Black Messiah - D'Angelo and the Vanguard

Reviewing Black Messiah

0:00I'm Adam Maness. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear It podcast. Music explored. Explored brought today by Open Studio. Peter, go to OpenStudioJazz.com for... Oh, look at him. Look at him. He's backing up further. I had to bring it. For this one, because this is one of my favorite albums of the 21st century from one of my all-time favorite artists, the great D'Angelo.

0:36Man, this is a heavy album. It's literally heavy. It's a double record right there. The two LPs, the material's heavy. 2014's masterpiece, Black Messiah. Yes, yes. This was a big deal. This was a big deal when this record came out. And it feels like it was just yesterday because we're OGs, old guys. And what is that, 12 years ago? So I remember everything that was out around it, like Kendrick Lamar's To Bimple Butterfly, which was like really his huge breakthrough that year. Same year. I also remember that St. Vincent self-titled album was everywhere.

1:08And I was listening. I actually remember driving in my car, going between this and the St. Vincent album. And then Beck's Morning Phase, which I believe won the Grammy that year. Man, this was such a good year for music. There was so much good stuff from great artists. And we were waiting a long time for this album. I mean, since Voodoo, basically. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What, 14 years? Yeah. Yeah. This record is, I don't know, man. It's like, it's both raw and refined in such a sophisticated way. I mean, normally those two things don't coexist, but I really feel like they do here.

1:41It's both an extension of Voodoo, and it has nothing to do with Voodoo. And Peter, like all the great albums that we talk about on this show, they have to start with a banger. Yes. And this one's no different.

Ain't That Easy

1:50Absolutely.

Ain't That Easy

1:51First track is called Ain't That Easy. Oh, and it just eases its way. It's already started. Ah, shit. A little bit of Prince on those drums, you know.

2:37Come with me, can't cry.

2:42Oh.

2:45My darling, you're the average captain. You need the comfort of my love to bring out the best in you. I own that shit, yeah. See what you're giving me me. I'm separated from the grave. Stay with me, that's all you have to do. You can't leave me. You can't leave me. You can't leave me. Always. Just when I want you scared.

3:17You can't leave me. Ain't that easy. Oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah. Act on the verse. With the voice that you're playing beside. Yeah, I remember when I first heard this. I mean, I listened from the beginning of the CD, and I was like, okay, where are we going?

3:48You know, and I just... Satisfying. I want to take it back. So, this is such, like, the beginning of this, and I have a little bit of a reference point. I don't know if this is a conscious connection or whatever. But I always think about, we talk about how does a record start. Like, to me, this starts very unsettled, right? But then pretty quickly, it gets into some, like, obviously heavy groove. But it's still, like, it's a little bit menacing, right, underneath. And because of a lot of D'Angelo, at least for me, like, I can't... I don't focus in on the lyrics because I can't hear them or understand them.

4:20They're all beautifully laid out on some things in here. But I had the CD... They're mixed solo, first of all. Right. You know what I mean? But I wrote... Yeah, yeah, they're mixed low. He's in a lot of falsetto. There's a lot of layers. But the first thing I could hear on this, I remember, was like, you can't leave me. Yeah. You know, the hook at the chorus. It ain't that easy. Yeah, and then, so there was all this buildup to, like, the record. So it's, you know, definitely about, like, lovers leaving, whatever's staying. But it's also, like, it seems like a little bit of a play on he's been gone for 14 years to most people. Even though he's kind of been out there, but... I never thought about it like that. That's a great take. Because I remember when I heard that.

4:50But check out just the way that it starts because there's silence and then it just kind of comes in, right, with the sound.

5:03Like a guitar, right? But it's almost like sirens. It's like a psychedelic rock. It's like funkadelic or something. Right. And so what that reminded me of was, and I was trying to find it. Ooh, did we get this on here? Yes, here. Ever heard of this? Oh, perfect. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

5:25A little feedback. Of course. Ah, Peter, when's the Jimmy episode dropping? Come on, man. Which was not, like, the main connection, I think, with D'Angelo is voodoo being recorded at Electric Lady Studio. But also there was definitely an influence on D'Angelo's guitar playing. That's the other thing that I'm getting from the beginning of this, is that this is going to be a little bit guitar-heavy record. For sure. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. And we talked about this with Radiohead, they had their guitar record. Like, he's kind of putting it out there, right? It's good. It's a different sound than voodoo. It's D'Angelo. And it's a much different sound than Brown Sugar.

5:57Right.

5:59And the bass, okay, so this whole, damn.

6:04We're in trouble. We're already listening to one track again. The clap. That clap snare, that. And so that's kind of settled there, right? But then we've got a little bit of, like, a little bit of, is this going to be a rock rock record? What's going on? It has. You're absolutely right. The beat, right? But then it gets a... George Clinton. With those vocals. Come on. It's that mid-Atlantic country. It's that mid-Atlantic swampy country.

6:35That's right.

6:37But then you've got a little bit of that doo-ba-doo, you know. So it's like a lot of things. I think it's, you know, look... Yeah, shout out Virginia and the Carolinas for that. Thank you for that. Absolutely. James Genis. Steve Wilson. So many great musicians from there. George Clinton. George Clinton. Exactly. D'Angelo. But the thing is, I think that whether it's conscious or not, whether it's divine intervention, whether D'Angelo planned it, whether it was somebody else, whether it was by accident, whatever. I think these, what become great records, and sometimes it's on the first listening, the introduction,

7:09like, it's putting these elements out. It's just like a great story. You're going to hear these things. It's like opening up the loops, right? Guitars, a little bit of rock, a little bit of, like, Jimmy Hennig. I mean, man, it's so good. But then you're grooving. You've gotten the bluesy stuff. Because this record goes all over the place. It wasn't until I really came back, was studying for this, I realized how much, because I was hearing them live right around that time, how much this record goes on a journey when you're listening to it from beginning to end. Yeah, real quick. Let's talk a little bit about some of the personnel on this album. So we've got Questlove, James Gadsden, and Chris Dave are the three drummers listed in

7:44the credits. Of course, D'Angelo's longtime collaborator in the studio and on tour, Pino Palladino, on the bass. And it says the sitar, which we're going to hear a little bit. Well, and D'Angelo's playing bass on a bunch of stuff. The great Isaiah Sharkey on the guitar, too. Sorry. But it's not broken down anywhere. The things we're going to talk about, I did make notes on certain tracks where I know because either Russ Elavato or D'Angelo himself specifically said, it's not on any of the albums thing. And there's definitely some overlap where they come or go. There's sometimes when you know on bass, it's Pino.

8:15Well, because that was D'Angelo's process, right? He talked about it. Yeah. This is the instrumentation and how D'Angelo approaches specific on this record, I think. How much bass do you play on Black Messiah? I play bass. I play pretty much everything on all of the songs. And then after I'm done with the first Skeleton Blueprint, then I'll bring in my guys. I'll bring Pino in and I'll bring Amir. Or at the time, James Gasson played a lot of drums on the songs.

