New Delhi, Nov. 8 -- In the long history of horny sex jams, nothing quite matches up to the brilliance of D'Angelo's Untitled (How Does it Feel?). It's a seven-minute slow-burn that thrums with a tension both erotic and divine, its entreaties to his lover to "take the walls down" with him delivered by a choir from the heavens. It's a song that channelled decades of Black musical excellence-controversy-era Prince's fusion of raw desire and tender vulnerability, the yearning of Marvin Gaye's Sexual Healing, Jimi Hendrix's volcanic guitar playing-into a meisterwerk of pop eroticism.

If Untitled (How Does it Feel?) was the only song that D'Angelo ever wrote, it would already guarantee him a spot in the pantheon of pop music greats. But the A...