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Double-disc greatest hits and more from the ‘A’ in A&M.
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The record that graced a million coffee tables still fascinates.
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Proves there was more to Arrington than his UK top 20 successes.
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Mature and experimental… Possibly the great lost 90s trip-hop album, in parts.
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EWF can keep being sold into houses the length and breadth of the land.
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Moonwalking its way into UK hearts, Friends was the soul sound of 1982.
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Solomon’s fine, sometimes flawed, farewell to Willie Mitchell.
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Though tentative and flawed, this debut hints at how the group would later develop.
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A fascinating addition to the clumsy, clattering canon of 80s electronica.
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Urban enough to make it the bedroom album for the hip hop generation.
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Still cutting-edge of sound, My Life is one of Blige’s most compelling records.
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Although dubious of lyric, 12 Play still sounds contemporary and frequently surprising.
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Fresh, vibrant and refuses to resort to cliché.
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Baroque love music from the last of the original Isleys.
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No Heatwave: no Britfunk, and certainly no Thriller.
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The music here is incidental once transfixed by Hathaway's intense rapture.
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Nothing less than a spiritual soul masterpiece.
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A reminder of what the future once sounded like.
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We Are Family still sounds alive, zesty and vibrant.
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A fusion of jazz-influenced late-night soul delivered with élan.
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One of the best live albums made by an occasionally troubled singer.
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A vital album of great, unfocussed beauty.
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Even her staunchest detractors may be won over by To the Baby.
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Marvel once more at their splendid, excessive audacity.
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A bright, shining example of what mass-produced, intelligent dance music should be.
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The album that granted Isaac Hayes his venerated status.
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Rejuvenation is the epitome of groove-laden, hook-rich, in-your-face funk.
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Ayers’ mellow grooves infused with human sentiment are frequently irresistible.
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Blige remains as relevant as any of her more recent contemporaries.
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A fine debut of unpretentious, highly personal soul.
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A delightful, esoteric find, and an album you need in your life.
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A glossy, disarming fusion of AOR and soul.
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The group’s most consistent album, and among Motown’s most uplifting releases.
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Baker’s career high is an 80s equivalent of Dusty in Memphis.
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One of 2010’s first great examples of accomplished, adult pop.
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The US diva album for those who can’t abide US divas.
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While they were oddly unloved at Motown, there’s more than mere filler here.
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Our first invite to the Womack family party.
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Takes you right back to the vibrancy, excitement and possibilities of the time.
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Nothing shallow or superficial about this superior Britfunk.
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An exhaustive overview… sometimes classic, sometimes confounding.
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As revolutionary for soul music as anything by Brown, Stone or Clinton.
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The epitome of a mixed bag.
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A straight-up split between sassy stomps and ultra-mellow grooves.
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Funky Divas still sounds as much fun today as it did in 1992.
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An underrated example of orchestrated soul
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A rather beautiful and wholly appropriate tribute.
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Indestructible grooves and still-valid sentiments.
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File under 'quiet triumph'.
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Faultless, languid, late-night soul, unmistakably the vision of one person.
