Not Chaff, Not Quite Wheat: Sol-Angel And The Hadley St. Dreams

Carrying on my look at some of the records which didn't make my top 50 of the year now with this little gem from the sibling of someone rather famous and that...



I had the pleasure of seeing Solange Knowles live last month in Manchester and (I say this, fully aware that it's going to sound like an X-Factor-style epithet) for the first few songs, I thought she was miming. Oh no, she wasn't, she's just that good at singing. Even better at singing than that sister of hers, in my opinion. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that she's really, really, really... good at singing. She can also write a bit, having penned various tunes for big sis in the past, amongst others, and the best songs here are some of the finest pop moments of 2008.

There's a mid album lull on Sol-Angel And The Whatser-street Thingummies that just about prevents it from being, like, really, really, really, really... good and that, with songs like '6 O'clock Blues' and 'Valentines Day', just being merely good and stopping short of really, really, really good. She even samples Boards Of Canada (whoever they are, some kind of electro group from Scotland apparently) on 'This Bird' and goes all mad and trancey at the end of 'Cosmic Journey' and still manages to make a really, really, really... well, good fist at this whole album lark. Much better than Beyonce who normally just sticks three really, really, really good songs on each album and fills the rest of the time up with crap.

Solange then: really, really, really, really good, mostly.

Solange - Would've Been The One (mp3)

Solange - This Bird (mp3)