8:47A lot of times, there's times when just me and Amir, just be me and him. And he'll come up with the drum pattern and I'll sit there and write the music. Sometimes Pino will be in the room with us when we're doing that. But most of the time, it's me. Just starts it off. And then I'll bring Pino in. Yeah. So, I mean, that's kind of, that's what the process was like. Very different from Voodoo. Well, I shouldn't say very different, but different from Voodoo, right? Yeah, absolutely. Voodoo, when they're in the studio doing a lot of jams, playing stuff together.

9:19There is a couple tracks on that, on this, that are like that as well, that we'll make a note of. Shout out to, on background vocals and the co-writer of eight of these songs on the lyrics, vocalist Kendra Foster. Right. The only other vocals you hear on here. Yeah, that's right. Should we move on? And I hate to even... Yeah, let's do... Okay. Yeah.

A Thousand Deaths

9:35Next track is A Thousand Deaths. Yes. With Jesus, when I say Jesus, I'm not talking about some blonde hair, blue-eyed, pale skin, one of this complexion cracker, Christ. I'm talking about the Jesus of the Bible, with hair like lambs. I'm talking about that beauty. That's Fred Hampton and Khalid Abdul-Muhammad. That's got to be Gadsden there, right?

10:08It's the second track. It gets so chaotic, and then it makes way.

11:06There's... Man, that low end. Oh.

11:23I don't know if he was checking it out, but there is a little Kid A in this, actually. Yeah. There's a little bit of this dystopian thing happening in this track. Like, man, it's... And it's also... It's definitely got that...

11:38The production, you know, the Tribe Called Quest. With that, it's that bass... Man, everything's so great here. I want to jump ahead a little bit. I know this is your chance. You're famous. What are you doing? Well, we'll get to that in a minute. What are you doing? No, because, like, it keeps moving along, but then there's this transformation. What makes DeAngelo's music so special to me is, like, no matter what texture he's playing around with... What makes D'Angelo's music so special to me is like no matter what texture he's playing around

12:32with and this album uses some different textures than anything he's ever done it's much denser than voodoo like there's a lot going on all the time sonically and even musically yep but he's never too far away from the church he's never too far away from the blues right and like that comes through in our souls so hard you know what i mean like and it's going to kind of transform here in in just a couple seconds we're four and a half minutes in

13:06we're gonna actually go right in with the transition to the next two oh this is great bass and drums at the end it's like it's like funkadelic and prince and sly all wrapped up glorious package and then

14:00we're gonna transition into the charade coming up here track number three this is a great transition record too there's so many i hope this lets us but you can hear it even in this first two tracks this like never ending that that that that that that that that is already happening right now it's

Charade

14:27beautiful this is charade now we're opening up and this is just the trio and they cut this live pinot quest love and um d'angelo just three of them sitar

14:59sitar they did this live a bunch this is a great quest love oh man you're right the first part of this album is a little like a rock album it is it is and then it starts opening up in the middle not yet

15:36i've never thought about it like yeah that's why a lot of people listen to this from the beginning and they're like wow okay yeah yeah yeah yeah that's that's the sitar bringing it the electric sitar we got to get a sitar around here yeah

16:12yeah man can i stop killing this yeah yeah yeah Yeah, this is some request, huh?

16:55Yeah, okay, so the lyrics on this, I had to print them up because we were talking about this. Something is so lost, but it is fun if you're able to look at it. It is printed in here, too. Okay, but he's got one of the great lines in here. All the dreamers have gone to the side of the road, which we will lay on, inundated by media, virtual mind fucks in streams. Yeah, yeah. This is a deep track. I think Questlove's killing it, obviously. Yeah, he sounds great on this.

17:25Yeah. I mean, playing like a rock part. Yeah, it's just like a rock trio. Yeah, the breaks are incredible. Sounds so good. So we're three tracks in and we're already seeing like a kind of a variety of themes that he's talking about. And there's going to be more coming. There's going to be a third prong to this. But this is why this album, I think, more than voodoo, it reminds me of a couple of albums. So I think a lot of people talk about this album reminding them of Sly and the Family Stones, There's a Riot going on, which I think is true.

17:56Well, especially that track. The Shrede, for sure. Or like, here's Family Affair from There's a Riot going on.

18:12We got to do some slide, too. All right, next season. We already got orders for next season. But I also think, and I haven't heard people talk about this, but I think it's got a little of this going on, too.

18:24Maybe not musically, but as smooth. But like the themes of Marvin Gaye's What's Going On are there's some social things happening, obviously. But then there's also some spirituality that we're going to hear later on here in Black Messiah. I mean, just the title, Black Messiah. But he does, you know, we think about prayer and some of the more spiritual sides of this album. And then there's Love and Sex, which is a huge part of this music. And D'Angelo actually talks about like the line between spirituality and love and sex is very blurry for him. Yeah. And he references in the interviews Marvin specifically in talking about that.

18:55Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, but to me, it's like, it's those. And I would even put, too, just on the spirit of the album, maybe not thematically, but a little bit, an album we've talked about here, Prince's Sign of the Times. In that this is, I think, the process that D'Angelo talked about making this seemed not quite like Prince, you know, locking himself away and making all those tracks mostly himself. Yeah. D'Angelo did that. And then he brought in his, you know, the Vanguard to play over what he was playing. But he created these, not like Voodoo, where it was like a bunch of musicians hanging out for years, making the things in real time together.

19:27Yes. This is more of just him and his playground doing his thing. Yeah. And that reminds me of Sign of the Times. That's awesome. Now let's go on to track number four. So this is, we're going to introduce a new character here in the band. And this is the great Roy Hargrove. That's right. Your old friend, R.I.P. Roy, one of the greatest jazz musicians of this or any generation, truly, and was a part of Voodoo. It was a huge part of Voodoo. Yeah. And I mean, exactly, Voodoo and this record, I think, and was probably the best sort of cross-pollinator ambassador

19:59coming from truly the jazz world. Yeah. I mean, D'Angelo in his own way, you know, stepped in. We're going to hear some, there's some scatting on this record. There's some piano solos, guitar solos, and we're about to hear a lot more walking bass lines than we would expect. But Roy was a leader on our scene. Exactly. But then he crossed over into, in the most, you know, seamless and authentic and genuine way out of his love for soul, R&B, and hip-hop in a way that I think is very similar, you know, very similar age group to D'Angelo and a lot of the same influences, a lot of the same kind of outlook

20:32and singularity in terms of, like, dedication to, I mean, I remember Roy just having the chance to work with him and know him for a number of years, but especially the short time when I was in his band, like, I hadn't been around anybody that was around my age, and we were exactly the same age, that had so much focus in their early 20s and, like, could, like, push out the noise. I mean, now it's like the noise, the world has gotten even more noisy. But even at that time, you know, we were all like, you know, Roy was just like, boom, boom, boom. If it was a solo, if it was writing a thing, if it was showing something

