Neo Soul in 10 Albums

In the midst of the 90s when hip-hop was going through its golden age, a revolution within soul music was also underway. With Erykah Badu, D’angelo, Jill Scott and many others, the genre found again its class: an echo of the simplicity and refinement that brought to life the albums of Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield and Roberta Flack. After years in the shadow of the reigning ultra-commercial and soft R&B, the noticeably more underground Neo Soul, or Nu Soul, relit the flame of soul music and returned it to its roots in terms of both composition and lyricism. A brief but highly influential movement.

D’Angelo – Brown Sugar (1995)

Ever since the release of his first album in 1995, Michael D’Angelo Archer has been acclaimed as a savior, if not a messiah, for modern soul. Fans of the genre were saturated with over-commercialized and spineless productions, something that Brown Sugar would eradicate in 53 minutes in one fell swoop. With this emotional record, the southerner born in Virginia in 1974 returned to the roots of soul music. Here, D’Angelo acts as an architect refining soul that heralds from the seventies. He is a crafter of grooves, a creator of magical worlds and, as a hip-hop fan, a king of beats. A formidable lover on his ballads yet a joker and trickster on up-tempo tracks, the release of Brown Sugar was an electric shock to soul music that was long overdue. A true heir to Prince, he covered all the bases. Production, keys, bass, drums, guitar and saxophone, he was all over; even considering that figures like Ali Shaheed Muhammed of A Tribe Called Quest, Raphael Saadiq or the producer Bob Power occasionally lent him a hand. A geek for vintage equipment, he made avid use of his Wurlitzer, Hammond organ and Fender Rhodes. And to highlight his love of the “good old days”, D’Angelo snuck into his album a tasteful cover of Cruisin’ by Smokey Robinson (1979). Without a doubt, Brown Sugar marked the birth of the Neo Soul saga.

Maxwell – Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite (1996)

Along with D’Angelo, Gerald Maxwell Rivera aka Maxwell is one of the most important liberators of soul in the nineties. While a certain spinelessness had saturated the majority of mainstream productions, the half-Haitian, half-Puerto Rican multi-instrumentalist from Brooklyn concocted a modern twist on soul that drew inspiration from masters such as Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Herbie Hancock (jazz fusion) and Prince. The spirituality that resides within Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite binds him for life to his idol, Marvin. The great Leon Ware who produced the hit What’s Going On also participated in Maxwell’s first opus, helping to create an album slightly less monolithic than that of D’Angelo’s that had been released a few months earlier. The well-known guitarist Wah-Wah Watson, the ultra-funky player often used by Hancock, was also thrown into the mix that combined seventies soul, smooth, groovy jazz, and mellow rap beats. The presence of these 5 star-studded veterans guaranteed a certain vintage feel to the neo soul sound without appearing too retro. It is without a doubt the entire instrumental ensemble within this record that delivers it a certain caliber and originality when compared with less seasoned competition. All in all, Maxwell created a form of concept album that was centered around both a love story and his inner struggles. It is a classic made magical by his voice, his sound and his vision.

Erykah Badu – Baduizm (1997)

Every king must have his queen; and vice versa. If D’Angelo seized the crown of neo soul in 1995 for his debut album, then Erykah Badu followed suit two years later. Its atmosphere may be smooth but Baduizm is a real clap of thunder. Upon soft yet mellow and organic beats, like a stripped-down interpretation of the time’s rap, the Texan soul sister flaunts her ultra-sensual voice. Between dreamlike rhythm’n’blues and smooth, quilted jazz, princess Erykah unleashes a lyricism that is both poetic and engaging. Like she sings at the beginning of Appletree: “I have some food for thought.” While traces of Diana Ross, Roberta Flack, Sade and Lauryn Hill can be found within her singing style, Badu maintains her own inflections and knows very well how to put them into practice. The jazz double-bassist Ron Carter plays on Drama. Bob Power, producer and sound engineer from A Tribe Called Quest, is as much involved with production as he is with guitar and key parts. Questlove and several other members of The Roots with whom Badu rubbed shoulders with were also involved. In short, underneath Baduizm’s smooth and casual aura, can be found a meditative groove that embodies the veritable A to Z of Neo Soul.

Lauryn Hill – The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998)

Five years after the release of the Fugees’ first single, Lauryn Hill went solo with what would become one of the most popular albums of the nineties. The album achieved the perfect balance between a complex personality and the many different styles of black music that were on trend at the time. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill was conceived within an agitated context. Between feuds with her Fugees bandmates, Wyclef Jean and Pras Michel, and the birth of her first child (with Rohan Marley, the son of Bob Marley) and several high-brow collaborations with Aretha Franklin (A Rose is Still a Rose) and Whitney Houston, Lauryn Hill still managed to find the time to write songs that she would put music to in the most organic way possible. Most notably through the integration of tons of different instruments: timpani, organs, strings, brass, harps, piano and percussion instruments were all piled into the two recording studios in Chung King, New York and Tuff Gong, Kingston. Released in August 1998, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, launched after the breakup of the Fugees, features Caribbean patois and engaging lyrics. Balancing aggressive MC (her punchlines match those of the most hardcore rappers) and soul sister, Hill seems to be possessed by the gospel of Motown and Nina Simone, exuding a unique musical language. Wyclef describes her as bipolar. But Lauryn Hill is more multipolar, never ceasing to astound with stylistic zeal. The album includes participations with Santana (To Zion), Mary J. Blige (I Used to Love Him) and D’Angelo (Nothing Even Matters). More than 20 years later, we are still waiting on a follow-up to this glittering debut…

Macy Gray – On How Life Is (1999)

While Erykah Badu and Jill Scott entertained the sensual side of original soul, Macy Gray sharpened soul’s claws that had blunted throughout the 80s. It is difficult not to be reminded of an enraged Betty Davis (the stunning lioness of seventies rebel funk) when this Ohio native roars on her debut album released in the summer of 1999, thirty years later. On top of the usual codes of Neo Soul, On How Life Is demonstrates the eccentricity of Gray’s slightly veiled (like the ghost of Billie Holiday) feline voice and her ability to alternate between “princely” funk and groovy pop. To give the entire ensemble a more modern feel, Macy Gracy inserts a few well-selected hip-hop samples (Outkast, Nice & Smooth, Fat Boys, Time Zone). With On How Life Is, neo soul had found itself a fierce and savage ambassador with the soul of rock’n’roll.