0304. D'Angelo
Brown Sugar

The second neo-soul album on the list, D'Angelo's Brown Sugar is also the second best neo-soul album on the list as Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite beats him hands down. But D'Angelo was first, or rather: he's the one who kicked in the door so that everyone else could get through.

The problem isn't that D'Angelo's not a good singer (cause he's got a voice that, if applied correctly, can melt your pants off) or an excellent composer, but that some of the songs are, just like the title track, a bit too slick. I feel more like he's only doing what you should do and not what he feels like - a bit of a masquerade, doing the song and dance like the sociopath's attempt at playing "normal".
But then there's songs like Alright and Higher - they're more into the soul-side of things and lifts the album.

An honorable mention goes to Shit, Damn, Motherfucker, which is on the topic of cheating, and like Sublime's Santeria it's a song about emotional pain, but delivered in a style that, while contradicting the feeling, creates a synergy effect and making the track grow beyond it's original scope.

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