Derek Vincent Smith, the one-man sonic architect behind Pretty Lights, has spent nearly two decades building one of the most distinctive catalogs in electronic music. What makes him truly singular is not just the production — it is the philosophy. Smith famously released his entire discography for free, a radical move that turned casual listeners into devoted cult followers almost overnight. His music sits at the crossroads of hip-hop, soul, funk, and electronic, but those genre labels barely scratch the surface of what he actually does. When you put on a pair of quality headphones and let a Pretty Lights track wash over you, it feels less like listening to music and more like being pulled through a memory you never actually had.
This list digs into the 20 best Pretty Lights songs, covering his full arc from the scrappy early releases on Taking Up Your Precious Time all the way through the emotionally rich A Color Map of the Sun. Whether you are a longtime fan or just discovering what all the fuss is about, these tracks represent the heart and soul of one of electronic music’s most genuine artists.
Finally Moving
If there is a single song responsible for putting Pretty Lights on the map, Finally Moving is it. Released on Taking Up Your Precious Time in 2006, the track opens with a flipped soul sample that immediately signals Smith’s gift for emotional excavation through production. The bassline hits with a warmth that feels almost nostalgic before you have even fully processed the intro. There is a looseness to the groove that you do not often find in electronic music — it breathes like a live band rather than a DAW session, which is part of what made it so disarming when it first surfaced on music forums in the mid-2000s. Finally Moving is not just a great song; it is a mission statement disguised as a banger.
Hot Like Sauce
From the 2008 album Filling Up the City Skies, Hot Like Sauce is a masterclass in layering. Smith takes a gritty, almost raw funk sample and wraps it in crisp electronic percussion that gives the whole track a contemporary edge without stripping away any of the soul. The syncopation between the drums and the sample is where the real magic lives — it is the kind of groove that makes you nod your head before your brain fully registers what is happening. Playing this one in the car with the bass dialed up is an experience unto itself. Hot Like Sauce also marked an early sign that Smith was evolving beyond straight sample flipping into genuine compositional territory.
Only Yesterday
Only Yesterday, captured on the Live @ Mardi Gras World recording from December 2023, is a reminder that Pretty Lights in a live setting is an entirely different beast from the studio recordings. There is a raw electricity to this performance version that the albums simply cannot replicate — the crowd becomes part of the instrument, and Smith seems to feed off that energy in real time. The song itself has an anthemic quality, a rising swell that feels almost cinematic when you consider the context of Mardi Gras World as a venue. For longtime fans who have followed Smith through his various touring configurations, hearing this live document is both a comfort and a revelation. It proves the music has not aged — it has just been aging beautifully.
I Can See It in Your Face
Off Making Up a Changing Mind (2010), I Can See It in Your Face stands as one of Smith’s most emotionally direct moments. The vocal sample at the center of the track is deployed with surgical care — it arrives at exactly the moment the instrumental has built enough tension to need a release, and the result is something close to cathartic. The production is detailed in a way that rewards repeat listening; there are textures buried in the mid-range that only reveal themselves on the third or fourth playthrough, especially on good headphones. If you are exploring songs from the electronic soul genre, this track is an essential reference point. It is the kind of song that makes you want to write something, create something, or at the very least, sit in a dark room and feel things properly.
We Must Go On
The title track from the 2013 EP of the same name, We Must Go On carries a weight that is different from Pretty Lights’ earlier work. By this point, Smith had clearly grown into a composer who understood dynamics at a deep level — the track builds deliberately, almost patiently, before arriving at a drop that feels less like a conventional electronic release and more like an emotional resolution. The instrumentation is sparse at the outset, letting individual elements breathe before layering in the dense, textured production that defines the later sections. It is a song that demands to be heard from beginning to end, resisting the urge to skip around.
Around the Block
Around the Block, from the landmark A Color Map of the Sun (2013), showcases Smith operating at full creative confidence. The track’s central groove is infectious in a way that defies easy explanation — it is constructed from samples but feels completely original, which is the highest compliment you can pay to a producer working in the sample-based tradition. There is a swagger to the arrangement that hints at old-school hip-hop without ever feeling derivative. Smith uses space brilliantly here, letting certain elements drop out entirely before bringing them back with renewed impact. It is the kind of song you discover on a playlist and then find yourself hunting down to add to your own rotation.
