D'Angelo and The Vanguard - Black Messiah
Critic Score
Based on 31 reviews
2014 Ratings: #1 / 1042
Year End Rank: #41
User Score
2014 Rank: #5All Time: #298
Liked by 281 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
Exclaim!

It is here, it is masterful, it is heartening and it represents today's best from an R&B/soul perspective. Black Messiah has come and we weren't ready.

100
The Irish Times
Lyrically he goes deep, as tracks address US society’s never-ending problems with race relations, as well as those trademark slo-mo, sultry romantic odes. Shows again that digging vintage grooves for inspiration is no bad thing when you’ve a master with his hands on the controls.
100
The Arts Desk

Black Messiah seems even more distinct, even more complete, even more total than its predecessors.

100
NOW Magazine

Once again, he brilliantly distills years spent studying the arrangements and analog recording techniques of that music into a personal style that carves out its own space between rhythm and melody.

100
Slant Magazine
The album would be vital in any time, but in 2014, it's downright restorative. Call its studio ethic retro-fetishism if you must, but truth is that everything about this album reaches into the past to bring us what the present needs.
100
Pretty Much Amazing

Is this the Second Coming of Sly, or Prince, or Stevie, or Marvin? No. This is the Second Coming of D’Angelo, not a close second, but a continuation of that lineage. We’ve waited fifteen years for his finest album to date.

100
A.V. Club

Black Messiah confirms that music holds the power to challenge and comfort, to take us someplace spiritual, political, and existential. It’s beautifully, devastatingly human.

100
Tiny Mix Tapes

D’angelo’s music is soul against evil. Murder, racism, violence, oppression, hatred: Black Messiah is protest music, healing music, a bomb and a balm.

100
AllMusic

The mere existence of his third album evinces that, creatively, he's doing all right. That the album reaffirms the weakest-link status of his singular debut is something else.

95
Paste
Messiah churns the “old school” in ways that bristle with vitality, yet are as fresh and urgent as anything on radio.
94
Pitchfork

Black Messiah is a dictionary of soul, but D'Angelo is the rare classicist able to filter the attributes of the greats in the canon into a sound distinctly his own.

91
Consequence of Sound

An artist of uncompromising power and originality, he has proven that he will not, cannot conform to the expectations of the music industry, his adoring fans, or anyone else. He is a delicate, impulsive genius of rare distinction, and this defiant streak is essential to the character of his music.

90
SPIN

Black Messiah is both ancient and fresh — a surging mass of old blues and new soul built from classic thought and rebel spirit, unending angst and beautiful struggle

90
Drowned in Sound

The genius of this record is that D’Angelo has managed to apply the sonic intricacy of Voodoo to his thematic approach.

90
PopMatters

Black Messiah ... has an old-school essence and is proud of it. D’Angelo and his fellow musicians, credited as the Vanguard, spent hours and hours in the studio jamming and shaping tracks, which is pretty much how Voodoo was constructed.

90
Clash

These carefree moments punctuate D’Angelo’s seemingly effortless virtuosity, helping to make ‘Black Messiah’, after all these years, a real showcase of his incredible talent.

90
Wondering Sound
D’Angelo challenges you to listen closely, and Black Messiah provides ample rewards for repeated listening.
90
Rolling Stone

Black Messiah shows how deep easy can go. D'Angelo and his band have built an avant-soul dream palace to get lost in, for 56 minutes of heaven.

90
The Line of Best Fit

Black Messiah is emphatic; it’s pertinently weird and beautiful and possessed; its rage is masterfully concentrated, its critique is devastatingly pointed.

90
NME

The good – no, the astonishing - news is that this constantly engrossing record repays a decade and a half's faith and patience.

90
HipHopDX

Black Messiah is ambitious and adventurous, and in that way it delivers wholly on the promise of D’Angelo as an artist. In another way it’s new and different for him, the sound is heavier and grittier in places, and more simple and sweeter in others. 

90
The 405

Vocally, Black Messiah is sparse, but sonically, it is accomplished and fulfilled. Every sound, every instrument, every lyric and harmony is in the place it needs to be.

87
Northern Transmissions

It’s a record that is aware of its own merits, and is fully confident that it will be loved, year-end lists be damned.

80
Complex

Black Messiah is a dynamite addition to the legacy of one of our greatest artists and the answer to a lot of people’s prayers.

80
Mojo

The singer’s reappearance in the post-Ferguson climate feels like nothing less than a superhero donning his cape. Black Messiah is an exquisite realisation of what D’Angelo does best.

80
The Independent

If Black Messiah doesn’t offer any answers, it at least maps out some of the emotional territory behind the battle.

80
The Needle Drop

After 15 years of studio album silence, D'Angelo returns with a fantastic comeback record.

80
Spectrum Culture

D’Angleo has explained that calling his album Black Messiah isn’t about glorifying himself, but about the need for everyone to lead. As suits the religious roots of an artist who withdrew from the world, it’s about the insurrection and the resurrection inside each of us.

80
The Sydney Morning Herald
This is a spellbinding return from D'Angelo, but the looseness intrinsic to its magic is deceptive.
80
FACT Magazine

While it isn’t without its flaws, it captures the zeitgeist in a way that few other albums have managed this year, and has both revelers and detractors speaking passionately.

AllAboutMusic
93

The wait between Brown Sugar and Voodoo was already long in itself. A 5 year span of no new music is typically considered to be a significant amount of time between releases. However, this is hardly anything compared to the 14 year wait fans had to go through before his eventual 3rd album. Which, considering his personal life post-Voodoo, it’s not difficult to see why. During those 14 years, D'Angelo struggled with alcoholism, cocaine addiction, deaths of family and friends, depression, ... read more

JaseW
95

When an artist this talented takes an unexpected hiatus fans can only ponder, fantasizing about the next effort. D'Angelo's glory is in full effect on 'Black Messiah' as he lays everything on the table, rediscovering his roots in the process and paying homage to legends who paved the way before him whilst encouraging those who'll follow in his footsteps. D'Angelo's always been meticulous about the way he composes his music, but this album has an air of freedom about it, the silky smooth vocals ... read more

DemaCalling96
85

14 years after D’Angelo created his turn-of-the-century masterpiece Voodoo, he returns with a more funk-influenced record called Black Messiah. And how well does it stand up against his first two? Well, it’s a lot weaker, but it’s still pretty great. While the first two albums felt like just a collection of neo-soul hits about making love and stuff like that, this album feels much more focused and forward. It feels like it has a message, and while the first two gave some of ... read more

SkyHigh696
95

Daddy D'Angelo makes another banger

77

It's a pretty sudden genre shift from neo-soul to rock which has me missing the sound of Voodoo and Brown Sugar. Black Messiah tries to emulate the feel of its predecessors but comes up short due to the lack of rich instrumentals. Thankfully, Betray My Heart showcases what I love about D'Angelo.

yemescudi
90

Woa

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Added on: December 13, 2014