Solange

SoL-AngeL & the Hadley Street Dreams (Geffen)

By Niema Jordan
Published: August 21st, 2008 | 9:00am

“Get me get me out of this box / I feel so claustrophobic in here / Leave your labels, leave with no vision / Hear my voice and feel with your ears,” sings Solange Knowles on the opening track of her sophomore album, SoL-AngeL & the Hadley Street Dreams, “…I’m just my God-given name.” The song is a plea to listeners to actually listen — without the filters of the various titles that have been given to her by the public.

If the fact that she is part of the “Art Of Love” tour with neo-soul crooners Chrisette Michele and Raheem DeVaughn didn’t make you think of her as more than Beyoncé’s little sister, the album — with contributions from creative staples Raphael Saadiq, Gnarls Barkley’s Cee-Lo Green, and Bilal — will more than do the trick. With Knowles’ mix of honest lyrics, space-age production, and old-school soul, she's stepped confidently out of her older sister’s shadow.

The first single, “I Decided,” has a Motown girl group vibe, but don’t expect an Amy Winehouse impersonation. Knowles is far from the lovesick, depression-thick musings of Back to Black. Still, she isn’t trying to be squeaky-clean, either — a fact proven on “ChampagneChroniKnightCap,” featuring Lil’ Wayne.

While SoL-AngeL & the Hadley Street Dreams isn’t an album of powerhouse vocals or heart-wrenching ballads, it is a sonic composite of the woman that Ms. Knowles wants to convey to the world. In the end this "SoL-AngeL" proves what she sings at the album’s start, that she is just her “God-given name.”

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