D'Angelo: Voodoo (2LP) [VIRGIN]

Why you'll love it

Voodoo debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and won the Grammy for Best R&B Album, while "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" took Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. Questlove, J Dilla, Pino Palladino, Roy Hargrove and Q-Tip all play their part.

This edition

• 2LP set, 13 tracks
• Virgin pressing of the 2000 album
• Produced primarily by D'Angelo

About the album

Five years is a long time to make people wait after a debut as beloved as Brown Sugar, but D'Angelo spent most of that stretch holed up at Electric Lady Studios in New York, jamming endlessly with a crew of like-minded souls who would come to be known as the Soulquarians: Questlove on drums, J Dilla on the boards and in the room, James Poyser on keys, Pino Palladino on bass, plus Roy Hargrove on horns and Method Man and Redman dropping by.

The result is a record that sounds like it's breathing. The grooves sit just behind the beat (Dilla's off-kilter swing all over it), songs stretch and loop and simmer rather than resolve, and D'Angelo's falsetto floats over the top like smoke. It's slow, sexy, spiritual and deeply funky, a direct line back to Sly, Prince and Marvin, and still the high-water mark of the whole neo-soul era. "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" is the famous one; "Spanish Joint," "Left & Right" and "Send It On" are just as essential.

Also at Kops: more D'Angelo on vinyl · browse Hip Hop / R&B

Tracklist

Listen

On Virgin, first out in 2000.