Well, well, well…
I know someone in another thread said this could be a show-stealer in terms of albums of 2016, and I’m really enjoying this so far.
Only stinker, for me anyway, is ‘California’ - sounds like one of those Jimmy Fallon & Roots backstage skits with the children’s instruments and I have no idea what he was thinking with the autotune.
Early thoughts?
Bit nuts innit, had to switch it off when I got to that Zombies track, it was excruciating.
I’m gonna have to take another listen. After listening thru once it was ok I guess. A lot different from his early works. I love the production of the entire project.
Rather liking the production on this - but it feels very empty. His lack of outrage, passion or wordplay really limits it for me. After that wonderful first track, the second should be BARS and after that I could take the soundscapes - but that rap feel never hits and for me makes it feel a bit weak.
weird one innit. reminds me of annette peacock a lot. don’t really like any of the bits where his vocals are clean/you can hear the words he’s saying. redbone is astonishingly good.
I’m heavy into it. Not what I expected at all but it’s great.
Not a fan of his old stuff, music wise anyway. Big 30 rock, community and Atlantic fan. really enjoying this atm, so.e proper p-funk worship at times. Calafornia and Zombies both a bit hmm, but not completely awful.
Not sure what to make of this, exactly, but I think I hate it.
was trying to figure out what it reminded me of and it’s basically a bad version of Van Hunt’s alb from last year ‘The Fun Rises, The Fun Sets.’ Which, is a total trip and totally awesome and isn’t… uh, fake.
idk, redbone off this album is good. I just can’t take this thing seriously. Some of it is just embarrassing. Atlanta is a really good show tho.
I like a lot of it, certainly more than his rap music but it’s hard to listen to anything he does without it feeling cynical. Questlove said he woke D’Angelo up at 4am in the morning to listen to it cos he was so hyped. Can’t imagine D was as impressed.
i need to add qualifiers cause i fucken love annette peacock and i don’t love this. it’s mostly the way the vocal FX are played with and the sort of ramshackality of the band that formed that link in my head i think - the sound is defo the best thing on the album. doesn’t have that central force of personality to it though. he doesn’t help himself using a load of different vocal styles… bit moody & nebulous calling things “record collection rock” but it does feel that way. songs are a bit weak too, mostly.
worthwhile listen though eh. redbone is 11/10.
@incandenza @anon26275971 would be interested to hear your thoughts on that Van Hunt record I mentioned. Feel like recent Bilal is a good comp for this new CG album too.
def, will stick it on my phone for work tomorrow. just listened to the first track - i like the audio space or whatever, dropping the high percussion in and out works really well when there’s not a lot of mid.
not a lot of mid range instruments anyway
IT’s def a flawed album but there are some stunning moments. Old Hat, Headroom, If I Wanna Dance w u, Let it Soak n
Def better than his other music. This sounds like it wants to be a d’angelo album.
quite enjoying this. never heard any of his other music so can’t comment on that angle. Not sure I get the criticism that it’s a pastiche of P-Funk. It’s funky, sure, but sounds like he’s doing his own thing with mixing that with soul and modern tweaks. And George Clinton’s such a master freak genius that more people should be influenced by him anyway.
Love the opening three tracks. As mentioned in the OP, California is bizarre and pretty terrible, but I feel like it might be one of those ridiculous songs I could grow to love, or at least flip flop between loving and hating.
The wonky keys on Baby Boy are groovy.
Given it a listen and I quite like it, although some of it feels a bit silly on a first listen. It’s like he took whatever he was doing on Urn on Because The Internet and developed that. I prefer his more R&B stuff anyway so I’ll give it a few more spins.
I don’t get this at all.
album of two halves for me -
A side - bass guitar is ON
B side - bass guitar is gone 
seriously, that is some roiling playing. especially teach me a new language - can’t find the bassists name anywhere, any idea?
so yeah for the first 7 tracks or so i was well into it. always been more into the meters’ lineage of funk than pfunk stuff and the band really know what they’re doing.
he does some interesting stuff with it too - heard a lot of unexpected references to alt rock/white music after a few listens: she stays with me sounds like a tip to fugazi!? maybe; bit of talk talk on another track i can’t remember; pedestal really sounds like a radiohead song to me - would be genuinely surprised if that one wasn’t intentional - the bass is uncanny for colin greenwood.
was grasping about in that last post for what the production reminds me of and it might be in rainbows, thinking about it. dunno. will have to listen to it again. sounds great anyway.
then we hit a logjam of ballads on the b side, not like they’re bad tracks in isolation (if i wanna dance with you is a highlight) but the sequencing just makes it feel like a long tail-off to me. rub my feet is a goodun.
thought headroom was fighting it out with puddin’ as the worst song on the record fwiw - is he referencing how much he cribbed the melody from that adele song in the lyrics?
good shout anyway, like you said - flawed but very interesting. will listen to that bilal record some time soon.