voodoo poll

i was going to make this poll a couple weeks ago but i forgot!!

spanish joint for me. but it really could be any of them.

my copy is hella scratched. :(

really really hard, but probably "playa playa" (or spanish joint)

oh man

totally impossible

1. left & right
2. spanish joint
3. devil's pie
4. feel like makin love

bit of an overrated album. not very songful.

playa playa
spanish joint
left & right
feel like makin love
untitled
devil's pie

playa playa kinda sums up the whole thing, and it's just sick how behind the beat the vocals and bass are

yeah titchy and picasso was overrated cause his portraits weren't very realistic

i think one of my first ILM posts was a whole bunch of purple prose about how this is a weirdly climaxless album (though it hovers right on the edge of it all the time)

not sure about picasso but i find a lot of the songs on the album quite monotonous.

best songs -
"Devil's Pie" - 5:21 (although it doesnt really fit on this album - he should have rerecorded it for this album like he performed it live)
"Left & Right" - 4:46
"Send It On" - 5:56
"Feel Like Makin' Love" - 6:22
"Untitled (How Does It Feel)" - 7:10

youre right that its climaxless. its pretty foreplay-less too. it never quite gets going like you think it might. its not really swampy like that might suggest - its just dense and sluggish.

why don't you go away and let us enjoy d'angelo

go away like dangelo you mean?

"bit of an overrated album. not very songful.

-- titchyschneiderMk2"

i'll have some of the drugs you're on.

i had to vote for "Devil's Pie" as that is one of my favorite primo beats and its such a great track in general.

i love the feel of this album and some of erykah badu's more recent stuff, it really seems like they've been listening to moodymann and theo parrish (though im sure the dilla association could have a large part to do with it as well.....).

love this album - but it all kinda runs together for me

How is "Untitled (How does it feel?)" climaxless?

it abruptly cuts off at the peak!

i'm just saying the choruses before the cutoff are pretty climactic.

but i understand your point.

1. Untitled (How Does It Feel)
2. Devil's Pie
3. Feel Like Making Love
4. Spanish Joint
5. Chicken Grease

Damn album that never goes anywhere.

guys its not about whether or not the album climaxes, its about whether or not the lady climaxes

TS: mamas gun vs. voodoo.

http://wwwdelivery.superstock.com/WI/223/170/PC/SuperStock_170-593A.jpg

my copy is hella scratched. :(

no-one has mentioned Africa yet so....Africa! beautiful comedown.

Tough poll (i.e., Shakey has a point), but "Devil's Pie" it is.

BTW, Rev, it's not about getting somewhere / climaxing; it's mostly about immersing / being engulfed in / by the swampy funkiness of it all.

this is probably one of my top five fave albums period

Too much swampy, not enough funky.

The thing is...I don't find the album immersive. I can't get lost in it, I never forget where I am. It's not compelling enough, which is what happens when you've got six-minute songs that never develop in a way that justifies their length. I actually like most of the songs on the album, but there's probably not a damn one of them that wouldn't be vastly improved by being two minutes shorter.

"Untitled" comes closest to reaching a climax, so it gets my vote.

listened to it twice yesterday. i find it immersive as fuck!

this album is great of course

i voted spanish joint but should have voted playa playa.

i do actually listen to 'brown sugar' more but this record is part of that whole peak j dilla period circa '00 when Like Water for Chocolate, Fantastic, Welcome to Detroit, Mama's Gun, etc were all out around the same time

was he involved in voodoo?

Moodyman. Theo Parrish. Not very songful. Climaxless. Hovers right on the edge of it. Quite monotonous. Foreplay-less. It never quite gets going like you think it might. Dense and sluggish. All kinda runs together. Never goes anywhere. It's mostly about immersing / being engulfed. Too much swampy, not enough funky. You've got six-minute songs that never develop in a way that justifies their length. There's probably not a damn one of them that wouldn't be vastly improved by being two minutes shorter.

