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Chilled Soul 22: Mo’ Alt Shit..

Thirty-eight tracks from the volume where the series deliberately wanders off the map — alternative soul, left-field R&B, and a few things that defy the label entirely.

Chilled Soul 22: Mo' Alt Shit

The subtitle is doing real work here. Most volumes in this series stay within a recognisable soul tradition; this one goes looking for the edges, and the result is the most unpredictable set in the run.

The organising idea seems to be texture rather than genre: everything here has a certain haze to it, a preference for atmosphere over impact, and a willingness to let a song end without resolving. That lets Nina Simone sit next to Steve Lacy without either sounding out of place.

What to listen for

Nina Simone's "Baltimore" is the boldest inclusion. It is a Randy Newman song, recorded in 1978 in a reggae-inflected arrangement Simone reportedly disliked, and it is extraordinary — one of the saddest vocal performances in her catalogue.

Steve Lacy's "N Side" is the young-auteur entry, recorded largely on a phone, which is the sort of fact that ought to be a gimmick and instead produced one of the best-sounding R&B records of its year.

Slum Village's "Fall in Love" is the J Dilla production that functions as this playlist's thesis statement about how a groove can be simultaneously precise and loose.

Laurnea appears twice, which is a real deep-catalogue move — a singer from the mid-nineties whose records deserved far more than they got.

Pip Millett's "June", Mahalia's "Grateful" and Ego Ella May's "Girls Don't Always Sing About Boys" are the contemporary British contingent, and all three are worth following further.

Esthero's "Black Mermaid" and Christión's "Face Like Yours" are the nineties left-field picks, and Simply Red's "Sad Old Red" is the one that will make people check the tracklist twice.

Lucky Daye's "Fade Away" and Alina Baraz's two appearances are where the set is most straightforwardly beautiful.

Go deeper

Nina Simone's Baltimore (1978) is worth hearing in full and is unjustly treated as a minor album.

Jamila Woods' LEGACY! LEGACY! and Ego Ella May's Honey for Wounds are the two contemporary albums this playlist most clearly points towards.

How to use it: this volume is the one to reach for when the rest of the series feels too settled. The transitions are deliberately uneasy, several tracks end without resolving, and the whole thing rewards being played from start to finish rather than dipped into — the shape of the set is the point.

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