It's a Soul Thang

I grew up listening soul and funk and for many years I looked for more obscure artists. In doing so I found I actually ignored or dismissed stuff because I thought it was too obvious or mainstream. I recently started re-listening to Stevie Wonder during his early 70s peak - starting with Music of My Mind and ending with Songs in the Key of Life (although some say that Where I'm Coming From should also be included.) To call this genius is an understatement - almost every song on every one of these albums (Talking Book, Innervisions, Fulfillingness First Finale are the others) are amazing and the best of of what soul has to offer imho. Same goes for Curtis Mayfield, Aretha and Marvin Gaye.

However if you're looking for inspiration, Solar Radio published a top 1000 of the century which I think is reprinted here: http://www.geocities.com/jahsonic/Top1000.html

in alphabetical rather than rank order.

Superfly is a great example of an album that was dragged down by the movie. Even after you get past the tracks everyone knows there are still 4 or 5 more that are brilliant - Give me your love

For newer Soul I think the Acid Jazz bands like Brand New Heavies, Incognito, perhaps Jamiroquai among others were keeping soul alive for a while. Then there's neo soul, Maxwell is one of the best, also Jill Scott and Angie Stone.