At the end of the night on Saturday, one by one, D’Angelo’s band members took leave of the Apollo Theater stage. They’d been playing “Untitled (How Does It Feel),” the solemn declaration of lust that had, thanks to its erotic video 15 years ago, transformed D’Angelo from soul music savior to something far trickier, and sweatier. It has become the song that, for many, defines this singer. And it has at times been the song that D’Angelo runs away from.
Here, though, he luxuriated in it, turned it into an aerobics workout. He shouted, grunted, attacked and retreated. He smiled and grabbed the hands of the fans in the front rows as if it were a celebration, not a seduction.
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He played the majority of “Black Messiah” here, and at the end of the main part of the show, he looked slightly tired. He left the stage for an unusually long stretch, the audience uncertain whether he would return. But when he did, he was fully renewed. His first encore lasted almost half an hour — “Untitled” was the conclusion of the second encore — and it was mainly devoted to extended versions of three songs: the silky “Lady,” the crunchy, rowdy “Chicken Grease” and “Back to the Future,” which appears in two parts on the new album.
That song is D’Angelo at his most humble, a blinding talent dreaming of a simpler past: “I just wanna go back, baby, back to the way it was/ I used to get real high, now I’m just getting a buzz.” It’s a simple conceit, and as far as D’Angelo is concerned, not a wholly accurate one. D’Angelo’s preferred modes are the old ones, yes, but he is at home in the now. And as he showed on his deconstruction and reassembling of “Untitled,” all he really wants is a chance to do it again, on his terms.
