*** D'Angelo

VOODOO

(Virgin)

Enigmatic without being eccentric, D'Angelo arrived on the R&B scene in 1995 and permanently altered the genre's landscape, offering a sexily surly alternative to the neutered lovesick choirboys and the phallocentric bumpers and grinders. In fact, R&B in the years since has been defined more by the lack of D'Angelo than by the presence of anyone else. Following several years of late-night studio sessions at New York's Electric Lady Studios invoking the spirits of Hendrix, Mayfield, and Prince, D'Angelo has returned not so much as a savior -- Voodoo is unique and inimitable -- but as a lone soldier, trooping onward toward a goal visible only to a chosen few. Voodoo is careful, studied, timeless -- being trapped in the studio seems to have protected D'Angelo from falling prey to any of the typical R&B conventions. Even when Redman and Method Man show up on "Left & Right," they fail to excite D, or his music, to anything even approaching a fever pitch. Instead, the soulman's purrs, whispers, and groans dominate an album where words are rendered moot in the face of luxurious grooves. Only one track checks in at under five minutes; three exceed seven. Like the best artists, D'Angelo remains lost in the moment of his own making.

-- Jon Caramanica