Hmmm. One would think y'all were talking about...ambient. Trip-hop. Electronica.

was he involved in voodoo?

-- Jordan, Tuesday, November 6, 2007 9:56 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

i dont know exactly what he did but he was involved

haha--that comp. of diff. bits from people's posts works as a pretty damn good (and fair, I think) review of the album, Kevin. Nice goin'.

re: dilla

?uestlove has admitted in interviews since the album's release that he and D'Angelo incorporated much of the distinctive percussive rhythms of the late Detroit producer Jay Dee, who as part of the Soulquarians, was also a frequent collaborator of theirs. Although tracks such as "Left & Right" help to bring this claim to light, Jay Dee himself was not directly involved in the making of the album.
One of the characteristics of this style of drumming is its adherence to human timing, i.e. its intentional sloppiness. In an interview with Soulmind Online, ?uestlove had this to say:

“In actuality, one of the biggest influences on my drumming is a producer and drum programmer named Jay Dee, from the group Slum Village. He makes programmed stuff so real, you really can’t tell it’s programmed. He might program 128 bars, with absolutely no looping or quantizing. When Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest first played me some of his stuff, I said, ‘The drums are messed up! The time is wrong!’ And when we did a song for D’Angelo’s record that Lenny Kravitz was supposed to play on, Lenny said, ‘I can’t play with this — there’s a discrepancy in the drum pattern.’ And we’re like, ‘It’s supposed to be this way!’”

Voodoo's recording engineer, Russell Elevado, on Jay Dee's input:
“A lot of the stuff we recorded were beats that Dilla came in with and we just recreated it and rearranged them with live instruments. He had amazing skills on the MPC and would just come up with crazy things. He could make like 3 crazy beats in like one hour.”

Voodoo's recording engineer, Russell Elevado, on Jay Dee's input:
“A lot of the stuff we recorded were beats that Dilla came in with and we just recreated it and rearranged them with live instruments. He had amazing skills on the MPC and would just come up with crazy things. He could make like 3 crazy beats in like one hour.”

yeah this was along the lines of what i heard

He might program 128 bars, with absolutely no looping or quantizing.

^^^
pretty awesome

It's easy to slot something like Donuts into electronica as well.

Now that makes more sense. Maybe my problem with this is that I've never liked Dilla much?

"Untitled" comes closest to reaching a climax, so it gets my vote.

-- Eric H., Tuesday, 6 November 2007 14:27 (5 hours ago) Link

^^^This

One mo gin; but this is really on my top twenty album list, so any could win and I'd be fine.

i don't got a bad word to say about this album, but nor is the rev incorrect here.

(whats the opposite of immersion? emersion? microhouse?)

anyway it is kinda immersive in the sense of an immersion into yourself listening to the record, but maybe not listening to things on the record specifically. so sorta like a clock on a wall, one of those mechanical ones you can hear working, where you're simultaneously more aware of time itself, the tedium and actuality of it, but less aware than ever about the actual time involved passing. oh fuck this, i dunno.

the chicken grease/one mo gin/root sequence is the heart of this record and the key to getting into it, i think. but then that might also have something to do with it being right there in the middle and everything.

if i had to pick a song to listen to out of context i could probly only manage 'africa'. would like to hear 'left & right' on the radio again, though.

oh man i forgot how much i love "the line"

"ambient. Trip-hop"

it probably appeals to people for the same reasons as those genres.

i agree, most of the songs could be cut, they just go on and on sometimes. its not like theres any major changes or even solos, or improv going on, theyre just a bit dirge-like, like hip hop beats on loop that someone forgot to turn off.

but it's very detail-heavy, small things have a big impact

yeah it's almost all vamps so they're forced to make it all happen through dynamics - bringin it down tight, open it up

trip hop is all vamps too but for me that term conjures up something sequenced and electronic and this album feels totally live

its live, but a lot of it is segments that were played live but looped to give it that hypnotic hip hop feel. so its real 'hip hop soul' but this album makes me think that maybe the principles of those two genres can sometimes be too conflicted when you try to marry them.

titchyschneider r u always rong about everything

tell me y i am rong oh great deej.