21:04on the piano, whatever, man, he had that kind of thing. And I know him and D'Angelo really connected, you know, years before this. Yeah, I mean, just speaking from, I think, most musicians of our generation, like your generation, and even a little older than you probably, influenced by Roy, just as, like, a spiritual leader of the music. Yeah. You know, of, like, here's the way it can be done in a way that is not, that doesn't feel like you're leaving yourself out of it or betraying anything that you want to do whilst making music that people want to hear. Yes. You know, like, this incredible combination of this knack he had for that. And I think participating in things like this,

21:35things he did with Common, is, like, just proof that he was sort of beyond really small-minded, judginess things that a lot of jazz musicians might put themselves into. No, he busted the door open for that, for everything, you know, Robert Glasper, everybody that came after him, you know, was a debt of gratitude. We all do. What's up, everybody? Just butting in here to let you know that if you're digging all of this music by the great D'Angelo and you're itching to dust off your instrument and learn how to play some of these songs, we got you covered. Head over to the You'll Hear It Players Club

22:07and learn how to play some of the greatest music in the world from scratch. This week's lesson I cover really love from this Black Messiah album. I teach you how to play the chords, where to put your hands on the keyboard, the rhythm that you might play. Whether you played a long time ago or you've never played the piano, we're going to get you playing really loved by D'Angelo. At the You'll Hear It Players Club. Check out the show notes to learn more. Okay, so this is... Oh, and on top of that, this track is amazing. Right. Was this the one that they dropped like the day before? I think it was. Yeah. Yeah. They dropped this as like a kind of fake-out single like the day before the record came out.

22:41And the world rejoiced. The world rejoiced.

Sugar Daddy

22:43Sugar Daddy. Christmas came early. Yeah. It's almost like, you know, playing on your... Yeah, it is some kind of like padding. Yeah. It's so playful. Is Roy already playing something?

23:14This is so playful coming from everything that we've heard. Charade, A Thousand Deaths. And he plays the piano like a little different every time.

23:53I was learning it earlier. I was like, oh, it's such a hip transition.

23:59We just modulated up a whole step. Little Roy there, jumping in.

24:11Oh, no, here.

24:15There it is.

24:17A little hint. Ghost of Roy.

24:21Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo!

24:36Hey!

24:42Man, the production on this is incredible.

24:49Which is really D'Angelo, Questlove, Russ Alvato, and Ben Kane, engineers. I'm just struck by Peter.

25:22I don't want this to ever end, but this is one of those things. We're talking about all the influences coming in for everybody, but the fact of the matter is the combination of everything, the alchemy of it, could only come from one mind. And as we were just listening, I was like, this could only be a track that D'Angelo could write and produce and perform. Just the way it is, it's like so him. It's like, to me, that is one of my all-time favorite. But Sugar Daddy is one of my all-time favorite D'Angelo tracks.

25:53I mean, actually, this whole run we're about to go on in this album, this middle section is like banger after banger. It's incredible. And it's so different than what we've heard, yet it fits so well. I mean, I listened to this thing all the way through to check, and I'm like, it's like a roller coaster, and you're just at this part. But I mean, this is a D'Angelo, like you're absolutely right. He's the architect, right? So it's like the voice, but it's the production in terms of like how these different elements, like when the guitar first comes in, we're like a minute and a half in. I know. I would have started that at the beginning. I would have been like, like, come on, let's come on, groove. And all those piano lines of the...

26:25Satisfying. You know what I mean? They're all a little bit different. And then like the breaks with the drums, and then when Roy comes in and the phase shifting and stuff. And this is another D'Angelo thing I remembered, you know, from reviewing all this and really trying to look at it closely. He pays so much attention to the ends. And by the end, sometimes it's like the last minute, or sometimes it's the last 30 seconds. And there's always cool stuff happening. We talked about this with In Rainbows, right? It's like these great albums. It's like there's these two sections of these songs. Yes. It's some stunning stuff. And in a way, it's almost like this massive Easter egg

26:55at the end of a lot of these tracks. I just wanted to jump, if I can figure out how to do that on here, maybe to the last minute or so. I mean, we should just listen to the whole thing. You mean you can't figure out how to do a progress bar, Peter? I did it. It's 2026. Everything's getting like... It's really just the whole tune is just one idea. But this.

27:21The way Roy changed. Roy wrote all these lines. The way Roy wrote... Is this doing mouthpiece there?

27:58Yeah.

28:02Yeah. We talked about it on the Voodoo album, but Roy's contribution is melody. I mean, the man was like a melody machine. All of his melodies, even when he's kind of playing the guitar with the trumpet on those last... Like all these little things, like to be this rhythmic instrument all of a sudden. But his melodic choices are always so compelling, always so inevitable. They feel like they've always existed and yet they're completely fresh. And then he's got all those little Ds.

28:31Like he just changes the articulation a little bit, which makes it so... It's not just like a fade out or repetitive thing or loop it. It just, it like keeps you right there and just... And I love the mouthpiece layer. There's a layer of mouthpiece. Mouthpiece alone. So great. Okay. So that transitions right into number five. One of the all-time great songs of the 2010s. Yeah. Honestly. I remember when they did this on SNL, like the day after the... Weekend after the record came out. Thank you.

29:06Incredible string writing here from Brent Fisher. And there's a bunch of over five... Can we bring back to five and a half, six-minute pop songs, please? Seven minutes. He's doing it. Not everyone has to. Can you translate for us, please? Can you translate for us, please? She's saying that... I don't know. The F minor... The strings on the F minor chord are beautiful.

29:37She's not saying that. Although... I love a major 7. Although that would be great bedroom talk for me. You've dreamt of that for many years.

29:46Talk to me about harmony in Spanish. Some kind of French horns or something, right? Yeah, there's some woodwinds. Yeah, some woodwinds and strings. Oh, yeah.

30:12We're at a minute 25. French horns, by the way, often included in a woodwind section in these chamber contexts. Ah.

30:29Double guitar, acoustic.

30:39I think this is maybe D'Angelo's greatest melody writing. This is an incredible melody. This could be a jazz standard.

30:47Two minutes and ten seconds in.

Really Love

31:02The walking bass.

Really Love

31:03What do you need to do? Well, I'm gonna really love you. I'm gonna really love you. When you look at me, oh boy. Open up and still leave. I'm gonna love something with me. To you, but I'm gonna really love you. To do well. I'm gonna really love you. I'm gonna really love you. I'm gonna really love you.

31:40Hang it out. This is so great. I remember, do you remember what he was wearing and how the band looked and how it was lit on the SNL?

32:10I just, you know, it was actually January, so it was a couple of weeks later, but it was... This is one of, I think, three or four songs where there's like a literal quarter note walking bass line. Yes. Yeah. And the harmony of this is so interesting. So there's some deep things about this that I want to talk about. So I mentioned the arrangement of the strings and the woodwinds. It was done by... Sorry, I just want to get... Claire Fisher's son, Brent Fisher. So if you know mid-century, like, pops, arranging, writing, composing, Claire Fisher was, is one of the most respected...

