cover image source: Johnnny2X4
This past week I got turned on to The Soulquarians, a collective of musicians from the late 90's who all took hip hop into a more soulful, jazzy territory. So, I'm asking y'all to hop on the soul train with me and share some of your favorite soulful tunes. Old school soul and neo soul are both welcome here!
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Lookin' forward to hearing some of y'all's favorite soul musicians! Note: you can embed a link to your song using the following syntax {% embed https://... %}. This should work for most common platforms!
I look forward to listening to y'all's suggestions! 👂 🎶
Top comments (12)
So, as I noted in the opening, I've been digging into music by different musicians who are part of the collective referred to as The Soulquarians.
From Wikipedia:
I'm still exploring, but right now, I think I'm most hooked to D'Angelo's Voodoo album and one of my faves is "Chicken Grease":
As far as old school Soul goes, I think everybody needs to listen to Marvin Gaye's What's Going On album... it's an important piece of art and it just grooves throughout. My personal favorite from the album is "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)":
You know I'm here for the Soulquarians and What's Going On love 😍
That list right there makes my soul sing.
Oh no doubt!! I knew you'd be all about it.
I half expected ya to drop some Lauryn Hill in here, granted I don't think she can be contained to just one genre, haha. Don't worry though, I got you! 🙌
I got one for y'all!
Scottish musician Paolo Nutini is a super soulful singer. Check out this amazing version of "Iron Sky" at Abbey Road. Hearing this tune kinda reminds me of Marvin Gaye...
And apparently, Paolo Nutini just released a new album:
Been on a nostalgia kick lately so I have been listening to a lot of ELO. Sounds amazing on vinyl and keeps my office feeling up beat.
Oooo yeah, ELO is freaking awesome!
The co-founder of ELO Jeff Lynne is an amazing musician (he sang + played all kinds of instruments as part of ELO) and one helluva producer too.
He was also part of the super group called the Traveling Wilburys which ya might dig lookin' into after you've exhausted all the ELO tunes.
What the Supergroup? That sounds amazing. Definitely checking that out.
SAULT
SAULT captured my attention and admiration in 2019 with their debut album "5". The Neo-Soul group is an anonymous collective of musicians with no clearly defined members. Despite having 1.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify, the band's managed to keep the majority of their collaborators a secret; Quite the challenge nowadays.
My favorite song from the album:
The rest of the album is impressively cohesive given the variety of instrumentation that's used across tracks. It's one of my favorite albums for trying to enter flow state and a reoccurring friend to my productivity. If you'd like to hear more SAULT, you can hear the rest of the album here:
Oooo, such an awesome suggestion. 🙌
I had never hear of this group before, but just listened to "Up All Night" and I'm loving it. Got me grooving this AM! I'll definitely be digging into SAULT's other tunes... and really cool to hear about their mysterious origins.
Appreciate ya chiming in here and sharing this, Chris!
"Masterpiece" def lives up to its name. Still grooving to this!
Let Me Down Slowly
Song by Alec Benjamin
It hits differently