I don't really care if music is "forward-thinking". I just like it to be good.
I mean, I really like the Black Messiah album despite not thinking D'angelo is the 2nd coming of anything other than himself after 14 yrs. Unlike cats who were jumping off the deep-end left and right in that post, saying he's vocally on par with Marvin Gaye, Aaron Hall, and Phillip Bailey and all kinds of astronomically comical stuff.