32:49Pensativa. Pensativa, Mourning, some incredible standards, but also just like some incredible music. But the boom, Scott, but the boom, boom. It was on a clear day you can see forever. But this is Claire Fisher. So this is Brent Fisher's father. Brent Fisher at the time had taken over his father's music company.

33:16But I... Took over his arranging style, too. Well, that's just the thing. I mean, that's how deep, I think, D'Angelo's, like, thread with roots of things. Like, the entire composition of this, from the walking bass line to this harmony, which is... I mean, this is a Jerome Kern style. We're moving up and forth all the things you are kind of vibe he's going for here and the way the harmony moves. This is some really... I mean, it's like this mix between this, like, pulsating walking bass line and this old school harmony.

33:47And then you put in that sort of Brent Fisher arranging that, of course, like, has this lineage of Claire Fisher in it. I just think it's like... It just speaks to how deep D'Angelo went and how incredible he was, like, lining up all of these elements to make something this great, like, to fulfill his vision. I think it's a really cool move. And like I said, the harmony of this... This is the cycle that you heard in songs in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Right. Right?

34:18I think that's... And that's why it has, even if you weren't around then, that nostalgic, like, you know, you're looking off and then something's a little fuzzy. It's not, like, clear, you know, really love. I mean, it's... D'Angelo captured that and took the lyrics and the melody and placed it in the harmony in a way that's so soulful and authentic. Yeah. There's something dreamy about it. There's something, like, Joe Beam about it. There's something Claire Fisher about it. And I think it's just really brilliant. Yeah. It's such a nice change-up pitch.

34:48And it just, like I said before, it doesn't hurt, too, that melodically speaking... It has more of that cycle of a songbook melody than some of his other songs does. And he crushes it. Oh, it's incredible. He's great at it. And it's such a, it's got that simplicity, you know, it's diatonic, it's very, it's not like, I mean, look, he goes a lot of different places at different times with advanced harmony and stuff, especially in terms of, you know, the vocal harmony.

35:20But it's just so, he's such a, like, tender spirit. That's what you get from his music all over it. And to get to this point from where the record started, though, you know, he's got that other side of him, and it's all him. But I also think you mentioned about, and just to hear it a little bit more, the walking bass line. And so that's that, that's Pino Palladino, of course, famously. And, you know, it's muted. He's playing all this stuff down, too.

35:50I mean, not, he's tuned down onto everything. He does the D, D, G, whatever it is. DG. In force. CF. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Instead of EGAD. He's not going to EGAD. He knows EGAD. D'Angelo talked about this, and they had connected years ago, and Pino, that's D'Angelo's guy, you know. But D'Angelo talked about why that is with these bass lines. And it's different. It's like funk bass lines. It's these. But a lot of them are not, like, that's not a, I mean, it's a walking bass line, but it's not like a, it's like, it's got this other thing to it.

36:25It's church. It feels like. It's church, yes. It's got something, it's more akin to, like, Stevie Wonder. Yes. It's the way, like, church and R&D guys call swinging. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. And it's just so great. But here, check out what D'Angelo said about Pino and part of the reason that they connect. Pino, we've been working together so long. Yeah. And when he plays the bass, first of all, he's such a master. But when he's playing the bass, when he comes and he's playing my music, his bass playing in my left hand on the keys, he has the ability to mirror my left hand in such a way where it's hard to tell the difference.

37:06Even amongst ourselves. So cool. And the other musicians, too. Yeah, and he talked about, I mean, this is after Black Messiah came out, and that's what the interview was about. But years before that, he talked about when they first played together. Actually, on a B.B. King session, I believe it was, we covered in an earlier podcast about how they just, you know, immediately connected over. And he's saying, like, mirror the thing. I think a lot of that is feel, too. It's not even so much, yes, it's like harmony, of course, they can hear that. But it's like the way they approach the beat. And a lot of people try to break it down, like, oh, it's the Dilla thing.

37:38Like, that's a little something different. That's part of it, too. But this is very, because I heard. They're contemporary. So it's not like they're just, like, being influenced totally by Dilla. Right. They're a part of building that. Right. And also, I've heard in an interview before when people ask D'Angelo about that, where they're like, yeah, you're doing that Dilla thing. And he's like, you know, talks about how much he loved Dilla. But he was very reticent, D'Angelo, just to say, oh, it's just playing behind the beat. The way he referred to it, and I'm paraphrasing. I apologize. I think it was a written interview. But he basically was saying that when you have great musicians that feel the music, it can go a lot of different places.

38:13That's right. It's not about, oh, we're going to make it feel back, or we're going to make it feel forward. Or it's like, where does it feel good, you know? And he didn't want to be put in a box as far as, like, because he didn't see it that way. He's just like, no, we're just, like he said, we're just mirroring. He's mirroring what I'm doing here. We're locked in. We're dialed in. I think every jazz musician that plays 4-4 Swing understands the importance of that. Yes. You know what I mean? And that's what it is. And that's really the jazz side of D'Angelo. Like, that's Ray Brown at Thickpen. Like, that's this push and pull that happens in a 4-4 context.

38:45Christian McBride and Greg Hutchinson. I've been on the bandstand feeling that. It's so great. There's nothing better. And it lights our souls on fire, that feel. It's great. Hey, everyone. Taking a break real quick. We throw around a lot of music theory terms here in the show. If you're Googling things like, what is a triad? Hold on. I'm Googling. What is a triad? What is a Lydian chord? How do you spell Lydian? You know how to play that, bro. Good news. We have all the answers for you in the liner notes. You'll find the liner notes companion guide with clear, simple explanations of the contents we explore in this episode in the episode description.

39:19Download the liner notes for this episode for free today. Should we move on? No. Keep it going. Do it again. This is... Okay. I love this track. I had forgotten about this. I hadn't listened to it in a couple years for some reason, last time I kind of went through the whole... The whole back... I mean, the whole album, Peter, this... I think the back half might have won the thing, man, you know? I mean, but the front half is so good. I know. But everything is so good. And we're not even... Well, yeah, we're almost in...

Back to the Future

39:41We're almost right in the middle here, actually. We're in the middle with Back to the Future. So this is Back to the Future. Part one. Yeah. Hewee Lewis? Kind of. I don't know.

39:51The lyrics on here, he's a great... Hard to hear, but great. Oh.

40:00This has got some tri-production elements on it, for sure. Yeah, we should mention... I don't know if we've mentioned Q-Tip's name yet, but his... He co-wrote a couple of the... He's all over this album, too. I mean, his influence is... You could tell, looms large. Yeah. On DeAngelo's. This is another kind of bass line-y, swing-y kind of... Especially towards the end. Man, that... That guitar... What a brilliant little architect. It keeps coming back to the end. It starts menacing at the end. Again, the bass line pumping out. Yeah. Eighth notes here. Yeah. Eighth notes here.

40:35Ah! And when he... This is some of the most direct DeAngelo vocals, easy to hear, ever. Great strings on this, too. And when all you're praying, turn your backs on you.

