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Black Messiah is my favorite album of the decade, I'd even put it above My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, so I've decided.
There's a big difference between a man who's in his 20's, which D'Angelo was when Voodoo came out, to someone who's (nearly) 40 like he was by the time of Black Messiah's release. It showed a new, more mature side of him that most people probably didn't know he had in him before.
The presentation of this album was so minimal. It was announced shortly before its release and came out with barely any promo. The album cover art has no picture of D'Angelo. No music videos were released. D'Angelo made it clear: He wanted to let the music speak for itself.
I come to that album by default whenever I don't know what to listen to. Even though the sounds on this album are so familiar to me at this point, I can still hear something new on every listen.
This is D'Angelo's magic that was already presented on his two previous albums; somehow even Brown Sugar which was released in the 90's, when D was 21 years old (which is pretty damn unbelieveable, by the way) still sounds fresh to this day, but Black Messiah shows progression in terms of songwriting, as well as his musicality and performance as a vocalist. Every song on the album has a different feel and is a world of its own.
D'Angelo lived up to my expectations and beyond. It took him more than a decade to finish up this album but this music is for a lifetime. It would make me break into tears if he won a Grammy for this album, cuz I really want to see him getting the recognition he deserves. It would be an accolade not only for this album (which is a masterpiece) but also for his brilliant career as a whole.
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