Voodoo

Musically, D’Angelo’s Voodoo is very unique. The structure of many songs on this record is very loose and unconventional, and the density of D’Angelo’s vocal layering contrasts heavily with the soft instrumentation. Combine that with the 80 minute runtime, makes for a surprisingly inaccessible record, especially when you compare it to his debut Brown Sugar. It took multiple listens across 2 consecutive days for me to finally wrap my head around this album, to fully appreciate the incredible talent and musicality that D’Angelo and his collaborators displayed on this record. Voodoo manages to feel spontaneous and meticulous at the same time, the long extended musical passages with little to no structure gives a feeling that I’m listening to a live band jam session, riffing and improvising on the spot. Yet this album is so rich in its details, that it’s impossible to suggest that none of it is deliberate. It’s such an interesting dichotomy, and the main reason why I respect this album so much.

Despite its impressive musicality, every full listen of Voodoo I’ve had so far leaves me feeling unsatisfied after. With longer albums like this, this feeling is usually attributed to the record’s inconsistency, the artist had overindulged with the tracklist and diluted the quality of the album overall with the addition of a few duds and stinkers. Yet this is not my issue with Voodoo, it’s actually the opposite: the record is too consistent. Everything exists in the same energy level, constructed with the same components, and there’s not really a song that’s significantly better or worse than the others. It makes perfect sense, considering the album feels like one big live band jam session, but it’s like eating at the same restaurant every day. The food is always at the same high quality but you progressively get less and less enjoyment from it from having it over and over again. That’s how I feel about Voodoo, it’s a listening experience of diminishing returns, despite all the songs being on a similar quality level individually, when put together one after another, I respond less and less enthusiastically to the music the deeper I get into the record, to the point where it begins to drag when I finally get to the end stretch. It’s so unfortunate because songs like “Untitled” and “Africa” are such brilliant tracks when listened to in a vacuum, but that same feeling could not be replicated if I listened to the record front to back, and I have to judge the record as a whole, not merely just a sum of its parts. Maybe eventually this album will grow on me, and I really want it to, D’Angelo is such an outstanding talent, however this is currently where I stand with Voodoo — an impressive, albeit frustratingly flawed record.

Favs: “Left And Right”, “Spanish Joint”, “Send It On”