25 Essential Soul Records

What's all this, then? Find out here.

These are the records every complete record collection should have, even if you aren't necessarily a soul fan. These records define soul to some degree, but represent the core qualities of what soul has to offer to an even more significant one. These aren't my favorite records in soul - and really anyone who gave you this list as their top 25 is either lying to save face or works for Rolling Stone - but they are all five-star classics that will forever be cited as the fundamental works of the genre. And, of course, many if not most of them are my favorite soul albums, most notably Live at the Whiskey, the record I often cite as my favorite album ever.


Perhaps more than any other genre, soul was defined by the single. Motown, the most popular and culturally significant record label in the genre, used a common business model of the 1960s to create their long players: opening sides with big singles and then padding the back ends with various lesser cuts. Most of the top Motown artists - the Supremes, the Temptations, the Four Tops, even the Jackson 5 - could make even the weakest song work, but none of these artists made a true through-and-through classic. I've decided to omit greatest hits records on this set, which means none of these incredibly important if not seminal artists are represented. That makes this less representative of soul as a whole, but makes for a stronger group of cohesive listens - not to mention that the three most significant Motown artists, Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, and Marvin Gaye, are represented here, just in the form of 70s masterpieces rather than 60s pop singles.

A note on "soul": this is essentially intended to be an early R&B list, which makes for some political choices (even calling early R&B soul and vice-versa is bound to make some 45-clutching nerds cringe). I've decided to mark the beginning of modern R&B at the rise of solo Michael Jackson and disco's break-through into the mainstream - basically the late 70s into the early 80s - so if you are wondering where Prince and D'Angelo are, don't worry. Also, I've omitted funk from this category - there's a real dividing line where artists moved away from the basic structure of R&B and began to create another genre altogether, and while James Brown's The Payback might not be out of place on this list, Funkadelic's Maggot Brain would stick out as the (totally awesome) ugly duckling. Anyway, let's get on to it.

Note: Instead of spending way too much time writing on each of these records, I've decided to insert a youtube video of a key song (or the whole album where applicable). If you don't understand an inclusion, ask me about it in the comments. Stop reading, start listening!

These are the 25 records in soul music that deserve to be canonized.

25 Essential Folk Records

What's all this, then? Find out here.

These are the records every complete record collection should have, even if you aren't necessarily a folk fan. These records define folk to some degree, but represent the core qualities of what folk has to offer to an even more significant one. These aren't my favorite records in folk - and really anyone who gave you this list as their top 25 is either lying to save face or works for Rolling Stone - but they are all five-star classics that will forever be cited as the fundamental works of the genre. And, of course, many if not most of them are my favorite folk albums, most notably Astral Weeks.

Maybe the hardest part of narrowing Folk down to 25 core records is the Dylan dilemma. Bob Dylan towers over everyone else in the genre (and quite nearly pop music in general), and from 1963 to 1966 he put out five inarguable classics - each of which could easily rank as the greatest work of any artist. How do you reconcile the importance of these records with the need to include a broader range of music in the overall group? Including all five seems ludicrous considering the purpose of this set. Consequently, I've only included one of these records, along with Blood on the Tracks, a later Dylan album that is sufficiently different enough to warrant inclusion - I also happen to think it's the easiest way into Dylan's catalog for the uninitiated.

One last note on "folk": this is a much more amorphous genre than hip hop. While the latter genre might have some bleed-over into R&B and electronic music, folk overlaps with rock, country, bluegrass, the blues, jazz, soul music, and even electronic. (And technically isn't hip hop folk music anyway?) To get around this, I've instituted an "I know it when I see it" policy that I hope we can all agree on. I've included the blues in this category because its history is intertwined with folk traditions and exposure (Lomax, etc.), and many of these blues artists were really folk musicians who had their music racialized. This leaves a lot of blues out (and knocks out a little space for more "folk" records), but I think this current set is the right mix of the two barely divided genres. On the other hand, I've excluded bluegrass simply because I think it fits better in the country list. This list also comes with the caveat that many of the most influential artists in folk's early years never really put out a great LP and their comps are more significant historically than as recognized classics (Leadbelly and Bessie Smith come immediately to mind). There is a TON of blues and folk missing here that requires a deeper dig (or even a not-so-deep dig, like Taj Mahal or Howlin' Wolf), but that's not the purpose of this core selection. If you don't like it (or better yet if you do like it) let me know in the comment section.

These are the 25 records in folk music that deserve to be canonized.

5 Ways to Deal with the Cold This Winter

Temperatures are expected to drop to around -240˚F in New England this week - nearly as cold as Chicago in October. With such intense cold outside, it's important to know what to do to avoid getting seriously injured or sick. Here are the 5 best tips for staying warm when doing your favorite winter activities.

1. Don't use warm water on numb fingers. If you pour warm water on your fingers when they are very cold, they will fall off. A better choice is to use boiling water direct from the tea kettle. Don't worry about pouring it over the sink - all of the water will instantly be absorbed into your fingers. The temperature of the water will average out with the temperature of your fingers to a perfect 98.6˚.


Hit the jump for more tips!