Solange Knowles, famous by association, dropped her sophomore album this year. Sol-Angel & The Hadley St. Dreams is the younger Knowles' attempt to break out of her sister's shadow. The cover the album is an explosion of colors and images as confusing as they are overwhelming. Knowles, in a lime-green cauliflower-inspired dress, wears a pair of fluffy red wings and a confused face, probably wondering where to take her mélange of odd items. Around her includes a floating clear ball, a phonograph, and a collection of other trashed items sitting in a box on the side of the road. Some of the images in the booklet are very interesting, specifically Solange in a white dress accented with a flat and cartoony black bow, flanked by two large white boards with lines you assume she had to write considering the marker in her hand. On the left reads "I will not get pregnant at 17," the right one reads "I will not have a famous family." Burdened, are we? Desperate to break out on her own, her 2008 release is a culmination of her hard work. Does is pay off?
Sol-Angel proves to be a dreamy, rambling R&B album, with some very shiny bits and flares of musical genius.
The good parts are the classy, slick, Motown-inspired R&B street jams, like "T.O.N.Y.", with its block party handclapping and old school soul bass and horn arrangements, and "6 O'clock Blues" with a laid back and effortlessly cool bass riff. Solange also dips into jazzy lounge territory, the ultra-hip "Dancing in the Dark" evoking images of a chic and posh 1960s British martini bar, our little vocal heroine on a slightly raised "stage" in a psychedelic cocktail dress singing into a classic microphone while patrons around ignore her and get sloshed. "Would've Been the One," "Sandcastle Disco," and "I Decided Pt. 1" are all more modern than the previous tracks, but all still hinge on a classic style. Piano, bass, upbeat and funky drums give them all a "bop along" feel that brings to mind all the best images of dancing on the streets of Long Island on a hot, sweltering summer day where the coolest thing around isn't the ice water, it's the music. "This Bird" is an intense, ominous dark ballad that provides an interesting counterpoint to the rest of the album. It does not sound like any other song on Sol-Angel. Rounding out the rest of the best is "I Decided Pt. 2," which was produced by mega remix stars the Freemasons. While utterly superior to the original version, I'm curious why it was labeled as a Pt. 2 and not labeled as a Freemasons Remix. It maintains a classic R&B feel while adopting a heavy and infectious beat.
Summary – Sol-Angel is a classy and smart departure from older sister Beyonce's work. Solange will never be able to not sing like her sister as their voices are very similar, but her style is as far as she can go without seeming fake or untrue to herself. After it all, though, Sol-Angel leaves me wondering one thing: Why can't the Freemasons produce more American pop??
Release August 2008 on Geffen Records
