Reviews
3 stars out of 5 - "...Transforms his sound into something strange and new, stripping down to the bare essentials of a beat and vocals....yielding a ritualistic sound...", Ranked #5 in Rolling Stone's Top 10 Albums of 2000., "...the most daring song-oriented album by a mainstream R&B artist of his generation....defining himself as much by what his funk refuses to do as what it does to legitimately function in the post-James Brown continuum....refreshing...", Ranked #4 in Spin's "Top 20 Albums of the Year 2000" - "...The year's best mood album - a retro future-gaze of 'chicken grease' funk, boho politicking, hip-hop badass and sexual healing...", Included in Wire's "50 Records of the Year" 2000., "...imbued with his trademark slippery soul...boasting more detailed production and jazzier underpinnings....VOODOO remians a stripped-down affair....as D'Angelo remains in a class by himself.", 4.5 stars out of 5 - "...a f***-that, noon-day sun, molasses-heavy crawl...full of people who can actually sing and play guitars and drums...and all the songs are about sagging....a fantastically and impressively skewed mindset.", 4 stars out of 5 - "...the kind of smoky grooves that could be expected of a Cheeba Sound release....In short, VOODOO has what so many modern r&b records lack: soul.", 5 stars out of 5 - "...confirms D'angelo as the male counterpart to Erykah Badu and Lauryn Hill....VOODOO truly warms your heart....the kind of artist who's destined to encourage a new generation of pre-eminent singers...", "...an intimate jam session, each song bleeding into another....D'Angelo creates a stoned soul picnic bar none..." - Rating: A-, "...THERE"S A RIOT GOIN' ON-period Sly Stone is the motivator on the opening track 'Playa Playa'....Eddie Kendricks' pipes, Prince's balladry, Stevie Wonder's drive and Gaye are all reference points on what, overall, is a darker, moodier record...", 3 stars out of 5 - "...does for R&B what underground heads like Mos Def and The Roots do for hip-hop: They strip it down to just smarts, truth and beats. This is meant to be soul music that moves like smoke easing from a blunt....a superb smoke...", "VOODOO is a deep-cut R&B dream, 13 gorgeously supple tracks geared toward headphones and bedrooms, not the pop charts.", "VOODOO is one of the few records associated with neo-soul that hold up outside of the period when that descriptor was popular.", "...D'Angelo has grown - lyrically and sonically....VOODOO is seamless - and just as perfectly raw...as a 90-minute jam session in a funky Brooklyn loft...", 9 out of 10 - "...represents African American music at a crossroads....To simply call it neo-classical soul...would be to ignore the elements of vaudeville jazz, Memphis horns, ragtime blues, funk and bass grooves, not to mention hip-hop, that slip out of every pore of these haunted songs..."
