It is not completely D'Angelo's fault that his release date was pushed from October '98 to Jan '00. There are these people call A&R directors and CEOs of record labels that make the final call. Another culprit is called the marketplace, where timing is of an essence (i.e. If you face heavy competition from Brian McKnight ,or Chico DeBarge you might want to lay low until the fanfair lessens and their records are running in the final quarter of their cycles).<BR>Additionally, he had to settle some business problems with his first manager and those things often require contracts to simply run out, or have lawyers agree on settlements which take time. When EMI Records dissolved, it took time to redirect which label from the EMI Group would absorb which artists, also. Virgin's A&R people had to decide when to put D'Angelo back in the studio. Finally, D'Angelo's a human being that deals with issues all of us face in normal life (well, almost), and let's not forget that he's a perfectionist!<P>Regarding the pictures on the covers of magazines, D'Angelo needs to be kept in consumers' minds. The label doesn't want you to think that he dropped off the face of the earth. When you really saw the pictures rolling, was near the time of the album's release- Hello? He has to announce his coming.<P>Finally, the album...I guess you can say that the "BrownSugar Sound" was coined by the organ, high hat, and harmonized vocals. So, did you want him to completely eliminate those three elements for the "Voodoo" record? D'Angelo has a trademark, but I only recall maybe 2-3 songs that have that mix in them, and even then they're different. To be honest, I only felt like three songs the first time I played the album, but with every time that followed, my appreciation for what he was expressing with his voice and the instruments in the song grew. <P><BR>