In the last decade, the Hip Hop world has eagerly anticipated three albums to the point of exhaustion. Dr Dre’s The Detox, Lauryn Hill’s follow up to The Miseducation and D’Angelo’s third studio album, currently known as James’ River.

D’Angelo 2012 European Tour Dates

It looks like we may just get at least one of those albums in 2012 as D’Angelo has announced a series of 2012 European tour dates. Kicking off in Paris, D will play at Le Zénith, France on January 29th 2012, before heading to Paradiso, Amsterdam on January 30th and 31st and then onto Brixton Academy, London on February 3rd. Tickets for London Brixton Academy go on sale Friday 25th November at 9.00.

The move comes as something of a surprise to those who were questioning as to whether the follow up to 2000′s Voodoo would ever see the light of day, let alone seeing the man himself tour again. Most of us have been relying on updates from fellow Soulquarian ?uestlove and producer Russell Elevado who have been working on the album periodically over the last decade.

Though we doubt you need reminding, here are just a couple of reasons why we all need D’Angelo back.

So Where Has D’Angelo Been?

Since Voodoo, there have only really been three notable tracks on which D’Angelo has made an appearance. in 2006 and 2007, two versions of ‘So Far To Go’ produced by J Dilla and featuring Common and D’Angelo were released on ‘The Shining’ and ‘Finding Forever’ albums respectively. In 2008 D’Angelo featured on the track ‘Believe’ for Q-Tip’s Renaissance album and then last year we heard a somewhat audiological mutated version of D on the Mark Ronson track ‘Glass Mountain Trust’. The latter in particular showcased a D’Angelo that none of us had heard before, a more psychedelic R&B but retaining that trademark D’Angelo scream.

There have been snippets of information leaked to indicate that D’Angelo has been locked away working on new material though. For those who caught it, there was ‘Really Love’ dropped by ?uestlove on Australian radio back in 2007 and mysteriously leaked track entitled ’1000 deaths’ hit YouTube back in January 2010, before very quickly being removed. So apart from those selective few who have been working with him in the studio, none of us really know what to expect.

D’Angelo has also had a number of personal issues involving drugs and a high profile incident involving D pleading guilty to a prostitution case dating back to March 2010. As huge D’Angelo fans, we don’t want to dwell too much on those issues though and just offer our support and love in hoping that he’s managed to overcome some of the personal demons he’s faced during this time.

Details about the new album James River are still sketchy but with an early 2012 European tour, you would expect that the album must be somewhere near completion. We already know that previous collaborators ?uestlove, Russell Elevado and Pino Palladino have returned to the studio with D’Angelo and there has also been significant input from Prince. Other rumoured artists who feature on the album include Kanye West, Busta Rhymes, John Mayer, Mark Ronson and Cee Lo.

We’re DAMN excited and though we don’t usually do news stories here, this is more than news. This is soul making it’s return.