41:05Ooh. I've been reminiscing over what you've been missing. Can be just like cousins kissing. That's my boom. Boom. Said, I just wanna go back, baby. Back to the way of what. Nah, nah, nah. I just wanna go back, baby. Back to the way of what. Now, say, I used to get real high. We're kind of... With this song, too, we're kind of entering the spiritual corner of the album. Yeah. Back to the way of what.

41:36Back to the way of what. Back to the way. Back to the way. When I hear blues. You gotta come back again. Bass blues. Oh, man. Oh, man. Shit ain't changed the building. Think it's with a little piss man. Okay. Look, I could just groove on this all the time. I do want to jump. This is another... Oh, man. The whole end of this is great. Can I jump to the end on this? Are you okay with the endings, man? I love the ending, too.

42:06Yeah. I jumped. Said, I just wanna go back, baby. Back to the way of what. Nah, nah. Because this is really like a vamp tune, right? Back to the way of what. Nah, nah. But now they got cut loose. Keep the high. Nah, nah. Now just get a butt. Nah, nah. I said, back to the way of what. I said, I just wanna go back, baby. Back to the way of what. Here we go. I just wanna go back, baby. Back to the way of what.

42:37I said, I used to get real high. I'll do it now. Now just get a butt. Oh, well. I'll do it now. I said, back to the way of what. Starting to move around. I mean, we're like five minutes in before it gets all this. Oh.

43:02Now here we go. Totally new harmony.

43:08And he's gonna bring this back. This is church here. This is church harmony. I mean, it's jazz harmony. They're too dominant.

43:21This is very Marvin. Back to the future.

43:28Yeah. Incredible harmony. Man, it's such a cool combination. That's what I'm saying. I sound like I'm just naming shit. And I am. But it's like gospel. But it's also very jazz. One, six, two, five. Too dominant. Yeah, I mean, the changes at key of G.

43:43Yeah. B, seven. And he doesn't go to any of that until. A, seven. What are we? We're five minutes into the tune. And then he does that flat seven. Yeah. Yeah. So great. But he will come back to that. There's an extended thing at the end. Back to the future. Part two. Yes. Yeah. Which is very different. They go to the year 2016, I think. Yeah. Okay. Should we move on here? Remind me at some point, I want to talk about, because I've got this great thing, and it won't be me talking. You'll love it. D'Angelo talking about his three biggest influences. Oh, I heard that. Yeah.

44:14So we'll throw that in when it feels appropriate. Let's do it now. Should we do it now? Okay. Here we go. D'Angelo talking about his three biggest influences. That's great. And those were my first musical. The Bee Gees and those two. The Bee Gees, Walter Hawkins, and Maggie Ingram. Now, think about it, right? So Walter Hawkins, those musicians, they were young, great musicians from out of Oakland, which is a folk and the quiet and the gospel thing. Okay. Maggie Ingram and the Ingramettes, the three sisters, the three Ingramettes, they had a

44:48very way, way high range, and their harmonies were just beautiful, beautiful harmonies, and they sing way up there. That's two. And then the Bee Gees with the disco, funk, pop thing and the falsettos. Yeah. So it only makes sense that when I first heard Prince, I was love at first bite. It was just instant for me. Yeah. It's so amazing what kind of clarity he had with his influence.

45:19That's what I'm saying. He was very laser focused. We're talking about a lot of different styles that he was very adept with pulling together to be D'Angelo's style. You look at that guy. And this was actually, I think when he was like five years old is what he's talking about. That Walter Hawkins stuff he's talking about? Yeah. Yeah. The Hawkins family. Unbelievable. Oh, it's so great. And I love, I wasn't familiar with this Maggie Ingram and the Ingramettes. I think there was a local quartet from where he was. Yeah. During this time, you know, D'Angelo was playing in the church, was playing piano by age five. And so I have this idea.

45:50At church. He was playing piano in church at age five. In church at age five. You know, in trying to go, it's always easier to be like, oh, well, of course, D'Angelo, we have these three incredible records, this, you know, these, you know, the live album. This is amazing what he's done. How did he get to this point? Oh, he's just born a genius. Okay. Well, let me just deconstruct this a little bit. By age five, he came up in the church. His father was a pastor. His grandparents, that was, I think, in the city in Richmond, but his grandparents went to a country church. We're going to hear some of that influence. Well, we just heard a little bit. We're going to hear some more. So he had these wonderful musical influences.

46:21He heard a fair amount of jazz. He heard blues. He heard a lot of R&B, soul, but mostly church music, especially at this young age. You know, you're five years old. You're my mom and dad. But then he's in there before he could read. You get the feeling that he spent a lot of time at church, too. He spent a lot of time. It was a very serious church. Like he talks about in the interview, like they didn't call him God, Jesus, Yahweh, only Yahweh. And like they didn't associate with the Baptists and stuff. You're not showing up for 35 minutes on Sunday. No, no, no. That's a three or four day weekday. So he's in there. And then his aunt is a choir director.

46:51And so she's the way they would do the choir arrangements in a lot of churches still. But at that time, they bring her on a cassette tape. This is the song we're doing on Sunday. You got to learn this for choir practice. You're learning everything by ear. So he's learning that. He's learning to do this by ear. Yeah, I heard him say he would pick out, like his aunt would make him pick out the soprano, the alto, the tenor. Yeah, so like that's literally ear training. When you're five. That's the purest sense, like that's the most advanced level of ear training. So to learn that, that's like saying, okay, before you go to kindergarten, we're going to teach you like four different languages.

47:22For sure. You know what I mean? Which is possible. Like if you have people that are, so, and then you're immersed in it all the time. So then later on, he did some classical lessons, not a huge amount of songs. He said like for a couple of years when he's like 11, 12, 13. Perfect time. Which is probably the perfect amount. Yeah, yeah. So you don't go, you know, so like he had. But you get, you understand now that world a little bit of notation a little bit. Right. And then he played some jazz, but he said he was very interested in playing jazz. And we talked about the last pod on, on, on D'Angelo about how he went to Ellis Marsalis, who was teaching at University of Virginia and Richmond during that time.

47:52And he's like the only jazz, he's like played me a jazz song. I think he was like 13 or 14 or something. And the only, he's like the only jazz song I knew was Anita Baker. So it's like, he had these limitations in the sense of, we would say like, oh, you haven't learned Charlie Parker's solo by the, oh, you're, but he had this expansive knowledge from an even younger age of the foundations of music. Ear training, melody, voice leading, like in the most authentic and organic way, trained over and over again for choir practice four times a week.

48:25And, you know, it's just like, it's like you're inundated. I mean, it's like, it's like you're the kid of an NBA player and you're just on the court all the time. Yeah. But, but, but, but at such a young age and you're learning everything. And obviously he had a whole bunch of talent and interest in this. And then he took these restrictions, which I think worked in his favor. He didn't have like a huge piano technique. He could play though. You can hear it all over this. He learned guitar later. So like he had an understanding of music that would enable him to go like that Prince level. Like, wait, you know, I think I can leave Stevie Wonder. Yeah. I think I can learn this instrument. I think I can do this because he learned the basics, the foundations of music that a lot of people don't learn.