High School Art Class
From Spilling Over Every Side (2010), High School Art Class is one of those tracks that sounds like a specific feeling rather than a specific genre. The name is apt — there is something adolescent and unfiltered about the energy here, a sense of discovery and possibility that Smith somehow bottles into a four-minute electronic track. The drums are punchy and forward in the mix, giving the track a physical presence that you feel as much as hear. The sample work is evocative without being overly familiar, drawing from soul and R&B sources that are woven seamlessly into the production fabric. This one hits different when you are driving at night, windows down, letting the mix breathe in open air.
So Bright
So Bright from A Color Map of the Sun does exactly what the title promises. There is a luminosity to the production — a shimmer in the upper frequencies and a warmth in the low end that together create something genuinely radiant. Smith’s sound design on this track is exceptional, with each element contributing to a coherent sonic palette that feels deliberately painted rather than assembled. The track also demonstrates his mastery of tension and release; the moments of restraint make the fuller sections hit considerably harder. Listening to this on quality audio equipment reveals layers that a phone speaker simply cannot convey — another reason why investing in good headphones for electronic music genuinely changes the listening experience.
One Day They’ll Know
Also from A Color Map of the Sun, One Day They’ll Know has a slow-burn quality that separates it from the more immediately accessible tracks on the album. Smith is willing to take his time here, building a mood over the course of several minutes before the full arrangement reveals itself. The track has an almost meditative quality in its early sections, making the eventual payoff feel genuinely earned. It is the kind of song that benefits from attentive listening rather than background play — sit with it, and it rewards you significantly.
Yellow Bird
Yellow Bird, still from A Color Map of the Sun, might be the most emotionally affecting piece in the entire Pretty Lights catalog. There is a melancholy at its core that Smith does not try to resolve or soften — he lets it sit, letting the sample and the production exist in productive tension with each other. The arrangement has a fragility that is rare in electronic music, a sense that the whole beautiful thing could come apart at any moment, which somehow makes it feel more alive. It has been cited by fans as a go-to track for late-night drives and introspective moods, and the reputation is completely earned.
Lost and Found
From the Divergent soundtrack (2014), Lost and Found showed Smith could translate his sound into a cinematic context without losing what makes it distinctive. Soundtrack work often flattens an artist’s signature into something more generic and serviceable, but Smith resisted that here completely. The track has all the hallmarks of his studio work — the warm sample manipulation, the precise drum programming, the careful attention to dynamics — while also carrying the forward momentum that a film context requires. It is an underrated corner of his catalog that deserves more attention from fans who came in through the album work.
Rainbows & Waterfalls
Released in 2017, Rainbows & Waterfalls arrived during a period when Pretty Lights’ output had become less frequent, making it feel like a genuine gift to the fanbase that had been patiently waiting. The track is lush and expansive, with a production style that felt like a natural evolution from the A Color Map of the Sun era while also introducing new sonic textures and a slightly more polished mix. The title accurately reflects the music’s character — it is colorful and flowing, with a sense of movement that carries you through its runtime effortlessly.
More Important Than Michael Jordan
From Filling Up the City Skies (2008), the title alone tells you something about the energy Smith was bringing in this era. More Important Than Michael Jordan is bold, brash, and completely in on the joke while also being completely serious about the music. The track’s swagger is backed up by production that genuinely earns the confidence — the drums are tough, the samples are perfectly selected, and the arrangement has a momentum that does not let up. It is a fan favorite for good reason: it is just undeniably fun to listen to, which is a quality that should not be underestimated.
Understand Me Now
Understand Me Now from Making Up a Changing Mind (2010) brings a searching, introspective quality to Pretty Lights’ catalog. The title suggests a kind of emotional transparency, and the music backs that up — there is an openness to the arrangement, a willingness to be heard clearly rather than hiding behind production density. Smith’s sample selection here is particularly strong, with a vocal fragment that communicates longing without ever becoming maudlin. It is a quieter track than much of the catalog, but that restraint is exactly what gives it its power. For fans exploring different moods and contexts in electronic music, this is a perfect late-night companion.
