Voodoo is 10

The album's following speaks to the select few music listeners out there with the patience and artistic acumen to appreciate a work outside their normal listening.

D'Angelo
Voodoo
Producers: D'Angelo, ?uestlove, Raphael Saadiq, DJ Premier, James Poyser
2000 Virgin Records America


Main Entry: 1voo•doo
Pronunciation: 'vü-(")dü
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural voodoos
Etymology: Louisiana Creole voudou, probably from Ewe vódu tutelary deity
1 also vo•dou /vO-'dü/ : a religion that is derived from African polytheism and ancestor worship and is practiced chiefly in Haiti
2 a : a person who deals in spells and necromancy b (1) : a sorcerer's spell : HEX (2) : a hexed object : CHARM
(Voodoo's original draft began with this sound bite)
"Before we start, we'd like for you to forget everything that went on today or last night or things that's supposed to happen tomorrow...y'know? We're trying to make our own world right here...at least give us that.." – Jimi Hendrix to a live audience before starting a show.


The setup: 5 years, 5 soundtrack appearances & 5 other significant "neo-soul" albums after Brown Sugar, the album most responsible for labels' response to "the movement," D'Angelo returns with a darker, rawer take on soul music recorded in Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland studios.

The turn: The reversed approach where the "songs" are created from jam sessions as opposed to self-composed and orchestrated and given to a band later. Many were "pocket" based, unlike the fuller melodic arrangements of Brown Sugar.

The prestige: It wasn't voodoo that D'Angelo was casting on us at all. It had been cast upon him as he tried to: 1) survive the pressure cooker of the sophomore jinx in a movement he was 'responsible' for starting, 2) with pressure and expectations mounting, play alongside contemporary heroes in an almost mystical legend's house, 3) make a record worthy of dedicating to his most beloved idol, Prince.

The analysis: For those sold on D'Angelo, Voodoo was confirmation that Michael Archer was otherworldly and Heaven sent. A child rooted in; soul, in the core sense of the word (gospel & blues), funk, and hip-hop. It confirmed that his sound was not that of a carbon and only capable of evoking the Marvin/Prince voices or Donny/Stevie keys but able to create his OWN songs and sounds critical to the survival of creative black music. For those sold only on Brown Sugar, it was mostly disappointment as the tunes weren't neat. They weren't as audible. They weren't as melodic or simple. The instrumentation, whether supposedly more artistically complex or not, sounded all the same. Those who came in because of the mis-leading set up of a naked Adonis in the video for "Untitled" (furthered by the album cover), were utterly disappointed as the ballad was 2nd to the end, and there were no ballads anywhere similar until track 5. Sonically it was not of the times, but neither was Brown Sugar when it was released. Its setup is much to blame for its ultimate reception. Its sequence may have been just as punitive as the best compositions came in where the album indeed "started" with its first address to the audience, "The Line:"

"Let me tell you about it
I wanna tell you about it
Let me tell you

I’ve been gone for so long
I just wanna sing my song
I know u been hearin’
Hearin’ a lot of things about me

oh I know, I know
I've heard, I’ve heard it all too clear
This is what I am going to do

I’m gonna hold, hold on
Hold on to my pride, my pride
I'm gonna stick, I’m gonna stick to my guns
I'm gonna put my finger on the trigger
I'm gonna pull it and we gon see what the deal
I'm for real, I just wanna put it, put it on the line
I've gotta put it on the line
and we haven’t got much time
I've gotta put it on the line

Said, I've got a bullet in the chamber
and I’m not afraid of the danger
we've gotta go down to the wire
I’ll go through the fire with you
kill and die with you
I know everybody watchin’ me
I said the pressure is on
from every angle
political 2 personal
will I hang or be left hangin? Will I fall off?
or will it be bangin?
And I say it’s up to the man upstairs
All I got to do is…"

Pre-cursers and expectations be damned, it was downright ballsy and brilliant simultaneously. If he could be credited with starting the neo-soul movement, he could just as well kill it. Kill what? The commercial moniker given to sell good black music to audiences as if they weren't intelligent enough to decide for themselves what was real and what wasn't. "The Root" was the pivotal shift in the album's formatting. While the lyrics were sometimes indecipherable, the composition and arrangements were above the mainstream R&B or jazz and demanded the listener actually pay attention. The vocal arrangements, backwards guitar and overall mix were the very epitome of spell casting. This followed by "Spanish Joint," another genre and production twist with a level of musicianship, composition and arrangement worth at least of a real title, if not the title of "album's best."

"One Mo' Gin" is that tune that separates D'Angelo from any soul singer of the last 20 years. The foundation of a drunken metered loop from Quest, a moog bass, misleading us until the melodic keys enter and finally, those vocals ooze into the story. It's a gut-bucket crooning and bluesy soul that his colleagues and supposed competitors wouldn't even attempt. One of the completely solo compositions of the project, this is probably the best example of what D'Angelo is capable of with NO help whatsoever.

(Voodoo's original draft inserts another sound bite before "Greatdayndamornin'")
“I-I didn’t know exactly what to write to the track, because when I do my music I do the tracks and the music first. And uh, I thought that uh, it might be interesting to pursue it. And anyway there’s some sort of underlying psychological subconscious situation going there that uh, if you’re into that sort of deepness and everything, you might find some message there or something.” - Marvin Gaye to Don Cornelius on his recording process of I Want You.

"Greatdayndamornin'" was the very best of the family (Questlove, Angie Stone, D'Angelo and his brother, Luther) collaborations. It was funk, blues and gospel at its very finest and a recording that NO other artist this decade would be capable of delivering. The irony of "Untitled" being a sex offering for the ladies and ode to Prince is that it was so much deeper-naked, but not-stripped, but full. With simply four instruments: Questlove's drums, Raphael Saadiq's bass, D'Angelo's piano, and the legendary Spanky Alford's guitar, it was simplistic as musicianship excellence gets. The album's closer, "Africa" was like its name, a continent of its own. With a formula similar to "Root," it uses Questlove's drum technique offer pocket without noise and D's vocals platform without pretense. Dedicated (as the album is) to his newborn son, it's a thoughtful and no less masterful bookend.

Perhaps if Method Man & Redman weren't so profane so early in the album; perhaps if "Feels Like Making Love" was swapped for the more appropriate cover, "She's Always in My Hair," recorded with these sessions; perhaps if a different single was chosen; if "The Line" was track one the general mass would've appreciated a landmark album like Voodoo for what it was as opposed to what they expected. Though sales matched those of Brown Sugar, sales all but halted on this project before Voodoo tour when the word got out that the album was "different." However, given the recluse he has retreated to since may have been even furthered if the project had fully succeeded, mounting expectations to a level where his disappearance would even more mirror Lauryn Hill's. Did we love too hard? Until that question is answered, Voodoo and its predecessor will be discussed and dissected like the great works of those who inspired them. I take refuge in that.