‘Saturday Night Live’ music: D’Angelo performs ‘Really Love,’ ‘The Charade’

We had no idea how in the world D’Angelo was going to do as the musical guest on “Saturday Night Live” this weekend. The man hasn’t released an album in over a decade, and when we saw him paired with J.K. Simmons, we wondered at one point if this was actually an episode of the show from 1995 rather than 2015.

Yet, it was none other than the soul singer who was present tonight, and the first song he performed was “Really Love.” This is as old-school as we’ve heard from an R&B track lately: Smooth, silky, and with a thriving beat and interesting Spanish influences. Still, it’s not a song for everyone. It’s never going to be a hit on top 40 radio, but we assume that D’Angelo is probably fine with that. Given how long it’s been since he was last in the public eye, he clearly just makes music whenever he wants to. Still, it’s going to be interesting to see what the public ends up thinking about this.

We suppose that the biggest subject of conversation for D’Angelo’s first performance was the outfit, which he looked like a Spanish conqueror mixed with a pirate. Somehow, still not the strangest outfit we’ve seen for a performer on this show.

For his second performer, we had a chance in costume as he performed “The Charade.” It’s almost worth noting that this performance also was meant to continue along the “Black Lives Matter,” as many members of his band were wearing these shirts as D’Angelo performed with a guitar. His musical palette has definitely expanded in the past decade, and that is for the better.

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