Send It On for channelling Al Green and not being crap.

I have to dig this one out again.

uh to clarify i think it sounds totally live unless you consider the ominpresent chorus of tens (hundreds?) of other little d'angelos that do the backing vocals

i might just be thinking of the drums. im sure questlove said in an interview that a lot of his drum parts (like on the line) were played live and then sequenced.

just to clarify what i said about hip hop soul, what i mean is that this album seemed to try and really make a 'modern' soul album but i think it did it through trying to appropriate hip hop qualities/devices like the endless machinic repetition of a lot of songs, the boom bappish, highly rigid drum patterns, subordination to the drums, the emphasis on not being too melodic, etc. which in theory i love the idea of, but when listening to it, i think it ends up cancelling a lot of what is good about soul (songfulness, melody, changes, dynamics, etc). its like dangelo might even have had fuller bodied songs but stripped a lot of layers off to make it seem more radical and stark. i know he loves the JB/prince less-is-more way of working, and took it to thje max here, but that only works when theres something really strong going on in the way of the song/groove etc, and im not sure he really had that on voodoo. if he did, he took that out too.

the details in production/textures/overall sound on this are amazing though.

its a shame mamas gun isnt as well known/regarded as this though.

It's a shame House of Music isn't as well known/regarded as this.

yes. that too. while im at it, sons of soul and baduizm>>>brown sugar.

that only works when theres something really strong going on in the way of the song/groove etc, and im not sure he really had that on voodoo

we're just going to have to utterly and completely disagree on this one then

it also "only" works when there's something really strong going on in a) the dynamics b) the singing

TTT's "Thinking of You" = better pseudo-Green than anything on Voodoo (by virtue of, y'know, having a tune)

"One Mo 'Gin", but really this album is perfect every song is amazing.

TS: mamas gun vs. voodoo.

baduizm is better than mama's gun, which is kind of uneven.

mama's gun is great

for years i thought he was saying "suck it off" instead of "send it on"

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

No love for "The Root"...

"Now that makes more sense. Maybe my problem with this is that I've never liked Dilla much?

-- The Reverend"

what is there to dislike about j dilla? the dood is a master.

"so its real 'hip hop soul' but this album makes me think that maybe the principles of those two genres can sometimes be too conflicted when you try to marry them.

-- titchyschneiderMk2"

j dilla is the person who proves that to be incorrect. of course he would be a huge inspiration to the sound of this album (whether he actually worked on it or not) because of his work with the guys involved, they know the power of what he did.

"i agree, most of the songs could be cut, they just go on and on sometimes. its not like theres any major changes or even solos, or improv going on, theyre just a bit dirge-like, like hip hop beats on loop that someone forgot to turn off.

-- titchyschneiderMk2"

so why is repetition in hiphop not okay but repetition in house or techno is? sure, the tracks on this album are structured not unlike house tracks or something, but that is at least partially because of the influence of electronic music on detroit hiphop producers, especially j dilla and in effect the people he worked with. listen to that mix Waajeed (one of dilla's disciples) did for 555 Soul, its all long weird hiphop/electronic crossover type stuff. i love that combination!

"baduizm is better than mama's gun, which is kind of uneven."

OffTM.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

so why is repetition in hiphop not okay but repetition in house or techno is?

Who said that? Definitely not me. You'll never find me praising bullshit minimal techno that noodles on and on and on and on.

You got something great to repeat. Fine. Repeat it. To my ears and ass, most minimal techno doesn't. Nor does this album. "My Feet Keep Dancing," by contrast, could keep dancing into forever.

And isn't it odd that the one song from this album I can hum on command (besides "Untitled") is the winner of this poll? Hmmm...