48:59Like, even if they get to Juilliard or Indiana or Berkeley or the new school, they're, they have holes that you have to learn at that time. Yeah. He learned all that before he was out of the single digits. Well, and maybe most importantly, Peter, just hearing him talk about it, it seems like his vision was probably his most valuable asset. Like his, he knew what he wanted. And like he said, like when he first heard Prince, he's like, there it is. There it is. That's what I can do. Yeah. And thank goodness, because we're all benefiting from it. And yeah. Yeah. I mean, just great, but great breakdown. I think you're absolutely right.

49:30Like developing those tools so early and so deeply too, like from that young age, I mean, this is what you get. And then if you have confidence and you have vision. That gives you a lot of confidence. For sure. When you got the skills like that. Then you're not swayed to like, oh, I do have to go to jazz school and learn Charlie Park. Just do your thing. Like do what you want to do. I mean, he went to New York, got a record concert and made a great record. I heard him talk too that he, he, he like specifically was like, I'm not going to be like a local artist here. I'm going to, I'm going to not play these local shows. I'm going to focus on writing my own music. Cause he had done a lot of that. And getting signed. Yeah.

50:00He had done a lot of that in high school. Cause everything was pressed forward because he learned all this foundational music, um, in the church. And then piano vocals. And then he had the vocal group, you know, four part harmony. Like he had all that stuff very early. And then by the time he's in high school, he had like a hip hop group. So he's emceeing also, which he got really interested in, but he's also doing all the like cover stuff for, for the R and B stuff. You know, the new Jack swing and Teddy Riley, all the stuff that was happening. Guy, he talks about like, he would do talent, talent shows and doing all these songs, you know, I'll be sure.

50:32And so he's like, I did all that. And so he's further developing his ear by learning all this stuff, learning the thing. And then by the time he's 19, he's like, oh, I can write something. I'm ready. You know, of course this, he's 40 when he comes out. So now you've got a mature artist that even traditionally, as we've said, like you think, oh, you're just coming into your own. How many great artists have we seen? Wait, what's under this? Oh yeah. This would be a little foreshadowing for some other. I'll talk about some fun records. A little Love Deluxe. Is this a good time for a little, a little break about the You'll Hear a podcast coming soon? Yeah. Are these some, well, in Rainbows, we've already done. We did that. Waltz for Debbie, we've already done.

51:03Yeah. A little Sade Love Deluxe coming, Peter. That's going to be fun. But it's just to say that a lot of these artists, it's like they're in their 30s when they're, so, so the fact that this came out in his 40s, but anyway.

Till It's Done

51:14All right.

Till It's Done

51:15Next up, we've got Till It's Done 2-2. Yes. Till It's Done 2-2. Track number seven. We've got to move things along. Great press roll there.

51:26This is the trio live recording again.

51:35This is kind of a Marvin Gaye. The lyrics kind of environmental awareness. Ah. Kind of got a Memphis thing going on in this one.

52:10Yeah. Give the world ACCD and we belong. Circle the furry sun. Let's see if we can't. What have we become? Tragedy close to our town. And there's no place to run. Till it's done. Questions that hold to us. We object upon. So the title of this is Till It's Done, and apparently, Tutu in parentheses, and apparently

52:57D'Angelo, as far as I could tell, never really talked about what, was that Desmond Tutu? Yeah. Or was that, okay, I'm going to go out on a limb here. This is a little bit, he loved Prince, right? Miles Davis had a great record. I knew you were going to say it. That was, I was going to say it wasn't that much earlier than this. It was actually quite a bit earlier. What am I going to talk about? It was like 30 years. No, no. It was like 10 years or something. What? Tutu? Tutu? Yeah. Miles Davis, Tutu? Yeah. Was that 90s? Oh, 90s? That's only like one record for D'Angelo. This is from 2014, buddy. Dude, I told you at the beginning, we're old, man.

53:28That's a decade. How long ago do you think the 90s was? That decade is nothing. Anyway, Tutu, you know that record? That was supposed to be Prince and Miles Davis. Yeah, that's right. That's why I was like, and D'Angelo loves, okay, maybe I'm going too far. Anyway, it's one of those. There you go. I like the speculation. Next up, this is, man, this is really beautiful. This is Prayer. Okay. Oh, yeah, this is bad. This is badass.

53:56Slow press, slow press, slow press. Do we think that maybe that's a, maybe this is the Chris Dave one? Right, exactly. It could be.

54:19Yeah. That sounds like a move bass or a movish bass. Is that?

54:30Yeah, it does, doesn't it?

54:35And this, he wrote. His textures are so beautiful. This was actually written, I believe, in the voodoo days. This is one of the oldest songs. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Russ Alavada talked about that. I know that he will, he won't try to stop you from seeing your day, but you gotta pray all the way.

55:13This is a lot of scripture in here. Like, when you see the lyrics, like, he breaks up the Lord's Prayer and a bunch of other things. I love that track. Great stuff. Actually, it goes some really cool places. And then later on, man, it gets the guitar, the guitar comes heavier. That lead guitar is so far in the background in the mix.

56:12Literally behind everything.

56:31Yeah, I mean, it's like the anti-fade, but because it's so far in the background, it's great stuff. Okay, we're coming up to track number nine.

Betray My Heart

56:40The third single, Betray My Heart. Oh, that's right. This was a single? Yeah. Is this Michael McDonald's on Michael McDonald's? Is this Michael McDonald's on keys? He's got the sound. You're going to hear it when it comes there. This is all D'Angelo on keys. This is great. Roy, again, this is probably kind of the tour de force, you know, for Roy. Got great walking bass line. Should we talk about it or play it? Let's play it. Okay. And then talk about it.

57:05Great segue to go into it.

57:08Church bells coming out of prayer.

57:14Where's the beat? Is that up or is that down? Not everybody breaks at the same time. It's so cool. It's so cool.

58:11It takes forever to get to the bridge, but it's so great when it gets there.

58:41That's why it's that Michael McDonald on keys. To be clear, it's not actually Michael McDonald. No, it's not Michael McDonald. It's the sound.

59:11What do you call it? Back phrasing? This is like triple backphrases. Triple backflip. When you're feeling down, down, down, down, you're my soul, you can't depend on me. You don't ever have to feel that my life's not sincere. I will never drain my heart. I will never drain my heart. I will never drain my heart.

59:45Yeah. This album's so good, dude. It's a full thing. Like the real support of a dream. Like the bloody old thing. I will never drain my heart. This album's so good, dude. It's a full thing. I will never drain my heart.

1:00:17I will never drain my heart. I will never drain my heart. I will never drain my heart. Here we go.

1:00:56Finally at the bridge.

1:01:11This was a single. Yeah.

1:01:17Didn't shark because it was a jazz single. I'm going to say it didn't actually. They released the jazz track as a single. That's crazy. I can't imagine why.

