The 9 best Neo-Soul tracks of all time
Neo-Soul
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.
Autoplay · 8 of 9 play here · plays through and starts again
Swipe the list left or right to move through the queue
/
D'Angelo / Brown Sugar
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.
D'Angelo / Untitled (How Does It Feel)
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.
Erykah Badu / On & On
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.
Lauryn Hill / Ex-Factor
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.
The Roots featuring Erykah Badu / You Got Me
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.
Maxwell / Ascension (Don't Ever Wonder)
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.
Slum Village / Guess Who
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.
No verified video yet · not in the queue
Solange / Cranes in the Sky
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.