Neo-Soul
The 9 Best Neo-Soul
Tracks of All Time
Nineties soul rebuilt by musicians raised on hip-hop. Live bands playing deliberately behind the beat, seventies chord voicings, and an insistence on album-length statements at the height of the singles era.
- Origin
- Philadelphia and New York City, 1995
- Tempo
- 70–100 BPM
- Also known as
- neo soul, nu soul, soulquarians
- Tracks
- 9
- Updated
- 2026-08-29
Listen to the whole list
Play it through here →One record after another, with the verdicts
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Curators on Neo-Soul
This ranking is the whole scene arguing. These are individuals who gave us their own Neo-Soul list, and a reason for every record on it.
Number 1: D'Angelo / Brown Sugar
1995 · EMI
The record that announced the whole project: a Rhodes, a hip-hop drum feel and a vocal arrangement borrowed from Marvin Gaye. Nothing on radio in 1995 sounded this unhurried.
Also on The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred
Number 2: D'Angelo / Untitled (How Does It Feel)
2000 · Virgin
Seven minutes that dismantle the idea of a single. The band play so far behind the beat that the track feels like it might stop, and the video obscured how extraordinary the arrangement is.
Also on The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred, The Waxonia Desk — The Soulquarians Room
Number 3: Erykah Badu / On & On
1997 · Kedar
A jazz vocal delivered over a beat that would not be out of place on a Tribe record. Badu arrived fully formed, and the phrasing on this is still being copied.
Number 4: Lauryn Hill / Ex-Factor
1998 · Ruffhouse
A Wu-Tang sample, a gospel structure and a lyric with no interest in protecting anyone's dignity, least of all its author's. The most-covered song of the era, and nobody has improved on it.
Also on The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred, The Waxonia Desk — The Soulquarians Room
Number 5: The Roots featuring Erykah Badu / You Got Me
1999 · MCA
A live band proving a rap record needs no samples to swing, then handing the last ninety seconds to a drum-and-bass breakdown. Questlove's finest recorded argument.
Number 6: Maxwell / Ascension (Don't Ever Wonder)
1996 · Columbia
The most straightforwardly beautiful record in the genre, and the one that proved this was a movement rather than one man in Virginia. Sade's restraint, updated without being diluted.
Number 7: Slum Village / Guess Who
2000 · Barak
J Dilla programming drums that are audibly, deliberately out of time and grooving harder for it. The production technique underneath half of this list, laid bare on one track.
Also on The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred, The Waxonia Desk — The Soulquarians Room
Number 9: Solange / Cranes in the Sky
2016 · Saint
Twenty years on, the same values — patience, live strings, a refusal to raise the voice — applied to an entirely modern record. Proof the genre became a grammar rather than a period.