Untitled (How Does IT Feel) - Release and Reception

Release and Reception

As the fourth single issued in promotion of D'Angelo's second studio album Voodoo, "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" featured release in the United Kingdom in 1999 through the EMI record label and in the United States on January 1, 2000 through Virgin Records. In 2000, a 12-inch vinyl release of the single was issued in the U.K. with distribution through EMI. The 12-inch single was released with cover artwork featuring an illustration of musician Jimi Hendrix and an upper caption reading "Electric Lady Studios", serving as an homage to the musician and the recording studio, which were both influential to D'Angelo during the production of Voodoo. "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" proved to be the greatest chart success of the album's five radio singles, as it peaked at number 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 and at number 2 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart. The single entered the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singes & Tracks on January 8, 2000 at number 65 and spent twenty-two consecutive weeks on the chart. On January 22, "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" entered the Hot 100 Singles at number 77 and spent seventeen weeks on the chart.

The song was well received by music critics. Miles Marshall Lewis of The Village Voice commented on its Prince influence, stating "D's falsetto plays the "Do Me Baby"-era chocolate-seduction Prince role", while Mark Anthony Neal of PopMatters described the song as "simply the best Prince song since his Diamonds and Pearls days". Neal cited "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" as the best track featured on Voodoo, and praised D'Angelo's style, stating "arguably Prince has never sounded better channeled through D'Angelo." On the song, Andy Peterson of The GW Hatchet wrote that "D’Angelo does a great impression of old-school Prince, full of kinky keyboards, grinding guitars and not-so-subtle lyrics." In citing it one of the Greatest Make-Out Songs of All Time, Blender magazine wrote that D'Angelo "set the pace for bump 'n' grind in the Aughts. A high point for dippin' it low". Reveille Magazine's Steve McPherson called it "the best Prince song Prince never wrote" and cited the song's climb to its final chorus section as "the finest musical approximation of sexual climax since Serge Gainsbourg's 'Je T'Aime, Moi Non Plus'".

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