You know the album: Voodoo. Naturally, you know the video: “Untitled (How Does It Feel),” a shirtless D’Angelo belting and skin-bearing his way to becoming an  sex symbol. The album itself, presenting a progression from the jazzy jamming of Brown Sugar to a sleeker take on hip-hop soul, should have been cause enough to vault him to stardom. Songs like the aforementioned “Untitled” and DJ Premier collab “Devil’s Pie” get the shine and rightfully so. They showcase D’Angelo, bearing the torch lit by the greatest men and women of soul, as a potent songwriter and world weary observer.

But, of course, there still has to be some time to jam. And “Left & Right” is a jam. Bringing eternal party boys Red and Meth along for the show, D’Angelo crafted a perfect encapsulation of his sonic evolution with “Left & Right.” This jam replaced the jazzy meandering of Sugar with a tight, slick groove that still gave him room to stretch out over the track with his signature warbled vocals. “Left & Right” is an infectious reminder of D’Angelo’s potential and of the artistic heights he had already reached by his second album. So throw this one on and hope that his promised third album can stand up to over a decade of playing the shit out of Voodoo.

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