D’Angelo is cut from a heavier cloth than the majority of his New Jack brethren: He’s a singer/songwriter with a mellifluous, sturdy voice that can coo and growl with equal conviction. He’s no trailblazer — Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and Prince have all walked down the same musical paths where D’Angelo meanders. Yet he manages to build on the examples of the masters. No matter how delicate or dusty sounding a track may be, D’Angelo flips the script with B-boy savoir-faire: He makes the nasty rhythms bubbling underneath his multilayered love songs seem old and new at the same time. Call him an ndegéocello (Swahili for “free as a bird”), a rebel soul. The title track, “Brown Sugar,” oozes into the ears with dark, gooey, molasses-like texture. Bolstered by the smoky sounds of a tricky old stage organ, D’Angelo sets the mood here for the rest of his album; his highly agile falsetto vocals merge with the gutbucket rhythm mélange. Like lotion applied to dry skin, this sonic … [Read more...] about Brown Sugar