that this is one of the best albums of the 2010s, and is one of my favorite albums ever. Don’t miss this at all.


10/10


Stream Black Messiah here

Spotify

Apple Music

YouTube Music



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lil Yachty - Let’s Start Here. ALBUM REVIEW

-
Image
I gotta keep holding to my promises about reviewing. I always love it when an artist takes a risk with their material. Whether or not it works out, I usually admire the risk and appreciate the fact that any artist can do something out of their comfort zone. Either way, the artist in question today is Lil Yachty, a rapper that has basically become a joke the longer his career’s gone on. However, going into a new genre out of left field isn’t totally new to rap. Childish Gambino jumping into the world of neo-soul with Awaken, My Love! , along with later projects from Mac Miller and Tyler, the Creator having more jazz influences, have proven that turning to a new genre for new ideas has worked out pretty well. Yachty, however, has turned to psychedelic rock in the vein of Tame Impala for this new album, Let’s Start Here. to mark the new chapter of his career. Let’s get into it. Having stuck around with Yachty during the rough patches, I can easily say that Let’s Start Here. is his best
Read more

Porter Robinson - Nurture ALBUM REVIEW

-
Image
I wanna just lay in a field of grass, but I’m allergic to pollen :( I’ve always had a very strange relationship with electronic music. The bad music I’ve heard in the genre has been some of the worst music I’ve ever heard, and the good stuff is some of the greatest music I’ve ever heard. For some context, we have artists like The Chainsmokers on one end, and Daft Punk on the other. There are some subgenres in here too that work. Electropop is one of them, being an obvious fusion of pop and electronic music. In the little community of the AOTY website, the users there have been hyped as hell for this Porter Robinson album, Nurture . It’s apparently his first in seven years, and I’ve only heard one single from it, titled “Musician.” While it wasn’t the best electropop song I’ve heard, it’s certainly an interesting sound that I think can work pretty well. So, with how anticipated it is in the AOTY community, I figured I should take a listen and see what all the fuss is about. Let’s get in
Read more

Talking 'Bout a Real Love: Frank Ocean's channel ORANGE [10 Years Later]

-
Image
Honestly, the fact that you’re reading this review now is a big deal to me. I *very* rarely mention anniversaries of albums that I love, but this is simply different. To go even further, hearing channel ORANGE for the first time as a kid was transformative. I saw this little orange CD on the new release stand at the local library and decided to pick it up. Again, I was literally 10 when this came out, so I had no idea what the intricacies of love and romance even were at that point, but putting that little disc inside my shitty portable CD player was certainly something. I literally didn’t know that a song could as perfect as “Pyramids” was and still is. Let me just be honest with something: This is my favorite album of all time. I gave it a relisten last night/this morning just to see if it’s in the running, and it easily took the cake. The only thing that bothers me about the digital version is that the final track doesn’t include the hidden track, “Golden Girl” with Tyler, the Crea
Read more