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My Chilled Soul Vol.4

Forty-two tracks from 2016 and 2017, sitting at the intersection of R&B, alternative pop and whatever The Weeknd had just made everyone start doing.

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My Chilled Soul Vol. 4

The fourth volume documents a particular moment of stylistic dominance. By 2016 the cold, reverb-heavy, synth-led sound that The Weeknd and PARTYNEXTDOOR had built was the default setting for R&B, and this set catches both that sound and the reaction against it.

The reaction is the more interesting half: the live-instrument tracks here, particularly the British and jazz-adjacent ones, are where the next few years were actually going.

What to listen for

The Weeknd appears three times, including "I Feel It Coming" with Daft Punk — the one where the whole aesthetic turns towards Michael Jackson and becomes something else entirely.

Tom Misch's "Come Back" and his remix of Lianne La Havas's "What You Don't Do" are the British counterweight, and the guitar playing is the clearest signal of where London was heading.

Mac Miller and Anderson .Paak's "Dang!" is the best record here — a Pharrell production, and one of the most purely joyful things either artist made.

Robert Glasper and Ledisi's "Brand New Day" comes from a project led by Malcolm-Jamal Warner, which is a genuinely surprising credit — the actor is a serious bass player and poet.

Frank Ocean's "Ivy" is from Blonde and is the most emotionally exact thing on the list.

Erykah Badu's "Hello" comes from the mixtape she released free that year, and it is a reworking of the Isley Brothers song with André 3000.

Jordan Bratton appears three times, which is a real deep-catalogue commitment, and RAY BLK's "Hunny" is early enough to be a find.

Musiq Soulchild appears twice as the neo-soul veteran, and Marsha Ambrosius's "Have You Ever" is the best-sung track here.

Go deeper

Frank Ocean's Blonde and Anderson .Paak's Malibu are the two essential albums from these years.

Tom Misch's Geography and Erykah Badu's But You Caint Use My Phone are the other two worth hearing whole.

What it documents: a single dominant sound and the beginning of the reaction against it, sitting side by side. The cold, reverb-heavy tracks were the default setting of the moment; the live-instrument British and jazz-adjacent ones turned out to be where the following five years actually went. Hearing both in one set makes the turn visible.

Play it directly after the fifth volume and the shift in the series' centre of gravity is unmistakable.

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