2018 is a wrap, and we sold plenty of records in this wild and weird year. We’ll be spending the next few weeks reviewing our best sellers of the recently completed calendar year. Check out our best-selling soul, funk, and R&B records of 2018:
10. INTERNET HIVE MIND
This one was a total store favorite and one of the most played jams of the summer around the shop. Glad to see a lot of you all agreed. Perfect twenty-first century iteration of slick west-coast groove.
9. (tie) CURTIS HARDING FACE YOUR FEAR & AL GREEN GREATEST HITS
A master and student of soul tied at number 9. What more to say about Al Green? Essential. And Curtis Harding was another store favorite, played innumerable times. He’s certainly an able interpreter of the vibes of the Al Green era, but with a little contemporary lyrical spice.
8. PRINCE PIANO & A MICROPHONE 1983
Freshly unearthed Prince demos from the prime of his career are an essential listen. The fact that these are so stripped down and intimate is an added treat, hearing such an artist in a whole new light is a privilege.
7. ANDERSON PAAK MALIBU
Mr. Paak’s 2016 breakthrough outsold his 2018 release Oxnard this past year! Well, that’s almost certainly because we haven’t gotten a vinyl edition of Oxnard yet. (We’ll let you know) Music industry is weird!
6. LEON BRIDGES COMING HOME
Leon’s 2015 LP has been on fire since it’s release. Its been a real word of mouth records, selling steadily for YEARS now, it even was in our top twenty sellers last year too. Dare we call it a modern classic? Like soulful dispatches from another era, don’t let your collection be without it.
5. PRINCE PURPLE RAIN
We’ve sold a lot of copies of the soundtrack to the 80s movie Purple Rain.
4. SZA CTRL
Another landmark record in edgy contemporary R&B, we got our first big batch of this LP just as 2018 was dawning, and we went through a bunch since! Probably another that will go down as a classic of this era when we look back on it years from now.
3. CHARLES BRADLEY BLACK VELVET
RIP Charles! We’re glad we ever got to hear you! The unlikely career of Charles Bradley, who never found his audience until late in life, is closed out with this lovely posthumous LP. He embodies the title throughout.
2. DELVON LAMARR ORGAN TRIO CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR
Yes! We’re super excited to have some local favorites this high up on the list. The formula is simple; classic soulful grooves from a super tight organ led trio. 2018 was the year these guys ceased being our little local secret!
1. LEON BRIDGES GOOD THING
And Leon’s 2018 new LP rounds it out. Here he shows he’s not just a one-trick pony, widening his circle of influences without diluting the inspiration. He is making worthy full-length LP records, and that is why he’s on top of this list right here. Soul music is alive and well!