In these challenging times, the best R&B and soul albums walked tall and carried a big stick, while also being a much-needed balm and source of warmth.
Electronic dance act Pretty Lights crank up their interdimensional soundship space system with transcendent results and a dazzling psychedelic light show.
Putting the pop in popular as a rising star before she was 20, Australian Vanessa Amorosi takes on a soul role with her eighth studio album premiering here.
Chris Stapleton’s Higher is required listening for fans of high-quality, contemporary country. He’s gifted with the most gorgeous male voice in country today.
Quantic infuses everything he creates with a balmy kind of love. Dancing While Falling revisits his early roots in ’60s and ’70s soul with a new sophistication.
Jamila Woods’ Water Made Us is full of creativity. The songs are not just liquid, solid, and gas; they are blood, wine, and soul.
Jorja Smith’s Falling or Flying is quite an accomplishment and an excellent vehicle for her estimable talents. It’s a low-key yet unequivocal triumph.
A tribute and aural love letter to her husband and her Black musical heroes and heroines, Christina Aguilera’s Back to Basics still attracts an equal amount of disciples and denigrators.
Recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees the Spinners made some great Philly-style soul with producer Thom Bell but are still defined by a single song.
Meshell Ndegeocello always creates a mood around the music that puts rhythm, harmony, and melody in delicious orbits. This is a real genre-crossing soul album.
On Hit Parade, Róisín Murphy takes her sound – a swirling cacophony of electropop, synthpop, and nu-disco – and looks to soul to elevate her music.
As the title All My Love For You suggests, this is a love album. Blues artist Bobby Rush solicitously offers his feelings and suggests the best is yet to come.
