Album Review: Solange Knowles - 'Sol-angle and the Hadley St. Dreams'

On Solange's sophomore album, 'Sol-angle and the Hadley St. Dreams', she tries her hardest to burst out of her sister's shadow and emerge as a star in her own right, but does she fail or succeed?

The answer is both, while Solange does capture moments that are brilliant even on the verge of masterpiece, she also captures moments that are shameful and at times it just feels like she's trying too hard.

On the set's opening number 'God Given Name', she gets straight to what she trying to prove with this album, by singing "I'm not becoming expectation, I'm not her and never will be, two girls gone in different directions, striving towards the same galaxy, let my star light shine on its own, no I'm no sister, I'm just my god given name". The song is lyrically appealing and Solange's lack of restraint on her true feelings only captures you more. The follow-up track, 'T.O.N.Y.', which stands for THE OTHER NIGHT WHY, is one of my favorites, on the song she talks about how she may have missed out on love waiting on this one guy to get his act together. Its fun and the beat is groovy and entraps you immediately, Solange also vocally enhances the song with control and ease. 'Dancing in the Dark' is a groovy jazzy number that is enlighten by all the live instruments that peak in the background as Solange sings, "I should be leaving, cause he's dancing in the dark", the song is contagious and you can't help, but move your head and sing along. The ultra pleasant 'Would've Been the One', is one that I can't help but keep on repeat, the track is about a guy that is unfaithful and by the sound of the emotion in Solange's voice as she coos, "And yes, that was my name inked up on his arm, and if he loved me that much and still did me wrong, I'm feeling sorry for you for holding on, I was the one, yes, I was the one, keyword is was, yes I was the one, I figured out he was empty on my own, he had to find the answer in something not someone", you can definitely tell Solange is speaking from personal experience, probably about her now ex-husband. The first and second singles, 'I Decided' and 'Sandcastle Disco, have done better than a lot of people expected, with the first going to No.1 on Billboard's Sales Charts. Both songs were single worthy and definitely the right choices to lead the project off. '6 o'clock Blues', produced by musical mastermind Mark Ronson, is a classic and in my opinion arguably the record's best offering. Solange's vocals are at work on the song, as they are on, the catchy 'I Told You So', which is enjoyable as Solange pledges she knows her mate will eventually creep around.

While it seems that Solange was on the hills of creating a masterpiece collection, those thoughts are quickly put to rest when the extremely boring 'Valentine's Day', 'This Bird', and 'Ode to Marvin' blast through the speakers. All the tracks make an attempt to put you to sleep and for most will probably succeed. The ultimate sin 'Cosmetic Journey', featuring Bilal, just gives you the feeling that she's trying extremely too hard to be different and throughout its 6 minute run just gets embarrassing to the point where you actually feel bad for Solange, but most of all for your ears.

Like I said a thousand times before, people either love or hate Solange, there seems to be no middle ground, but real music lovers can definitely appreciate that she decided to set her own lane and not try to be a carbon cut version of her older sister. The album is definitely an enthralling powerful tribute to vintage 60s and 70s Motown inspired tunes and while at times Solange tends to step outside of her vocal range, just like her sister, she still manages to deliver a great effort. In fact, if Solange would have made a few editing cuts, she would have been on the grounds of a masterpiece, which is a lot closer than Beyonce has ever been (musically at least).

4 out of 5