And I need to say, I loved the record much more than Brain C. Hild. I can tell. I fell out for the minimalism of it. And b/c I LISTENED intently, repeatedly, intoxicated(ly) I hear all the work that went into it. The record is so heavy to me. Every track, but especially "The Root", "Spanish Joint", "Devil's Pie", and "Untitled". Anyway, I digress. Onto his little thang here.

>I just feel that such an
>ambitious project was unnecessarily, and
>possibly unknowingly, self-destructed.

Yes, it was. Here's the part where I can get w/what he's talking about:
>
>In late 1999, the first single
>from D'angelo's long-awaited sophmore album,
>"Voodoo", was released to very
>little to no fanfare.

A fucking travesty!!! I thought "Untitled" was the FIRST single & video.

>"Left & Right", which featured
>a guest appearance by America's
>Most Blunted (a.k.a Redman &
>Method Man) was a simple
>funk number based around very
>minimal instrumentation. The accompanying video,
>which may have been aired
>about as many times as
>the last few Prince videos,
>was an odd, psychedelic, sweat
>drenched funk fest, featuring cameo
>appearances by George Clinton, Redman,
>Method Man, ?uestlove, and Cherokee.

Killer. I mean, damn.

> The video's production values
>weren't too far removed from
>those commonly seen in early
>80s pop videos. While
>I understand and can appreciate
>the idea, it's not a
>very smart way to begin
>promotion for an album that
>many people have patiently waited
>for. The video quickly
>faded from television and failed
>to make a dent in
>radio.
>
>A few quick months later, January
>2000 arrives. Y2K fever
>has passed and the number
>of days until the release
>of the album that many
>said would revolutionieze R&B music
>are dwindling. To make
>up for the near disaster
>that "Left & Right" turned
>out to be, the follow-up
>single was wisely chosen.
>"Untitled (How Does It Feel)"
>is a slow, 6/8, sexy
>song reminiscent of Prince during
>his hey day. The
>song and its simplicity are
>brilliant. Raphael Saadiq, co-producer
>of th etrack, laid down
>a guitar line that I'm
>sure made the soon-to-be-resurrected Prince
>Rogers Nelson roll over in
>his paisley coffin.
>The music combined with those
>panty-wetting lyrics assured this writer
>that the revolution (no pun
>intended) was well under way.
>
>
>And then the video arrived.
>
>I'll spare us all the details
>of the video for fear
>that many of my female
>readers will suffer flashbacks and
>become unable to finish reading.

Lord, have mercy on my soul!

>It really is unknown what the
>exact intent of the video
>was, perhaps its intentions were
>many:
>
>A. To stimulate the women
>in a way normally reserved
>for men.
>B. To increase the number
>of Ab-Rollers and health club
>memberships sold.
>or
>3. To present D'angelo to
>the public with no bells
>and whistles.. just the man
>and his music.
>
>I'm sure if you asked D'angelo,
>Dominique Trenier, or Paul Hunter
>what their intentions were, they
>will point you towards number
>3, being that it is
>the most "artistically respectable" of
>the 3 possibilities. They
>may have actually planned it
>that way, but in between
>the writing of the video
>treatment (which I'm sure was
>about 5 words long: D'angelo,
>naked, plain background, ch-ching!) and
>the airing of the video,
>I'm sure the concept was
>lost. D'angelo's (ahem) enthusiasm
>towards the end of the
>video prompted many a viewer
>to wonder whether or not
>D'angelo was alone on the
>set. The many close-ups
>of D'angelo's body dripping with
>perspiration just turned him into
>a sex object for women,
>thus taking their attention away
>from the brilliant song and
>focusing on their moistening nether
>regions.
>
>I'm not making judgment on D'angelo's
>artistic integrity or whether nor
>am I saying that D'angelo
>was wrong in exploring (or
>should it be "exploiting") his
>sexuality. In its pure
>form, it is a great
>idea, but seeing as how
>man perverts (once again, no
>pun intended) everything, it should've
>been obvious to all involve
>that trying to maintain artistic
>integrity while being butt booty
>naked on television is virtually
>impossible. I hope D'angelo
>was fully aware of the
>risk he was taking.
>If not, he must have
>received one hell of a
>wake up call when the
>tour began.
>
>Episodes 1 and 2 of the
>Voodoo tour can be summed
>up in 23 words.
>
>1. Screaming
>2. Women
>3. Ripped
>4. Wife-beater
>5. "Take
>6. It
>7. Off"
>8. Hardcore
>9. Funk
>10. Music
>11. Good
>12. Times

I almost cried at this show. I had awful seats, and I heard "I wanna know how it FEEEEELS, nigga!" & "Take it off!!!!" more than I cared to. I was on the verge of tears b/c I was sad for the women who were missing out on what D & the Soultronix were laying down. They had me there, even from the balcony (in the back, y'all). I couldn't believe they couldn't feel what I did.

>I was fortunate enough to witness
>the tour first hand when
>it stopped in Indianapolis in
>August. I was also
>unfortunate enough to witness the
>hordes of beautiful women (gat-damn!!!)
>screaming at D'angelo as if
>they were at a male
>strip joint. They totally
>ignored the on stage brilliance
>of D'angelo and the Soultronics
>and focused on the biceps,
>the abs, and the ass.