1:01:32It's so great. Roy's.

1:01:35This is actually the best part. I can't stop it. You're doing it.

1:01:41Oh, listen to that. Oh, check out what happens here. If you listen closely. Okay.

1:01:59Wait, hold up. I got to take it back a little bit more. Sorry. Okay. So there's the breakdown. And then I think they must have been playing this live because like the baseline stops and somebody says like, and they just keep going. Oh, it's so great. Now I'm not going to be able to find it. We don't know.

1:02:15It's such a great climax. Oh, it's so great. I'm not going to be able to find it. Oh, I'm not going to be able to find it. Oh, I'm not going to be able to find it. I'm not going to be able to find it. Here it is I think.

1:02:29Oh, the mix. Then he's back on it.

1:02:50That's great, man. That's great. Man, it's just, I mean, it's just one thing. It takes forever to get to that bridge, but it's so killing, man. So patient. Next up, we've got The Door. Man, this is like, this blew my mind when I first heard this track. This, like, I feel like the progression and then the entry point to this as the 10th track works totally, but it's such a, he's going on to the country. Okay, now I'm projecting, I didn't hear him say this, but he talked about his grandparents out the country church outside of Virginia.

1:03:20And look, Richmond's already kind of country, let's be honest. This is coming from us, we live in St. Louis. This is a big city like Richmond that's kind of country too. Yeah, 100%. So when you go out of the country, outside of a country city. Yeah, there are cows not two miles from where we're sitting right now. That's right, right. But, I mean, this is like, I don't know, let's play it. And I just, I want to get your take because we didn't prepare on this because we wanted it to be raw in terms of our opinion on this. But I think this is one of the most, like, offbeat, expansive, and, you know, kind of indescribable, maybe, you know, multi-genre.

1:03:51I don't know. Let's just check it out. Okay.

The Door

1:03:53This is The Door. Okay.

1:03:57Pedal, steel. Is that pedal steel, though? That's just slide guitar, isn't it? Oh, slide guitar. Oh. Yeah, I think that's slide guitar. And that little funny tag.

1:04:32Oh. What's she saying there? We don't know. In your hand, you held my line. In your hand, you held my... Weird extra two beats, right?

1:05:16Oh, man. As any good country song has, it's like phrasing around the melody makes it a little bit uneven. It's like, it's country, it's very bluesy the way, it's not like blues, but the way it adds the beats whenever it needs it, right?

1:05:34But the harmony, it's actually some of the most jazzy harmony on the whole record, too. Peter, I don't know if you remember, I love this track so much, by the way. This is one of my favorite songs on the album. And I don't know if you remember what was going on in a lot of white people music around this time, but there was a lot of twee... I'm sorry, what'd you say? A lot of white people... Is that a genre? I'm not familiar with that genre. It very much is. But there was a lot of stomping, some whistling, some twee things happening. Some twee? And this, when I hear the whistling on here, I was like, this is what whistling on a track

1:06:04should be. Right. When I say twee, I mean cutesy, like... Oh. You know the kind of white people music I'm talking about. There's a lot of stomping. You're tripling down on that. There's a lot of woes. You know what I'm saying? Millennials know what I'm talking about. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Yeah. And this to me is like, it just dunks on that so hard. The whistling on this is just so, so, so perfect and just tells a much better story. It is, man. It's so authentic and it's so straight and like, like just the way it starts. I mean, once... Once they...

1:06:35Yeah.

1:06:40But even like the... Like there's just, it's just like triads going into it, you know? It's much more on the...

1:06:48Yeah. Yeah, you're right. You know?

1:06:56Killing it. Oh, man. Just killing it. Yeah. That's fun. But think about like where we've gotten on... From here... I'm going to save it for my hot take. Save it for my hot take. You know what I'm saying? I got a hot take. This is a wide and deep album, man. I got a hot take. I got a heavy. I got a hot take. All right. Peter. Yes. It's 2015. Yes. Marty McFly is in the future. Back to the future, part two. Part two. We're back. That was in the 90s too. Or the 80s, rather. Pick up a...

Back to the Future Part Two

1:07:33Kind of where we left off. Yeah.

1:07:41This is definitely a bridge coming from the door, though, too.

1:07:50It's connected, right? But this is also like...

1:07:57All you see so many Gone with your luck, just make my laugh And all that you have is a memory All you see so many Gone with your luck, just make my laugh And all that you have is a memory Drum, drum, drum, drum, drum, drum, drum. Woo!

1:08:22Oh, this is a great transition.

1:08:40Do you feel a little bit like we're going to go into Devil's Pie from here? I know. Oh, totally. I know. Is that Zay Sharkman coming out of here?

1:08:49Man!

1:09:03Okay, so he just keeps doing his thing. Man, this is such a great transitional track to what we're about to hear, which is the final track, which... Yes? Uh-oh, he's getting serious. I'm serious. May I? Yes, please. Can we head into the categories real quick? Yes! So, my Desert Island track is the final track. Perfect. And this is also aligned with my Hot Take. You want to lay it down now or after we listen? The Hot Take is in two parts. The first part is, this is one of the only albums that I can remember we've ever talked about where I think the final track on the album, Another Life, is the best track on the album.

1:09:36Okay, there's Stevie Wonder, I think you said that on, was it Fulfillingness? Nope. There was something we did of the classic period, though. Well, there's Evil, which I thought was... Evil, right. Is that InterVisions? I think it's Music of My Mind. Okay. Yes. And Evil, I had that as the Apex moment. Oh, okay. But I don't think that was my favorite track on the album. Got it. But this is my favorite track. And then my Hot Take part two is, what if this album was played back to front? Like, you played that first track again when we were on the door, but what if it was Another

1:10:07Life? Is that a hot take or a request? Or fantasy? Well, it's a hot take. Like, what would happen if it started with Another Life, then Back to the Future part two, then The Door, then Betray My Heart, then Prayer until it's done. And then you would get to, like, track seven, eight, real love, Sugar Daddy. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like... You'd get to meet at the same kind of place and you'd be cool. But I think to end... I don't know. Because think of what you'd be ending on. A charade, thousand deaths, and it ain't that easy. And I feel like that was... There was a reason those were placed at the beginning of the album. I know, I know, I know.

1:10:37You know? Listen, this is why I'm not D'Angelo, but... It would work still, though. But... Well, he talked about, though, how they were like... One of the interviewers was like, oh, it's so brilliant the way it's sequenced. And he was like, well, actually, because we just had to sort of rush and throw it together. Oh. Yeah. He was just like... Well, is the project still open? Can we... No, I think this is a brilliant song. This has, like, some earth, wind, and fire elements to it that I'm hearing. That's for sure. And, like, I just... Some Prince. Prince's little hands all over it again. Prince's little hands. But I do stand by my hot take that I can't remember another album where it's like the last

1:11:09song is maybe the best song. Yeah. So we should just jump into it then. Here we...

Another Life

1:11:16Epic.

