Soul music legend D’Angelo has a new album out as of 6am Central African Time (midnight EST), today the 15th of December 2014. Quite a dramatic opening line… but why? Well, apart from the fact that D’Angelo is in many ways one of the central players in the rise of neo soul music and a true artist in every sense of the word, the new album entitled Black Messiah, is D’Angelo’s first studio offering in 14 years. Yep, you heard right… 14 YEARS. I don’t know about you but it’s not many people that can keep anticipation going for as long as that without releasing new material. D, as some like to call him, has been through a great deal over the past while – including drug addiction and issues with the law – and many didn’t think he’d have what it takes to bring out something new and fresh.
I had a chance to listen to Black Messiah just a few hours after its release and, I must say, it’s definitely not anything like his previous two albums Brown Sugar or Voodoo. Even those two couldn’t be more different from each other. And, for me, that’s what makes D’Angelo a standout vocalist and musician – always innovating and never content to stay in the same place creatively. Too many of us seem content to be handed the same ol’ same ol’ year after year but, thankfully, D is one of the very few that goes against the grain and actually respects his audience.
If you are fortunate enough to live in a country where Spotify is available (or know the tricks involved to hook it up in places where you shouldn’t be able to – naughty, naughty), you can stream the album there or you can purchase it on iTunes.
So… here’s the part where we let you know in very simple terms why we really love D’Angelo’s new album. First of all, it’s just really monumentally amazing, well-crafted soulful music. More than that though, it offers us living proof that we should never count anybody out for as long as they have life in them and it show us again that, if we try hard enough and have faith, we can rise again no matter what we’ve been through. Here’s to you, Michael Eugene Archer.