I agree with most of that post, but not being able to hum "Feel Like Making Love" is kind of...

"Who said that? Definitely not me. You'll never find me praising bullshit minimal techno that noodles on and on and on and on.

You got something great to repeat. Fine. Repeat it. To my ears and ass, most minimal techno doesn't. Nor does this album. "My Feet Keep Dancing," by contrast, could keep dancing into forever.

And isn't it odd that the one song from this album I can hum on command (besides "Untitled") is the winner of this poll? Hmmm...

-- Kevin John Bozelka"

fuck "minimal techno", listen to some chicago rhythm tracks from the 80's, there is absolutely NO variation and it is awesome music. there's no minor tweaks or anything, and this is the stuff that house and techno were built on. repetition is great when youre repeating something good. you dont need to embellish anything, just ride the groove.

and is the ability to hum a song what makes it good? so does that mean that no free jazz is good? how about tribal drumming? basically, a track's hummability has more to do with a straight up mainstream pop-mentality audience liking it. fortunately for us, i dont think that was where d'angelo was going with this album!

all of your analysis sounds as if youre coming at this from a strictly pop perspective, but that is not what this album is about. if you listen to it in a different way, this album is not just good, it is stellar. i was listening to it last night again, it is so so so fucking good.

crazy that this got so few votes, for all the arguing!

listen to some chicago rhythm tracks from the 80's

There are a lot of those that suck ass too.

and is the ability to hum a song what makes it good?

That wasn't my point. I just find it amusing (at best) that the most hummable song (again besides the big single) won this poll. I didn't vote.

And Rev, yes, of course I can hum "Feel Like Makin' Love." I just thought that should've gone without saying. Guess not.

Alright, I feel better.

The thing about Chicago house or even minimal or whatever, is that they aren't exactly inert in the way that large swathes of Voodoo are.

I sort of can't believe "Chicken Grease" didn't get any votes. I can't hum "Devil's Pie."

all of your analysis sounds as if youre coming at this from a strictly pop perspective, but that is not what this album is about. if you listen to it in a different way, this album is not just good, it is stellar. i was listening to it last night again, it is so so so fucking good.

Don't try to turn this into some bullshit popists-vs-whatever debate. Asking for there to be some tunes or even some production detail doesn't automatically = "why can't this be more like rolling teenpop?"

xp: Yeah, "Chicken Grease" is the best of the voteless.

"Don't try to turn this into some bullshit popists-vs-whatever debate. Asking for there to be some tunes or even some production detail doesn't automatically = "why can't this be more like rolling teenpop?"

-- The Reverend"

some production detail? come on, the production on this is stellar, the detail in the sounds and grooves is immense.

and im not saying that i think people want it to sound like teenpop, but if someone is trying to compare it to more song oriented r+b, that is not how this record was meant to be listened to.

pipecock kind of otm

i can't believe left and right got no votes! meth + red man + first single???

Alright, fair enough. But for groove-oriented R&B this doesn't groove enough.

(xp)

it shuffles, slinks, insinuates, throbs and yes i would say it grooves too

there are two moments that for me encapsulate this album

1) when "how does it feel" cuts off, as if the tape simply ran out, right in the middle of the glorious return of the chorus - you do feel as if yes, this song could just go on and on. upthread someone mentioned this as a liability ("every song could just go on and on GAH") but i think it's key to what d'angelo's doing here. each song is a snapshot rather than the whole movie. there's other stuff outside the frame. you're not going to get a satisfying arc out of any of these songs, you're going to get a mood, one mood, one investigation into a certain vibe that pores over it, illuminates it, turns it so that each facet shines and goes dark again.

2) when the "spanish joint" bass vamp starts up again after you think the whole song might be over. it so delicious, so ecstatic, you don't mind if the song just keeps playing for hours at that point with no real release, you just want more. which has to do with d'angelo's sexuality on this record too - it's an exploration and investigation of a certain feel, a certain touch, not just a recapitulation of a previously satisfying model, not the satisfaction of a formal sexual arc (i.e. buildup chorus climax comedown). it's not what we usually get from sex and it's not what we usually get from records.

