D'Angelo's 'Black Messiah' is a Transcendent Comeback Album

At this point we can expect that, at least a few times throughout the year, a high profile album will drop with little to no warning. Last year, we saw shoegaze pioneers My Bloody Valentine released their third album with just a few hints in the days leading up to its release. Then, 10 months later, Beyonce broke the Internet when, without a single whisper, she put her stellar self-titled album up on iTunes.

And this year, we saw rapper Azealia Banks let go her long awaited debut album "Broke With Expensive Taste" only days after she split up from her record label and signed to an indie label. Then, exactly one year after Beyonce's sudden release, soul and R&B genius D'Angelo uploaded his third album, "Black Messiah,"(which is credited to D'Angelo and the Vanguard) to iTunes -- 14 years after his last LP, the perfect "Voodoo."

But unlike Beyonce, D'Angelo totally vanished from the public eye during his longtime hiatus. He hasn't really given an interview in over a decade and it's only within the last few years the now 40-year-old singer returned to the stage and played live music.

According to reports, D'Angelo, born Michael Eugene Archer, was incredibly uncomfortable with being a sex symbol; a status he earned thanks to the unforgettable music video for the "Voodoo" single "Untitled (How Does It Feel)," where he crooned the slow-burning sensual jam while appearing in front of a black background 95 percent naked. D'Angelo slipped into what appears to be a depression and turned to alcohol and drugs.

He moved to rural Virginia and throughout the mid-2000s his drug problems escalated, resulting in at least one DUI. But things got better before spiraling completely out of control and D'Angelo began working on new music. Still, he found it hard, worried he'd never be able to compete with the high bar he set with "Voodoo," which is something that kept My Bloody Valentine mastermind Kevin Shields from following up the iconic "Loveless" for over two decades. Like fans of MBV, fans of D'Angelo were pretty much taunted for the last 14 years with false promises of new music. Reports would surface that an album was just around the corner, but nothing actually materialized. But there was a change in 2012, when D'Angelo started to play live - both old and new songs - and for the first time since "Voodoo," it was possible that D'Angelo was readying for a much welcomed return.

Things got real last weekend when images of the "Black Messiah" CD started to appear on Twitter. Then a teaser video for the album was released on to the world. Then there was a message that there would be a live listening party in New York City with a single released the next day. Then, D'Angelo's team said the album "Black Messiah" would appear on iTunes on Monday at midnight. And all of that really did happen and millions of people woke up Monday morning to find that there was a new D'Angelo album available for purchase.

"Black Messiah" was released at a brilliant time - a time when racial unrest is swirling around the country. Initially, I assumed the politically charged record's release was a coincidence with what's going on in the world but the New York Times reported that the record wasn't supposed to come out this year and the D'Angelo's label, RCA, pushed up the 2015 release due to the nationwide protests of police killing unarmed black men.

After a grand jury decided not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson for shooting Michael Brown dead, D'Angelo reportedly told his tour manager, Alan Leeds: "The one way I do speak out is through music. I want to speak out."

Indeed, "Black Messiah," is a sneak attack release full of unrest and power (listen to "1000 Deaths" where a possible pastor cites passages from the Bible, suggesting Jesus was black). But, for a record so political, it's a really fun listen.

Where D'Angelo finds incredible success is in his composition. Throughout "Black Messiah," D'Angelo proves his genius; plucking sounds, grooves, bass lines and notes from another world and arranging them in an organized but chaotic fashion. It's neo-soul, funk, jazz, R&B and even rock, blended into a perfect hour-long concoction of mesmerizing beats that go hard -- from the first few seconds of the first track "Ain't That Easy," the vibe of this album is clear as day.

Melodies flow like a river, and the record remains incredibly cohesive even though each track sounds so different from each other, it's truly mind-blowing. Each of the 12 songs also sounds like they were played on live and on the fly; like an old jam band getting together to have some fun. That "jam band" would be the Vanguard, most likely the Roots' drummer Questlove and prolific Welsh bassist, Pino Palladino.

Despite the deep and personal lyrics, which are interestingly hard to pick apart because D'Angelo's vocals are muddled down in the mix (this was totally on purpose), "Black Messiah" is buoyant and playful. Throughout the record, D'Angelo channels soul gods like Prince, Al Green and Funkadelic. On "The Charade," which could be a single, D'Angelo explodes with clashing drums, a bass line that only could be played by someone from another planet and little sound effects peppered throughout the track. Single "Sugah Daddy" is based around a smooth jazzy piano riff while D'Angleo scats and encounters horns and funkafied guitar licks.

But when "Black Messiah" isn't being the most interesting head-nodding music of the last decade, it offers up liquefied sensual music, like the buttery "Really Love," "Till It's Done (Tutu)," "Prayer" and the first half of "Betray My Heart," which erupts into an explosion of jazz-fusion. The album's second to last song "Back to the Future (Part II)" could be the closer but D'Angelo flips the script and adds one more jam at the end; one of the best tracks on the record, the Al Green-inspired "Another Life," where, for one of the few times, D'Angelo's voice takes center stage.

After the first listen of "Black Messiah," you realize its timelessness. There's nothing that sounds like this album and nothing that will ever sound like it. Like any classic record, you find new reasons of falling in love with its music. When re-listening to the LP, you pick up on little sounds, instruments, nuances and vocals you didn't hear the first few go arounds. There's always something new to discover on "Black Messiah," which is a testament to D'Angelo's work ethic (rumor has it he spent the last 15 years practicing guitar and it really shows off here), his vision and overall scope of how this album should sound.

Despite all of it's strange, beautiful and addicting parts, they all come together and work as a whole for one of the most brilliant albums since "Voodoo." Let's just hope we don't have to wait another decade-and-a-half for another D'Angelo opus.