That's what I just said.

> I often found myself
>rolling my eyes at the
>way D'angelo toyed with the
>women in the crowd (who
>really weren't women at this
>point.. many of the more
>mature women were acting as
>if they were 10 years
>old at a New Edition
>concert back in 1984).
>I wished that there had
>been more of a balance
>between D'angelo's libidinous energy and
>his musical passion.

He's an Entertainer...as well as a musician. You gotta give 'em what they want and slap 'em w/what they need.

>Okay.. to sum up all the
>sex stuff, it overshadowed the
>music and brought people
>(women.. and a few guys)
>away from what *I* thought
>the whole Voodoo project was
>about: bringing songwriting and
>good musicianship back to the
>forefront.

Honey, I was 1 of those guys. U shoulda seen me getting all up close to my TV everytime that video was on. I thought maybe I could see more than I had previously. Like, ooops! I was a damn fool, but I still was geeked off the song itself.

>>Midway through the tour, Virgin Records
>released the third single from
>the album. "Send It
>On." Oh no.
>Another slow song. Obviously
>milking the sex god image
>that was surrounding D'angelo at
>the time, Virgin thought this
>would be a good idea.

I was so upset about this. Here in Chicago, they were already playing "Feel Like Makin' Love" on the radio. I thought it was a great choice...especially going into spring. But then we got "Send It On", one of the musically least interesting tracks on the record - but the lyrics are a mutha! I knew it would go over folk heads.

> It was also thought
>by many that releasing a
>live performance video would be
>a good idea. It
>would serve double purpose:
>promote the tour and show
>people that D'angelo is still
>all about music.

Exactly. And I love performance videos.

The
>only problem with this reasoning,
>I feel, is that the
>"Send It On" clip did
>not accurately represent what was
>going on during the Voodoo
>tour. Yes, clips of
>other portions of the show
>were interspersed throughout the clip,
>but it was quite distracting
>to see D'angelo and his
>backup dancers doing some high
>energy step while the band
>crawled through "Send It On."

I know, right? It was kinda awkward. But they were having a good time up there, that was clear.

>Upon further thought, the live video
>concept would not really work
>with *any* of the songs
>from Voodoo as they were
>performed live on tour.
>"Feel Like Making Love" would've
>lost some points for being
>a cover tune (although I
>can count on one hand
>the number of people I
>know that knew that it
>was a cover).

That song needed to be heard.

"Devil's
>Pie" would not have worked
>because the first minute or
>so of the song is
>done in complete darkness with
>very little movement on stage.
> So, in my
>opinion, the concept should've been
>scrapped.
>
>While looking at the rest of
>the songs that "Voodoo" has
>to offer, the only other
>obvious single was "Devil's Pie"
>which had already been featured
>in the film "Belly."
>None of the other songs
>on the album were really
>suited for release as a
>single.

Well, after (or before) "Feel Like Makin' Love".

Many of the
>songs suffered from being repetitive
>midtempo songs that often ended
>in similar fashion to the
>way they started... all groove,
>very little substance (once again,
>i'd like to refer you
>to my opening statement).

Here's where we diverge. I hear so much going on in all the songs. And Roy Hargrove tore it the fuck up on the horns & horn arrangements. I mean, good God - there was so much melody going on, and his vocals were incredible. When you remember he sang every note of those multi-tracked harmonies, it's clear why the album took so much time. Why it must have been a labrous process. So much overdub. I think it's brilliant.

>
>Voodoo's lack of substance also hurt
>it. Whereas a lack
>of substance is the norm,
>most people don't spend 4-5
>years working on something that
>sounds like it could've been
>put together in the span
>of a few months.

See my last comment. I mean, how can you deny those vocals???

>As a whole, it is
>quite underwhelming.

Still has my jaw stuck to the floor.

There are
>several good ideas and concepts
>throughout the album (I wish
>the "Booty" segment of "Greatdayndamornin"
>had been developed a lot
>more).

I could have used more of "Left & Right", actually. Extended version of "Spanish Joint"? Pleeeease??

If the album
>had been released one year
>after "Brown Sugar", I would
>not be writing this paragraph.
> Just another case of
>"too little too late."

The impact would have been huge coming out of Brown Sugar, but the public still wouldn't have embraced it like the 1st record. "Lady" was a great pop tune, Voodoo doesn't really have any pop. Except "Send It On".

>Okay... I"m beginning to ramble here,
>and unlike D'angelo when recording
>"The Root" and "Feel Like
>Making Love", i'm going to
>stop before this gets any
>more tedious.

Stop knocking my song!!! I'm living for that one. It's all about repetition. Hasn't he heard any Afro-beat? Any house? Any James Brown? (20 minutes of "Hot Pants" comes to mind, or how about 20 minutes of "Make It Funky"?). Hell....any GOSPEL, blues, even jazz. WTF?
_________________

Currently playing:

The Love Bite, "Take Your Time"