1:11:21Sit-tar. Back with the sit-tar. A little Betcha by Gali Wah vibes going on. Yeah. I bet this went so hard live too, man. Yeah. For sure. B major. Oh man. So optimistic. And the piano is above the vocals in the mix.

1:11:52And the sitar is too. Pretty much everything. Brilliant mixing. Brilliant mixing. So what's going on? So... And the sitar is, too. Yeah. Pretty much everything. Brilliant mixing. Brilliant mixing. Wow. Maybe it's a personal deal. Got a great guitar, that's just so sweet. Pinot. Oh. Hold on, Dan. Oh, man, I'm just going to see you again.

1:12:28Show me.

1:12:31May the sitar connect it with another era so beautifully.

1:12:38Oh. Where are we now? Where do we go? Oh, God.

1:12:45Uh-oh, Pinot's starting to get excited.

1:12:52I can't take it. It's too good.

1:13:02Genius, man. Genius. Genius.

1:13:05Oh. I just want to take you with me. All those backgrounds. All those backgrounds. Yeah. All those backgrounds. Sleeping rooms in a mansion's in my mind.

1:13:18I would do all that you need. Take my hand. I swear to my child. I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised. I'm just going to see you. These little piano hits. Yeah. For the chase to the river and the beat. I'm going to touch it all. It's just that you.

1:13:52Pulling close. Check out Pinot when he's playing up here. I'm not surprised. Get them all the way. All right. I hope to get them all.

1:14:25Woo.

1:14:29Woo. Get them all the way. All right. We're going to keep going. Let me check this out. Oh, interesting.

1:15:05This is you taking stuff out, by the way, for our listeners. Peter's taking some voices out here. Let me just jump up here. So, yeah, just vocals.

1:15:28Hey. Here we go. Let me just jump up here.

1:16:00Let me just jump up here. Let me just jump up here.

1:16:32Those last couple chords, the end of the record.

1:16:37Very Stevie. Oh. Oh.

1:16:53Oh. Oh.

1:16:56That's so great. Great. I love that yeah Apex moment the end of a record great Desert Island track I had Betrayed My Heart I love Roy on there I love the whole thing but this is a very even this is a very even record for me for Desert Island tracks I want the whole album I'm sorry I'm taking the whole I'm taking two LPs I'm gonna need a turntable also on the Desert Island as I mentioned my Desert Island track is another life why do you get to mention it twice my Apex moment is when the guitar enters and really love that's such a great moment

1:17:27what do you got for the Stemometer how snobby is this on a scale of 1 to 10 man I was thinking about that this morning as I was driving around the greater country ass St. Louis dodging people running red lights and potholes a little sport we do here in the country it is called the St. Louis slalom yeah with people with either no license plate or with a temporary tag from 1987 how do you keep it going so far so I think it's kind of snobby actually I knew we'd be on opposite ends I have a 2 oh I'm going 8

1:17:58I was thinking maybe 7 like if you no but I think I think it's an 8 now tell me why this is not a snobby record on Lyndon Loves This Record I feel like this is not a it debuted at number 5 on the Billboard Hot 200 how snobby can it be no that doesn't but I don't think it stayed there like a super long time this was not like when people heard people this is you know what this is this is a classic if you know you know and like a lot of people know about it

1:18:28but most people I mean like voodoo even voodoo I would say is a little bit snobby because I don't know man these records they demand a little bit not in that you have to study or something but there's I don't know to really get something out of it like there's no like banger banger hits on it but everything feels amazing and the melodies are singable I feel like that's snobbs can like cool stuff too what do you mean? I feel like when I mean snobby I mean people who appreciate music that's difficult and doesn't you know what I mean? that's like is this difficult

1:18:58did I make it sound like that? because I don't mean to make it sound like it's fussy it's not fussy it's not difficult I don't think it's fussy at all which is why I have it at two but I don't know I hear what you're saying I don't find it as accessible I would say to just like I would never give this as the first I would give this as the fourth record to introduce somebody to D'Angelo oh interesting I would never give it as the first okay it would actually be in order it would be brown sugar then it would be live at Jazz Cafe then voodoo I mean maybe voodoo moves up a little more though I feel like

1:19:28I think you gotta introduce voodoo first you could but that's not as accessible a record as brown sugar is I disagree not from beginning to end I don't know oh okay well so you give this a two I give it a two okay well snobometer broken no which means it's working just fine okay usually I don't like this question who put this on here? Liz I already don't like it so this is usually where we reserve the question is it better than kind of blue Miles Davis kind of blue but now we have is this better than voodoo than his previous album I have that

1:19:59I will not participate in this sham you felt bad about it I know in this shaman of examination I have NA it's like a big NA it's not applicable not applicable I really honestly feel like his whole career is one big it's like Stevie it's like his whole career is one big thing his inner vision's better than music of my mind it just depends on the day what you're feeling every album that D'Angelo gave us is a gift for us for humanity for being people in the world and so I'd hate to say

1:20:29sometimes I prefer this to voodoo sometimes I prefer voodoo to this it depends on where I am what I want to hear yeah I agree and I think when you have an artist like D'Angelo that had a relatively small output as in three to four records although you could also say these are big epic records at least two of them for sure for sure so there's an argument to be made of like it wasn't a small thing he's a perfectionist yeah he was a perfectionist huge part of his life so like that's what happens I mean he was an admitted perfectionist

1:21:00he embraced it so in a way it's not a small output and I feel like this this is the whole output is the apex moment like that is the kind of blue it's like those four records all connected together they're not separate they're just all along the journey Peter this was fun and you know what we got coming up by the way yes our first mailbag episode in quite a long time so you've been sending us Muckbang well is that something different Muckbang I believe that's a kind of country dance Muckbang Muckbang that was your white people song swistle Muckbang Muckbang

1:21:30call me actually I think there probably was a band named Muckbang that did a stomp clap no Muckbang is like a type of mailbag you never heard of that nope but we got a mailbag episode you've been sending your questions to youllhearit.com and keep sending them because we're going to do mailbags I think on the regular we're going to try to get them in a little bit more and we might have some special episodes coming up here in the future so be on the lookout Muckbang he's looking up Muckbang often spelled Muckbang is an online video where a host eats large amounts of food while talking to an audience this comes from the Korean terms for eating and broadcasting

1:22:00okay I was a little bit off so it is an online we are online that's weird massive portions this is weird wait we need to do this dude no no no you don't want hosts often eat huge piles of fast food spicy noodles you do not want any part of this world trust me when I say that this is this is the darkest corner of the internet you don't want loud sounds many videos use close up mics to capture chewing and slurping sounds it's so disgusting and also people have like I'm good at people have like answer fan questions have like put themselves at serious health risks

1:22:31and I think even died from being professional Muckbangers why do you have to make the Muckbang take a dark turn sorry until next time no come on we gotta it started in South Korea we're not doing it we're not turning our channel into a Muckbang Sade coming this is gonna be awesome until next time Tribe Called Quest come on you'll hear it oh here this will make you happy again it's your boys watch for Debbie everybody loves Bill Evans you'll hear it