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mardi 14 octobre 2025

D'Angelo And The Vanguard – Black Messiah 2014

Black Messiah is the third studio album by American musician D'Angelo, credited to D'Angelo and the Vanguard, D'Angelo's last studio effort to be released during his lifetime. It was released on December 15, 2014, through RCA Records, more than a decade after his previous solo release Voodoo.^[2] The album was produced and mostly written by D'Angelo, who collaborated with musicians including drummer Questlove, bassist Pino Palladino, guitarist Isaiah Sharkey, and horn player Roy Hargrove. He pursued an entirely analog and murky funk sound for the record, lending it comparisons to the 1971 Sly & the Family Stone album There's a Riot Goin' On.^[3]

Black Messiah was among 2014's most highly anticipated albums and was released to critical acclaim, later being ranked as one of the year's best albums. The album debuted at number five on the US Billboard charts and number one on the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, selling over 117,000 units in its first week. Black Messiah was promoted with the release of the single "Really Love" and a tour called The Second Coming.

D'Angelo – Voodoo 2000

Voodoo is the second studio album by American musician D'Angelo, released on January 25, 2000, through Virgin Records. D'Angelo recorded the album during 1997 and 1999 at Electric Lady Studios in New York City, with an extensive line-up of musicians associated with the Soulquarians musical collective. Produced primarily by the singer, Voodoo features a loose, groove-based funk sound and serves as a departure from the more conventional song structure of his debut album, Brown Sugar (1995). Its lyrics explore themes of spirituality, love, sexuality, maturation, and fatherhood.

Following heavy promotion and public anticipation, the album was met with commercial and critical success. It debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, selling 320,000 copies in its first week, and spent 33 weeks on the chart. It was promoted with five singles, including the hit single "Untitled (How Does It Feel)", whose music video garnered D'Angelo mainstream attention and controversy. Upon its release, Voodoo received general acclaim from music critics and earned D'Angelo several accolades. It was named one of the year's best albums by numerous publications.

D'Angelo promoted Voodoo with an international supporting tour in late 2000. While successful early on, the tour became plagued by concert cancellations and D'Angelo's personal frustrations surrounding his sexualized public image from the album's marketing. Voodoo has since been regarded by music writers as a creative milestone of the neo soul genre during its apex^[3]^[4] and has sold more than 1.7 million copies in the United States, being certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

D'Angelo – Brown Sugar 1995

Brown Sugar is the debut studio album by American musician D'Angelo, released on July 3, 1995, through EMI. The album was recorded during 1994 and 1995 in sessions at Battery Studios and RPM Studios in New York City and at the Pookie Lab in Sacramento. Its production, instrumentation, arrangements, and songwriting were primarily handled by D'Angelo, who employed both vintage recording equipment and modern electronic devices. The songs feature earnest lyrics about love and romance, set against a fusion of contemporary R&B and traditional soul music with elements of funk, quiet storm, and hip hop music.

Brown Sugar debuted at number six on the US Billboard Top R&B Albums chart, selling 300,000 copies in its first two months. With the help of its four singles, it spent 65 weeks on the Billboard 200 chart and received platinum certification within a year of its release. Brown Sugar was also met with widespread acclaim and earned D'Angelo several accolades, including four Grammy Award nominations. Regarded by music journalists as a pivotal release in neo soul, the album brought commercial exposure to the burgeoning musical movement amid the prominence of producer-driven, digitally approached R&B.

R&B giant D’Angelo dies at age 51

(October 14, 2025) We are devastated to inform SoulTrackers of the passing of 90s R&B great D’Angelo at the age of 51, after a battle with pancreatic cancer. In a statement provided to Billboard magazine, his family stated “The shining star of our family has dimmed his light for us in this life. After a prolonged and courageous battle with cancer, we are heartbroken to announce that Michael D’Angelo Archer, known to his fans around the world as D’Angelo, has been called home, departing this life today, Oct. 14, 2025.”

When D’Angelo arrived on the R&B scene in the mid-1990s, he didn’t just release an album; he sparked the neo-soul movement that took over modern music.

Born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1974, D’Angelo grew up steeped in gospel and jazz. The son of a Pentecostal preacher, he showed musical promise almost from the time he could walk, teaching himself piano and immersing in the gospel traditions that would later shape his artistry.

