Voodoo

D’angelo’s 1995 debut, Brown Sugar, may have proved he was the most innovative soul man since Prince, but you dug it because it worked on the ladies like an aural aphrodisiac. Voodoo casts the same seductive spell. The loins-quivering grooves of Sugar are intact, but here D’angelo spices them up with bursts of funky brass and a melting pot of jazzed-out beats. Best of all, the ghosts of Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield seem to float through standout cuts like “Playa Playa” and “The Line,” making this some powerful black magic indeed.