Rating:
Genre:
R&B
Release Date: 07/03/1995
Run Time: 53:21
By the mid-'90s, most
urban R&B had become rather predictable, working on similar combinations of
soul and
hip-hop, or relying on vocal theatrics on slow, seductive numbers. With his debut album,
Brown Sugar, the 21-year-old
D'Angelo crashed down some of those barriers.
D'Angelo concentrates on classic versions of
soul and
R&B, but unlike most of his contemporaries, he doesn't cut and paste older songs with
hip-hop beats; instead, he attacks the forms with a
hip-hop attitude, breathing new life into traditional forms. Not all of his music works -- there are several songs that sound incomplete, relying more on sound than structure. But when he does have a good song -- like the hit
"Brown Sugar," Smokey Robinson's
"Cruisin'," or the bluesy
"Shit, Damn, Motherfucker," among several others --
D'Angelo's wild talents are evident.
Brown Sugar might not be consistently brilliant, but it is one of the most exciting debuts of 1995, giving a good sense of how deep
D'Angelo's talents run.
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
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