I guess I should just say that Voodoo doesn't do what I want music to do and stop worrying about it.

"I guess I should just say that Voodoo doesn't do what I want music to do and stop worrying about it.

-- The Reverend"

why do you want your music to only do certain things? my favorite records are ones that do things that other records do not. the ability to create records that function well outside the normal methods of listening is a true talent.

pipecock, you are hectoring.

Hector is a pretty great word.

why do you want your music to only do certain things? my favorite records are ones that do things that other records do not. the ability to create records that function well outside the normal methods of listening is a true talent.

-- pipecock, Tuesday, November 13, 2007 5:44 PM (Tuesday, November 13, 2007 5:44 PM) Bookmark Link

Dude, first of all, Tracer otm. Second, it's not as if I willfully map out "here's what I want out of music" and judge every piece of music I hear against those standards. But I can get a pretty damn good idea of when something's not doing it for me. Sometimes you just have to trust your own damn gut.

"Dude, first of all, Tracer otm. Second, it's not as if I willfully map out "here's what I want out of music" and judge every piece of music I hear against those standards. But I can get a pretty damn good idea of when something's not doing it for me. Sometimes you just have to trust your own damn gut.

-- The Reverend"

i guess it is easy to misunderstand a sentence like "X doesn't do what I want music to do".

at least for me, when i hear something that falls outside of my usual frame of listening, that is very interesting to me, i want to explore it more, get to the bottom of it, find other records that influenced that record to sound the way it does, etc.

"interesting" does not necessarily = "enjoyable"

(Actually, I don't find Voodoo particularly interesting, either.)

And quit trying to tell me what my responses to music should be. Subjectivity, damn,

yeah i wouldn't call voodoo "interesting", though it is still in my top 5 of all time

Weird music for ballerz to get stoned by, more like. How much use you have for such stuff depends entirely on you.

"Weird music for ballerz to get stoned by, more like. How much use you have for such stuff depends entirely on you.

-- JN$OT"

haha, that almost sums it up. i guess that says something about the reverend ;)

That I don't smoke pot?

what did you guys vote for, JN$OT and pipecock?

I find Voodoo "interesting"! I mean, you can get stoned and groove on the vamps, but it also makes me think a lot about its feel and construction (partly b/c everything seems so crafted and non-accidental).

totally missed this thread until it was mentioned somewhere else and i went looking for it. one more reason to hate thread titles that just have the album/song title and no artist name. wish i'd known in time to give "Send It On" or "Africa" a slightly better turnout, although i might've just voted for "One Mo'Gin" like a lot of other people did.

i voted for devil's pie, as i stated above, partially because it works so well on teh dancefloor, partially because it is one of my favorite primo beats. really, it was the premier association that made it win out, choosing just one track off the album is pretty tough and devil's pie stands as well by itself as it does on the album.

IF WISHES WERE HORSES AL

Yeah, I went for the obvious "Devil's Pie" vote, too, but could have picked anything really. "Left & Right" would have probably been my second choice.

I had no idea "Devil's Pie" was such an obvious consensus favorite, I always thought it was kinda clunky and boring.

whoever said voodoo was generally quite 'inert' is OTM. thats why the grooves dont really 'groove' per se, theyre just too purposely 'dead' and restricted.

its more like 'implied/aspirational groove'.

I feel what you are saying and I really wish I could figure out why that works so well for me in one long Tim F-esque explanation, something about how the unsteadiness/restraint works in such a sexual way, but I'm having trouble verbalizing it

any of you ever see dangelo perform devils pie on the mtv awards? it doesnt really go anywhere musically but its killer all the same, if only on a visual performance level. its done a lot better on some of the bootlegs i have, ditto for left and right, which goes into some old funk song i dont know the name of but absolutely fucking love, not least cos unlike a lot of dangelos songs, its got a real melodic funkiness to it (chicken grease really isnt as funky as it could be IMO, its like brand hew heavies) and is more songful (i must stop using that term now). ill try and upload it maybe.

