2913764, Nicholas Payton made some interesting points.
Posted by MiQL, Sat Dec-20-14 09:51 PM
Compared to his peers
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"There’s nothing on the album that doesn’t sound like something else. In fact, Black Messiah sounds like a bad version of Bilal’s Love Surreal. I don’t remember folks giving this amount of love to Bilal when it was a far more creative effort than D’Angelo’s latest. Meanwhile, an artist like Van Hunt has been in the trenches giving us album after album of great music. His album Popular, which was deep-sixed by Blue Note is a little known gem that is every bit as great as Voodoo. While folks have been waiting 14 years for one guy to do an album, other cats have been busting their asses giving us great music the whole while."
A familiar analogy
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"D’Angelo gets to be the deadbeat dad who gets all the love by showing up bearing gifts at Christmas every couple of years, while mom is busting her ass every day taking care of you and you ungrateful children could give a shit. I don’t get why it’s acceptable for him to take 14 years to deliver this okay album. And okay for him is so not okay. I expect more from what was at one time one of the most soulful, grooving multi-instrumentalists on the scene. And with a title like Black Messiah, I want nothing short of my mind blown."
Critiquing the rhythm
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"A central rhythmic theme throughout the album is the heavy four-on-the-floor that was a trademark of Sly’s work with The Family Stone. The problem with it on Black Messiah is that when Sly did it there was an undercurrent of syncopated ghost notes that made it groove. The way the quarter note is presented here, it’s subdivided by straight eights, which makes it come off stiff. Sounds like the typical non-swinging jazz album of today. Ironically, the message is Black Power, but the Black part is overshadowed by a barrage of sterile sixteenth notes. This sets the tone for the first quarter of the album — “Ain’t That Easy,” “The Charade” (which sounds like a nod to Prince’s “Raspberry Beret”) and “1000 Deaths.” And the same holds true for virtually every tune on the album."
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