D'angelo's 1995 debut! Remember how blown away you were when you first heard "Brown Sugar"? Dude was playing a B3 organ in that video on MTV, sandwiched in between TLC & Montell Jordan, and crooning over a track that blended bumping hip-hop beats du jour with a vibe that could've been the backdrop for Otis, Al, or Marvin, (just pick your favorite '60s or '70s soul singer) and straight killing it! This LP sounded like nothing else on the r&b landscape at the time, and while it's quite safe to say that Brown Sugar opened things up for the whole neo/progressive/leftfield/underground soul movement that brought us the likes of Erykah Badu and so on, the record doesn't necessarily feel confined to that speciously-titled genre. Two decades later, and this is simply a classic soul record which proclaims its rightful place in the canon, and doesn't sound the least bit dated. You just can't dispute the soul and confidence of tracks like "Jonz In My Bonz," "Me And Those Dreamin' Eyes Of Mine," and the done-me-wrong mastery of "Shit, Damn, Motherfucker." Not even Huey & Gwyneth can sully the memory of "Cruisin," and "Lady" is still a stealth banger. D'Angelo blends mid-'90s hip and deep-fried soul so effortlessly here that it's scary. And did I mention the super-loud double vinyl pressing? Buy it already, it might even get you laid. It's that good.

• black double vinyl pressing
• original release year: 1995
• music label: Virgin 2015

reviewed by Language 05/2005