The world lost a musical icon with the passing of D’Angelo, who reinvented soul and R&B as a pioneer of the Neo-soul movement. His enigmatic and seductive musical style was encapsulated in just three solo albums: 1995’s “Brown Sugar,” 2000’s “Voodoo,” and 2014’s “Black Messiah.” Each album upped the ante for fellow musicians, who were awed at his masterful command of sounds.
“He inspired me and my other musician friends so much,” said John Legend. “It helped me believe that there were different ways to be an R&B artist, ways to buck the norms of the mainstream,” he wrote. “I’d try to imitate his smoky tone and smooth falsetto, the way he’d stack his backing vocals, the way he’d incorporate vintage keyboards and organs for his signature sound. The way he harkened back to our shared roots in the Black church.”
Today, we’re celebrating the life and legacy of D’Angelo with “Another Life,” which now serves as his closing statement in his catalog as the final track on “Black Messiah.” The song is a floating ballad with swirling, ever-changing harmony to support layered falsetto vocals. It stands as a testament to his vulnerability and his genius.
As complex as “Another Life” seems to be, it was born out of a jam session. “Black Messiah” engineer Russell Elevado, who recorded the album to analog tape, described the song’s creation as “magical” and said it appeared “literally out of thin air.”
D’Angelo was inspired by the sound of Philadelphia soul of the ’70s for the track. He arranged it to include sitar, similar to the Delfonics hit “Didn’t I Blow Your Mind This Time,” and he wanted similar lyrics, as well.
Co-writer Kendra Foster explained that he wanted “some beautiful language on this record like [Philly soul producers] Thom Bell and Linda Creed used to do. He wanted to find a beautiful way to put his mack down!”
Harmonically, “Another Life” is on another level. It’s hard to pinpoint where exactly the home key is. After a beautiful intro, we resolve to Bbmin11 to begin the verse. The progression quickly moves to a BMaj9 followed by a GbMaj9. After a little bit of music theory math, we can settle on calling it Bb Phrygian, which is the third mode of Gb major.
D’Angelo’s use of harmony is legendary. As NYU music professor Jeff Peretz explains, he uses extended chords, four and five-note chords that extend the harmony into the 7th, 9th, 11th, and 13th notes of a scale.
“But here’s the thing: D’Angelo rarely actually plays those extra notes on his instrument — be it piano or guitar,” he explains. “More than often, they are simply implied by a walking bass line (“walking” being a metaphor for how a bass melody progresses up and down a scale). What the interplay between the instruments forces us to do is fill in the aural blanks, a skill for which most casual music fans [sic] simply have no frame of reference.”
Explore his harmonic virtuosity and learn how to play “Another Life” in this piano tutorial from Karlis Musik:
D’Angelo has left the stage, but his music will continue to live and inspire generations to come. “Another Life” was both an ending and an open question. He pushed music to new heights – now what will you do with it?