Joe Tex (1977) Bumps & Bruises (2013 Expanded)

For one shining moment, disco and funk came together to produce a last big hit for Joe Tex, who was more than worthy of it. Trivial next to his greatest material, but he loved that big fat woman at least as much as the one with the scrawny legs, and it shows through, which is all fans of the form will ask.

Joe Tex - Spills The Beans (1972)

Joe Tex may have been past his greatest days when he released this album, but his mix of funk and comic lyrics was still potent. Spills the Beans contains everything that made him famous: rap-like singing with a good dose of humor, sermons about the importance of true love, and proverbial titles like "Cat's Got Her Tongue." This track is humorous, but not much of a song, and that is probably the only problem with Joe Tex's style on his later records. Just as well as being comic, the lyrics and Tex's laugh can be irritating, and songs that take too much of the style of novelty numbers often lose some of their durability. Except for that, and of course the horrible cover, this album is similar to the previous album I Gotcha, and Tex shows the same skill in mixing styles as there. One track with more subtle humor than usual is the bluesey B.B. King pastiche Woman Stealer, where Tex invokes King, and a bunch of others, to help him against the evil men taking other men's women.

Joe Tex - I Gotcha (1972)

Joe Tex - From The Roots Came The Rapper (Expanded) (1972)

The era this material represents wasn't an artistic or commercial high-water mark in Tex's career, although it's OK. Like his late-'60s sides, it bridges smooth soul with funk and anticipates rap, though it's a little lusher than his slightly earlier stuff. From From the Roots Came the Rapper itself, a highlight is the epic, eight-minute version of "Oh Me Oh My (I'm a Fool for You Baby)," which naturally includes some extended spoken sections. That and the similarly constructed 11-minute cover of "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" make you wonder whether there was some influence traveling back and forth between Tex and Isaac Hayes. The rest of that LP had fair, and not great, good-natured yet earthy soul with a bit more of a slick Northern soul production influence than his '60s records. Tex himself, surprisingly, wrote just one of the tunes, though the other writers included stalwarts Jerry Williams Jr. (aka Swamp Dogg) ("The Baby Is Mine") and Don Covay ("I Can Do It Better").

Joe Tex - Buying A Book (1969)

A 1969 Memphis session that produced a big hit from the title track's folk wisdom, a truly hilarious moment in "It Ain't Sanitary," and vintage Tex in "Grandma Mary," "Get Your Lies Together," and "The Same Things You Did to Get Me." Funny, funky, and as deep as it wants to be.

Joe Tex – Soul Country (1968)

A 1968 set recorded in Memphis and Nashville. Features only one Tex original, "I'll Never Do Wrong." The rest are remakes of period hits: "Ode to Billie Joe" and "Skip a Rope" are inspired selections, "Funny How Time Slips Away" one of his greats, "Dark End of the Street" inevitable, Roger Miller's "Engine Engine Number Nine" and the budding standard "Green Green Grass of Home" worth trying. But Joe Tex singing "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" and "Honey"? Dated barely begins to describe it.

Joe Tex – Live And Lively (1968)

Fantastic reproduction of a 1968 show -- who knows how much overdubbing was done, and when the feel is this spontaneous and funky, who cares? He tears up stuff like "Get Out of My Life, Woman," "Love is a Hurtin' Thing," and even "That's Life." But the real meat is in his hits: "Skinny Legs and All" is a true climax, but only because part of what it follows is "A Woman's Hands," "Papa Was, Too," and other originals, all of them topping the standards. Arguably the definitive Joe Tex document. (The liner notes, by a St. Louis DJ, are among the worst in even the shabby history of '60s R&B notes, but that just makes them funnier.)

