"D'Angelo burst on to the scene in 1995 with a debut album (Brown Sugar) that effectively reordered our musical palette, awakening memories of our parents' living rooms where the stereo was always cued up to Stevie, Marvin, Smokey and company. What made Brown Sugar such a seismic jolt in the 1990s R&B landscape though was its smouldering sensuality laced with undercurrents of hip-hop's don't-give-a-damnedness; studious, devoted instrumentality; and an infectious commitment to the art of the infinite jam."
"Lady is the sister, so to speak, to the title track of D'Angelo's audacious debut album. And whereas the latter introduced listeners to a hood Romeo on the make, Lady revels in the pleasures of a lover who's already won the chase and whose twinned passion for intimacy and privacy takes the form of a thick, bass heavy, groove recitation."
"Behold the birth of neo-soul. Leave it to D'Angelo, that rigorous forever-student of Black music history to close out his first album with a track that flaunts its sacred-meets-profane, pulpit-meets-the-juke-joint sensibilities."
Brown Sugar arrived in 1995 and reframed contemporary R&B by invoking classic soul touchstones while embedding hip-hop attitude and extended jam sensibilities. The record balances smouldering sensuality with studious musicianship and bass-heavy grooves that foreground intimacy and private desire. Tracks like "Lady" celebrate a lover who has already won the chase, while "Higher" fuses gospel iridescence and bedroom innuendo to imagine Black love as epic, communal, and transcendent. The album highlights the power of the soul falsetto and reasserts Black male vocal virtuosity amid a decade dominated by hip-hop MCs and producer-showmen.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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