The next handful of songs rides a rollercoaster of emotional highs and lows. I’m sure there are people out there who enjoy it much more than me, but it just never worked for me. It’s not a particularly bad song it just doesn’t quite belong in the context of Voodoo’s better tracks. The two guest rappers, Method Man and Redman, are unnecessary and disrupt the flow of the song. What follows is the albums only slight misstep, Left & Right. The whole thing comes to a head with the incredible “Fall in line/Fall in line” bridge, transforming the song from depression to redemption. Rebuking man for his pursuit of life’s evil pleasures while examine his own wicked pursuits, painting himself as a man conflicted over what he should do and what he is doing. Playa Playa is the set up, and Devils Pie becomes the ambush. Playa Playa exists to serve as a show opener something to “turn this mutha’ out”, but the effect isn’t so much of excitement as it is seduction. “Steal you with my two shot, control you with my drop, blaze you with my handle, and bless you with my pop” sing multi-tracked D’Angelos. It then becomes a statement of intent and purpose. This holds particularly true with Playa Playa, opening with what sounds like, appropriately, a Voodoo ritual of some kind. The songs don’t so much come from the speakers as much as they creep from them, slowly filling the room with atmosphere. Voodoo is an interesting album to listen to on headphones, but I personally have to encourage listening to it through speakers with a decent subwoofer. The lowest moments of the night seems to seep through the entire record with release coming in relationships and sex, elevating the experience above the mood music of Brown Sugar into something more gripping and elemental. The whole album seems to have some loose narrative about things that go down only at night. Congratulations, you just started listening to Voodoo by D’Angelo, and it is one of the darkest funk records of all time. A near sludge of darkness, like murky water showing nothing but your own distorted reflection, now imagine falling straight into that darkness. No, not just night or the color black, but something… thicker. Review Summary: A dark masterpiece of soul that positions D'Angelo among the greats
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January 2023
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