Joe Tex – Ive Got To Do A Little Bit Better (1966)

Another rock-solid album from Joe Tex, I've Got to Do a Little Better was his third full-length release of 1966, but Tex showed no signs of slowing down or losing his breath on these 12 songs. I've Got to Do a Little Bit Better revisits Tex's traditional themes, namely holding on to your man (or woman) ("A Woman Sees a Hard Time (When Her Man Is Gone)," " "S.Y.S.L.J.F.M. (The Letter Song)"), playing fair with others (" "Lying's Just a Habit, John" and the title tune), and being true to yourself ("Papa Was, Too," which bears more than a passing resemblance to the Otis Redding/Carla Thomas hit "Tramp"), while "I Believe I'm Gonna Make It" is one of the strangest R&B tunes to surface concerning the war in Vietnam (in which Tex, after getting a letter from his baby, is so filled with love and patriotic fervor that he leaps from his foxhole to gun down several Vietnamese). Buddy Killen's production is admirably malleable, knowing when to go for subtlety and when to rave on, and Tex's rich and passionate tenor rings out clear and true on each and every tune. One of the very best albums of Tex's Southern soul period, I've Got to Do a Little Bit Better suggests the kind of care and careful thought that rarely went into LPs of the period, and it's well worth seeking out for fans.

Joe Tex (1966) The Love You Save +10 (2023)

Joe Tex was at the top of his game as the down-home philosopher of Southern soul when he cut The Love You Save, one of three (!) albums Tex would release in 1966. Tex's warm and passionate tenor is in superb form on these tunes, and his songs, which offer plenty of advice on keeping your relationship in good shape (" "Build Your Love (On a Solid Foundation)"), keeping up with the Joneses ("Funny Bone"), understanding what you want out of life (" "I'm a Man"), and various other topics of importance, are solid, funny, and bear the sing of truth. Buddy Killen's production is the perfect marriage of deep South vibe and East coast polish, and all 12 songs hit the bullseye (including an idiosyncratic but beautifully executed cover of "Heartbreak Hotel." Great stuff that any fan of Southern soul should have on their want list.

Joe Tex – The New Boss (1965)

While he was one of the leading lights of the Southern soul scene of the 1960's, Joe Tex never made a secret of his fondness for country music, and on his 1966 set The New Boss, Tex allowed his C&W influences to shine more brightly than usual, covering Roger Miller's "King Of The Road" and Bobby Bare's "Detroit City" in a style that was faithful to the sound and feel of the originals while adding a soulful edge all his own to the tunes. And while that was the end of the C&W covers on The New Boss, they also fit right in alongside the very Southern preachments of "A Woman (Can Change A Man)" and "Don't Make Your Children Pay", though "C.C. Rider", "Stop, Look and Listen" and "What In The World" are also on hand for those looking for more dance friendly fare. As usual, Tex's warm and incisive vocals cut to the emotional core of these songs in a way that's honest, human and thoroughly compelling, and the production, subtle and supportive without being intrusive, is just what the material called for. At eleven tracks, The New Boss is a bit light in the value-for-money department, but Joe Tex's performances insure that what's here is choice.

Joe Tex (1965) Hold What Youve Got +4 (2017)

In hindsight, it seems impossible that Joe Tex couldn't get a record contract in the early '60s. Turned down by numerous labels, music publisher/friend Buddy Killen started Dial Records for the singer. It was still hard going for the singer with his initial singles failing to garner chart success. Disgusted, Tex wanted to quit. Killen urged him to try one more recording session to come up with a hit. In November 1964, Killen paid for sessions at Rick Hall's Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, AL. Out of those sessions came "Hold What You Got." In a move that predated digital sampling by decades, producer Killen copied and re-added one chorus section several times. Distributed through Atlantic Records, "Hold What You Got" went to number two R&B and number five pop in early 1965. The Hold What You Got LP also included "You Got What It Takes," "One Monkey Don't Stop No Show," and "You Better Get It." Tex went on to have five number one R&B singles, three gold singles -- "Skinny Legs and All," "I Gotcha," and "Ain't Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)" -- and seven Top 40 pop hits.

vendredi 10 octobre 2025

R&B Compilations 2024/2025

Masterpiece Vol. 37 Now Available for PRE-ORDER!

Discover the Magic of Masterpiece 37
A New Chapter of Timeless Classics!

Masterpiece Volume 37 - The Ultimate Disco Funk Collection
~~€18,90~~ | €15,90

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Also available in the sale is the complete Masterpiece Collection. Don’t miss the chance to own the entire series, featuring a curated selection of timeless classics and exclusive tracks.

Enjoy discounts on the entire Masterpiece series older Masterpiece CDs are now available for only €14.90 instead of €18.90.

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