D'Angelo - Cruisin' - (1996)

Cooltempo Records CDCOOL 316

Kym's note: Not my post originally, but I have the CDS so I'm re-upping in 320. 

I loved Smokey Robinson's original and while ordinarilly I'd consider a cover as blasphemy, D'Angelo absolutely bodies this track. Truly classy and a worthwhile cover.

Dedicated to DJ Filthy Rich who requested this for the Beatminerz Brown Sugar remix like years ago. Sorry Rich! Over to you, Mick...

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D'Angelo's 1995 debut album Brown Sugar gave us this gem, along with the single Brown Sugar, revisited here by the Beatminerz to good effect. Not preferable over the original mixes but definately different. Prior to Brown Sugar's release, the nu soul movement was yet to be defined by a major release, being dominated by British artists such as Omar. D'Angelo ushered in a new sound, blending classic soul with R&B beats.

While the title song, Brown Sugar, is a thinly-veiled ode to marijuana, Cruisin' is a Smokey Robinson penned cover from his 1979 Tamla album Where There's Smoke, conventional in the classic sense. The Dallas Austin Remix enhances the Album Version for the RnB crew but the Wet Mix is pure class, a lil' piece of soul heaven.

Tracklist

1. Cruisin' (Album Version) 
2. Cruisin' (Dallas Austin Remix) 
3. Cruisin' (Wet Mix) 
4. Brown Sugar (Beatminerz Remix) 

Download: D-C.7z Filesize: 52.491MB

Cruisin' 

(W. Robinson & M. Tarplin)

Baby let's cruise, Away from here
Don't be confused, baby
The way is clear
And if you want it you got it forever
Oh, this is not a one night stand
Let the music take your mind
And just release and you will find

We're going to fly away
Glad you're going my way
I love it when we're cruisin together
Music was made for love
Cruisin' is made for love
I love it when we're cruisin' together

Baby, tonight belongs to us
Everything's right
Do what you must
And inch by inch we get closer and closer
Every little part of each other
Ooh, baby, baby
Let the music take your mind
Just release and you will find

We're going to fly away
Glad you're going my way
I love it when we're cruisin' together
Music was made for love
Cruisin' is made for love
I love you when we're cruisin' together
(repeat)

Baby let's cruise
Let's fly away
Let's glide
Ooh, Ooh, Let's open up and go inside
And if you want it you got it forever
I can stay there inside you and love you, baby
Let the music take your mind
Just release and you will find

We're going to fly away
Glad you're going my way
I love it when we're cruisin' together
Music was made for love
Cruisin' is made for love
I love you when we're cruisin' together
(repeat)

D'Angelo - Brown Sugar CD Single (1996)

1996, Cooltempo, CDCOOL 307

Special request!

Mick has already posted the 12" here but after a request the other day about six years ago(!) I thought I'd put up the CD single in 320kbps.

So there is little I can say that Mick hasn't already beaten me to. D'Angelo was the standard-bearer for the fledgling Neo Soul movement, whether willing or not.

Brown Sugar is one of, if not THE, best D'Angelo tune outside of the Voodoo album (Voodoo, how I love thee), a sublime cut with D'Angelo killing it on the vocals and smoky, sensual production courtesy of Ali Shaheed Muhammed of A Tribe Called Quest. Quite frankly, it's an amazing track.

The UK CD single then brings us an edited, Radio version, that is the original with 20 seconds shaved off. Stick with the album cut for a deeper experience, I say. 

However, the real highlights here are the Carl McIintosh (of Loose Ends fame) produced Dollar Bag Mix, and Dodge's Soul Inside Mix. Avid readers will be all too aware of how much I love Dodge, and that funky bassline he brings is tight as hell, but the smoothed out vibes of  Carl's mix can't be praised enough. Though not quite as classic as the original, I can't decide between either, they are the highlights of this CD single.

The album cut When We Get By also gets an airing which a brilliant cut, and, on a lesser album, could well have been a single in its own right.

- Kymba :)

Tracklist

1. Brown Sugar (Radio Version) 
2. Brown Sugar (Dollar Bag Mix) 
3. Brown Sugar (Soul Inside 808 Mix) 
4. When We Get By 

Download: D-BS.7z Filesize: 41.782MB