1. Thursday, February 2

    My ten favorite soul albums

    Soul’s not really an LP genre (James Brown particularly was a singles artist - perhaps the most brilliant of all but just not an album guy, and the 60s in general were a great time for soul but not for albums), but by request, my ten favorite soul albums, off the top of my head…

    1. Sly & the Family Stone - Fresh

    This is my favorite Sly album. Favorite album ever. It’s sad and lonely and beautiful, mostly, but Sly’s natural joy shines through. It’s the alienation of a joyful man turned sour… but still naturally hopeful.

    2. Curtis Mayfield - Curtis

    Curtis Mayfield is what I want my child to be like. His heart just radiated kindness. Curtis is funky and beautiful and dang I love this record.

    3. Bill Withers - Just As I Am

    Bill Withers is a real songwriter. Plain and powerful. And a brilliant, brilliant singer. I could listen to “Harlem” and “Grandma’s Hands” over and over forever. Amazing band on here, too.

    4. Sly & the Family Stone - There’s A Riot Goin’ On

    I picked two Sly albums because Sly’s albums are as good as it gets. This is the one that most people think is his best. I think the only pop songwriter producer who can touch him in 20th century pop music is Lennon-McCartney.

    5. Solomon Burke - Soul Alive

    This album was recorded in DC in 1981, but you’d never guess it wasn’t 1965. Maybe the greatest singer in soul history at the peak of his power, guiding you through a soul revue that is just thrilling from start to finish. Produced by Solomon’s 14-year-old son, and “discovered” by Peter Guralnick, the soul historian and past TSOYA guest.

    6. The Staple Singers - Be Altitude: Respect Yourself

    The Staple Singers are the Curtis Mayfield of people who aren’t Curtis Mayfield who I want my son to grow up to be like. This album is so warm, it fills me with joy every time I drop the needle on it.

    7. James Brown - Revolution of the Mind (Live at the Apollo V. 3)

    JB right at the turning point between soul and funk, with one of his baddest bands, just tearing shit up.

    8. Parliament - Mothership Connection (is picking Parliament cheating? is that too funky?)

    I like Parliament better than Funkadelic (I know, I know, I’m just not that into guitar solos), and I love the mythology. This album reconceives the slave ship as a spaceship traveling to the cosmos on funk power. And it is wall to wall JAMS.

    9. Sam Cooke Live at the Harlem Square Club 1963

    I know that before I said Solomon Burke was the greatest singer, but actually it was Sam Cooke. No one has ever been able to sing like Sam Cooke. And on this album you get to hear him just beasting in front of a black audience. All the sweetness is there, plus an edge you don’t get to hear on his studio records. Amazing album.

    10. Otis Redding in Person at the Whiskey A Go Go

    Try A Little Tenderness = holy shit.

    Honorable mentions to Swamp Dogg’s “Total Destruction To Your Mind,” Al Green (basically everything from the Willie Mitchell years), The JBs (again, a singles artist thing - they have some great compilations, though, with and without James Brown), Aretha (Young Gifted & Black comes to mind), Nina Simone (not quite soul), Fela Kuti (same), the Four Tops and the J5 (singles artists, but nearly perfect ones), Prince (both Sign O’ the Times and Controversy are among my favorite albums ever, but neither’s really a soul album), Stevie (I’d probably pick Talking Book over Innervisions or SITKOL, personally), Sly and Curtis (I’d put Stand, Roots and Superfly on this list if it wasn’t overkill), JB (he does have a few good LPs - though they’re more like singles compilations - In the Jungle Groove comes to mind), and the Stylistics (I just really love Round 2, OK? God, gimme a break.)