Track Listing

1. Brown Sugar
2. Alright Alright
3. Jonz In My Bonz
4. Me And Those Dreaming Eyes Of Mine
5. Shit Damn Motherfucker
6. Smooth
7. Cruisin'
8. When We Get By
9. Lady
10. Higher

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24269 in Music
• Released on: 1995-06-26
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
D'Angelo is obviously inspired by the progressive soul of the early 1970s, but he has also borrowed carefully from the hip-hop of his own generation. Like many of his contemporaries, he has recorded a tribute to marijuana--the album's title--but it's far wittier than most. It takes the form of a conventional love song ("Brown sugar babe, I gets high off your love ... that's why my eyes are a shade blood burgundy") and mimics intoxication in its throbbing bass lines and reverb-heavy organ. Another song, with a title too profane to print, is a blunt tale of infidelity and murder, but in contrast to most rap fantasies, D'Angelo's blues-like narrative acknowledges such acts have serious consequences. Best of all is the Prince-like "Higher", which combines the spiritual love of God and the carnal love of a woman into one dizzying, organ-fuelled hymn. D'Angelo is still rather clumsy with lyrics, and he leans too heavily on ballads over dance numbers, but he has enough talent to grow in any of several directions. It will be an exciting story to follow and one would be foolish to miss the first chapter. --Geoffrey Himes

CD Description
All the new jacks who talk about molding the forces of classic R&B's style, hip-hop's modernism, and jazz's flexibilityinto a sleek, soulful package should take a good close lookat D'Angelo's debut. BROWN SUGAR is audacious enough to succeed on aesthetics alone. Instead of stilted, synthetic textures, there is the constant warmth of a Fender Rhodes electric piano (evoking Stevie and Marvin's mid-'70s records), andrather than filling the air with shrieking castrato vocals,there are four-part harmonies peeking out from behind everycorner. In short, BROWN SUGAR is an honest-to-goodness soulrecord without the hollow bluster of modern soul.
Some of the credit for this must go to the 21-year-old's choice ofcollaborators--or the absence of. Rather than hand his talents over to any of the uber-producers who rule modern R&B, D'Angelo handles most tasks himself--from writing and producing to arranging and playing (including all vocals and most of the instrumentation). When he does turn for help, D'Angelotakes on musicians with distinctive feels--Tribe Called Quest DJ Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and Tony! Toni! TonT!'s Rafael Saadiq--then works to their strengths. "Brown Sugar" percolates between Muhammad's breathy, organic jazz track, accented by a sleek snare and laid-back piano, and D'Angelo's playful, sexually-charged delivery. On "Lady", Saadiq's funky lickstry to steal the song away from the melodious Four Tops-like chorus, playing to a wonderful draw. When alone, D'Angelo sculpts pieces as warmly innovative as "When We Get By", with its swingin' stride bass, and as traditionally uplifting as the gospel "Higher", on which D'Angelo's organ competes for the spotlight with a choir of his voices.

Customer Reviews

Smooth, soulful, romantic and great for that "special night"
D'Angelo is quite frankly one of the very few, true musical genious' from this decade. I mostly listen to rap and r&b music but I have realised that there are a lot of artists out there who are only doing what they do to make money (wouldn't you?). D'Angelo is one of the few TRUE artists out there who strives to perfect his god-given musical talents. Most tracks on the album were composed, written, arranged, produced and performed by D'Angelo himself. He also played a wide range of the instruments heard on the album. If this isn't a talented guy, then I don't think I'll ever know what talent really is. I just love his songs which have a great relaxing feeling to them. The smooth, jazzy, soulful, rhythm and blues type of music found on this album is beautifully crafted together to create an all time classic. Most of the songs are woman-inspired and his soulful crooning about his admirations of the love of his life etc. make for great songs to play softly in the background, in a dimly lit room on that very "special night"... If you know what I mean ;). An absolute must-have album. This isn't your usual contemporary R&B like "Thong Song" etc. This is more of a hark back to some of the musical greats like Marvin Gaye and Al Green etc. D'Angelo has this ability to pack with him, the great stuff about the old-skool music and blend it in with more modern musical tactics to create his own unique sound. The songs are mostly slower love songs and ballads and a couple of jazzy/blues type songs. My favourite cuts are "Me and those Dreamin' Eyes of Mine", "Lady", "Smooth", "Brown Sugar", "Cruisin'" and "When we get by". An essential album for any fan of either modern day contemporary R&B or for those older old-skool heads.

Modest African Prince
D'Angelo, one of the greatest singing voices of today and with one of the greatest minds for musical output. Although he still, feels as if he can acomplish more, which is brilliant, for we willl get more of his music to chill to... I love the way he still puts out great music artists of the past and says how he wants to make music as good as theirs, stevie wonder, or prince... He is a modest artist with great lyrics when you study them hard... Well done D'Angelo..

D'Angelo is brilliant because he is able to create music form scratch and by himself, with his many talents and genius like brain...

peace out...

Jez

Modern soul at its very best
In the mid 90's the future looked bright for r n b, a new wave of modern soul artists began to shine, D'Angelo among them, and a strong musical wave looked to be on the horizon.
D'Angelo's debut album, Brown Sugar, starts off on a high, so to speak. The title track is a smooth sexy song with brooding basslines and a catchy chorus. This is by far the best track on the album, and the rest of the songs are given the seemingly impossible task of trying to match it.
However on each track, the combination of funky basslines, elegant piano playing, and D'Angelo's sweet vocals seem to capture the mood just right, and would make even the most banal of men light up the candles and lay out the rose petals. Tracks such as the excellent 'Alright', 'Higher', and 'When We Get By' are delivered with such an effortless confidence it is hard not to draw comparisons with soul legends such as Al Green or even Prince.
In all, a fantastic modern soul album, so smooth it could make your speakers melt, and in a time of Usher and a number of other anonymous acts performing watered down pop rnb, a warming reminder of 'what could have been'.