D'Angelo: The Exhumation
D'Angelo: "Untitled (How Does It Feel)"(Album Version)
from Voodoo
D'Angelo: "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" (Single Version)
from The Best So Far...
D'Angelo: "She's Always In My Hair" (Prince Cover)
from Scream 2 OST/The Best So Far...
D'Angelo feat. Erykah Badu: "Your Precious Love" (Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell Cover)
from High School High OST/The Best So Far...
D'Angelo: "Girl, You Need a Change of Mind" (Eddie Kendricks Cover)
from Get On The Bus OST/The Best So Far...
D'Angelo: "Devil's Pie (A Cappella Interlude)"
from The Best So Far...
I took about a month off from this outpost. Apologies. Shit got real. We're back. With no new tracks! Instead, a brief look at the recent D'Angelo greatest hits compilation, The Best So Far. It's an interesting assemblage of hits and rarities, in some cases "the best so far" and in others, not so much. What's strange is the "single version" chop of "Untitled," D'Angelo's biggest hIt, and in the mind of some, the reason he fell on hard times. That song's video, which featured the singer crooning nude, created a sort of physical expectation he may have felt obliged to live up to. But that's just speculation. What's happening in the diced version of "Untitled" is nearly as egregious. As in the video, the song opens with the churning blues guitar line. The album version opens slower, with a spare snare hit, then another, then a bass pluck, then the line. It also gets more time to breathe, with an extended bridge that gives the song less pop appeal, but adds a sort of lurid haze. "Untitled" shouldn't have been a pop hit. It's more statement of purpose. "Won't you come closer to me, baby." That was always D'Angelo's m.o. Elsewhere, the comp does include a crystalline a capella cut of "Devil's Pie," which without DJ Premier's zithering production sounds like church music, almost a pentecostal hymn with D as the chest-beating preacher. It's a trim with an idea, something the "Untitled" edit lacks. Speaking of idea-less: "Your Precious Love" should have been a classic collaboration with Erykah Badu, the neo-soul Omega to D'Angelo's Alpha. It's not. Far from it. In attempting to recapture the chippy energy of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's original, they stifled what made them unique--it's all structure, no languor. Same goes for the stronger, but still stiled "Girl, You Need a Change of Mind" and "She's Always In My Hair," by Eddie Kendricks and Prince respectively. They're two sharper-edged remakes that also owe to much debt to their forebears. D just needs to be him. Now that he's (purportedly) back in the studio, we'll see if he can find himself.
Tags: D'Angelo, Erykah Badu
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