Sunday School
From Passing by Behind Your Eyes (2009), Sunday School is one of the more spiritually resonant tracks in the catalog — not in an overtly religious sense, but in the way good gospel music carries an emotional weight that transcends literal meaning. The production has a reverence to it, a quality of ritual or ceremony that makes the track feel significant in a way that is hard to pin down analytically. Smith leans into his soul and gospel influences here more explicitly than in many of his other works, and the result is one of the more unique entries in his discography.
Total Fascination
Total Fascination from Making Up a Changing Mind (2010) does exactly what the title implies — it holds you completely. The track has a hypnotic, circular quality, with elements returning and evolving in ways that keep your attention engaged without ever feeling repetitive. The production is among Smith’s most sophisticated from this period, demonstrating a maturity and intentionality that showed he was moving well beyond his early mixtape-style releases into something more considered and compositionally ambitious. The groove established in the opening bars carries through the entire track with almost magnetic insistence.
A Million Tomorrows
From Spilling Over Every Side (2010), A Million Tomorrows has an optimism embedded in its DNA that sets it apart from some of the more introspective tracks in the catalog. The title captures the sentiment perfectly — this is music that looks forward, that feels expansive and full of possibility. The production is bright without being saccharine, finding a tone that is uplifting without tipping into something cheap or easy. For a producer who often explores melancholy and nostalgia, this track represents a different but equally authentic emotional register.
Done Wrong
Back to A Color Map of the Sun, Done Wrong is where Pretty Lights’ blues influences come through most clearly and powerfully. There is a rawness to the track that feels genuinely connected to the American blues tradition, filtered through Smith’s contemporary electronic lens in a way that honors the source material while transforming it into something wholly his own. The production has grit and texture — it does not smooth out all the edges, and that decision pays off enormously. It is the kind of track that makes you appreciate what is possible when a producer has genuine reverence for the music that came before.
Press Pause
Press Pause, also from A Color Map of the Sun, is a lesson in patience and compositional control. Smith builds this track with almost architectural deliberateness, placing each new element with clear intention and letting the accumulation of sound tell its own story before any obvious climax or drop. For listeners who have grown accustomed to the immediate gratification of mainstream electronic music, this track asks for something different — and then rewards that investment generously. It is a track that demonstrates why Pretty Lights has always appealed to listeners who want their electronic music to have depth and substance.
Color of My Soul
Color of My Soul, closing out A Color Map of the Sun, earns its place as the final entry on this list and on that album. There is a sense of arrival to the track, a feeling that everything in the preceding runtime has been building toward this particular moment of musical resolution. The production is rich and layered but also somehow spacious, giving the track a grandeur that feels earned rather than manufactured. It is Smith at his most emotionally honest — a producer and artist who clearly believes that music can communicate something that words genuinely cannot. As a closing statement on one of electronic music’s finest albums, it is close to perfect.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Pretty Lights and what genre does he make?
Pretty Lights is the musical project of Derek Vincent Smith, a Colorado-based producer and performer who blends electronic music with hip-hop, soul, funk, blues, and psychedelic influences. His genre is often described as electronic soul or electronic hip-hop, though those labels barely capture the full scope of his work.
Why did Pretty Lights release his music for free?
Derek Vincent Smith made the decision early in his career to release all Pretty Lights music as free downloads, believing that music should be accessible to everyone regardless of financial situation. This philosophy helped build an enormous grassroots fanbase and remains one of the defining elements of the Pretty Lights brand.
What is considered the best Pretty Lights album?
A Color Map of the Sun (2013) is widely considered his most fully realized work. It was his first album recorded entirely with live instruments rather than samples alone, and it represented a significant creative leap that critics and fans both recognized. Many of the tracks on this list come from that album.
Does Pretty Lights still perform and release music?
Pretty Lights went on an extended hiatus following health issues but has returned to performing at select events. The 2023 live recording at Mardi Gras World is evidence that Smith and the Pretty Lights band remain active and capable of extraordinary live performances.
What makes the Pretty Lights production style unique?
The signature of Pretty Lights is the ability to make electronic production feel warm, human, and soulful — qualities that are genuinely difficult to achieve in a genre that can often feel cold or mechanical. His sample selection, drum programming, and attention to the emotional arc of a track all contribute to a sound that is immediately recognizable and deeply affecting.