"I'm having trouble verbalizing it"

its good to fuck to.

there you go.

yeah that MTV movie awards performance was cool, I liked the end where it went into 7/8.

"its good to fuck to.

there you go.

-- titchyschneiderMk2"

i mean, that is close to the essence of what is great about the album (and believe me, i have done my share of fucking to that album), but it still doesnt explain what about it makes it so. way more than even the "typical" r+b stuff that does similar things (barry white, marvin gaye, etc) it has something to it that is very distinctive and really hasnt been copied very much/well, especially not over a whole album.

(and believe me, i have done my share of fucking to that album)

i'm not convinced.

haha

"i'm not convinced.

-- The Brainwasher"

i have a 4 foot tall maniac running around my house all day every day that proves it ;)

id still say its a better album to fall asleep to after fucking then actually fuck TO.

its done a lot better on some of the bootlegs i have

Wait. You have live bootlegs? From the Voodoo tour? How do I be your friend?

Yeah, I imagine a lot of this stuff works better live than on record.

guys im listening to this now and i think you are NUTS
classic record

The battlelines were drawn a long time ago, deej.

i got quite a lot of voodoo bootlegs actually. email me at titchyschnei✧✧✧@gm✧✧✧.c✧✧ and we can do a deal ;).

sorry, thats titchyschneider @ gmail . com

skimmed through voodoo last night - its just more of a production album really...

what do you mean, "bootlegs"?

recordings of live concerts.

D'angelo Essence Festival Rehearsal
http : // www. megaupload. com/?d=X539QPFN

voodoo tour in stockholm.
http : // megadownload.net/download/mu/n0iqeapx/d-angelo-live-in-stockohlm.rar

Good lookin' out, dude.

yeah these are hot

b-_-d spanish joint

skimmed through voodoo last night - its just more of a production album really...

the fuck?

more like a music album

lol classic titchy itt

any of you ever see dangelo perform devils pie on the mtv awards? it doesnt really go anywhere musically but its killer all the same, if only on a visual performance level.

you sprung

(and believe me, i have done my share of fucking to that album)

like, no

BELIEVE ME

not enough love for "send it on"

Yeah, that song is kind of easy to overlook among the other gems.

this would make an awesome 33 1/3 imo

"devil's pie" is a weird winner, I never think of that as one of the better tracks though it is great obv

just read the wikipedia page xp

lol that made me want to read a whole book

literally just bough touré's book off amazon so i could read his RS features on d'angelo circa voodoo & lauryn circa miss education

yeah Devil's Pie is a weird winner. my top 5 is like One Mo Gin/Untitled/Africa/Send It On/Feel Like Makin' Love.

is this a case of a single winning an album poll bcuz it's a single? i have no idea

my top 5 would be

1 one mo gin
2 untitled
3 send it on
4 left & right
5 feel like makin love

so shipley mostly otm

i don't think so, it's not like "devil's pie" was a hit on the level of "untitled" (or even on the more modest level of "send it on" and "left & right"). maybe it stands out to some people because of the primo beat?

maybe my favorite album of all time

if it's not my favorite album of all time, it would prob be my first choice for album i'd pick to be able to see recorded. give or take a prince or beatles album.

the other thing that makes this album is amazing is how when it ends my itunes goes immediately into "laffy taffy"

This is my 'go to' album. Fits every mood.

yeah it's def the one album that will never leave my ipod. can always throw it on.

Ha, Devils Pie is cool, but its the most likely to be skipped anymore. The bassline on that is undeniable. Well really Pino Palladino's bass playing on the whole LP is just perfect, and its way loud in the mix, in such an appropriate way though.