A Swell of Soul

This Short Sample playlist is a taste of a theme that has been fascinating me lately. While the title suggests that these songs share a trend toward soulfulness, it’s not the same R&B and Gospel found in the 60s and 70s. This is something else entirely.

These songs mix the long, pleading vocal arrangements of soul and gospel, but augment them with production styles more closely associated with electronic sub-genres such as downtempo and ambient. The resulting sound is intoxicating, somehow managing to come off as both sensual and haunting.