I've about given up on mainstream top 40 pop, but I am utterly charmed by the new album from Solange, Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams. Apparently, Solange is the little sister of singer and actress Beyonce Knowles, and as we still live in the era of Wildly Overblown Lead Vocals (thanks, Whitney; thanks, Mariah; thanks, Michael Bolton; thanks a hell of a lot, American Idol), I haven't been paying much attention to solo pop singers so I can't tell you what Beyonce sounds like--though I think I liked her OK in Dreamgirls. And according to the first song on this album, "God Given Name," Solange is trying like hell to differentiate herself from her more famous sibling ("Get me out of this box/... I'm not her and never will be"). This song is weak and whiny, but happily, things get lots better right away.Her style (in both vocals and music) is like the last 20 years of pop music never happened; it's an updated Motown sound with lots of crisp, shiny arrangements, and sharp, bop-along rhythms: soul bubblegum, if you will. I'm tempted to say it's a 21st-century update mash-up of the Jackson 5 and Diana Ross (with some self-conscious props paid to Marvin Gaye, especially on the song "Ode to Marvin") ; I know that's not for all tastes, but it's mostly fizzy and catchy and the production has lots of bells and whistles which actually highlight the songs rather than obscuring them. The first single, "I Decided," is good, but "Sandcastle Disco" is better; the production on that song is like Phil Spector meets Motown's Norman Whitfield (R.I.P.) while eating lots of cotton candy and drinking red pop. I *definitely* know that description won't appeal to everyone, and not all the songs are quite that glossy, but most of them have strong melodies, and just to shake things up, there are two long, slow, quasi-psychedelic jams (unfortunately placed together at the end). I might tire of all this effervescence soon, but Solange is making me happy in the car on these sunkissed days of early fall.
No comments:
Post a Comment