When it comes to star power, influence, dancing, singing, and just being straight up famous, Solange can’t hold a candle to big sister Beyoncé. No secret there. But with the recent leaks of some brand new Solange material, I am once again reminded why as a music fan, I prefer the younger Knowles sister to the oldest child.
The kind of music Beyoncé makes is much like Beyoncé herself — tasteful, but definitely expensive. Yes, her songs are smash hits, some of them may prove to be timeless when history looks back on her career, but there’s no spontaneity to them. It’s all so polished and packaged, most of us are left entertained. But intrigued by the woman behind the microphone? Not beyond gossip.
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Solange, on the other hand, is giving us something Beyoncé hasn’t been able to with her music and her style: Intrigue. Maybe it was her haircut. Choosing to let the ‘locs go in place of the short and natural has definitely been a good look for Solange. Or was last it year’s remake of The Dirty Projectors’ “Stillness is the Move”? For me personally, it was the criminally underrated inventiveness of 2008’s ‘TONY’ video. As a man, Beyoncé is my dream girl, while Solange is more like the girl I can have in real life. I’m sure much like her older sister, I would have to get through a security guard to talk to Solange, but I get the feeling her security guard is much nicer.
Back to the music…
On her latest leaked tracks, Solange is giving us more of the kind of music that has made her more and more interesting to listen to. With the exception of “Postcard”, which sounds like a sequel to her older sister’s 2007 hit “Irreplaceable”, the new Solange tracks are an exciting glimpse of what may be her next album, which by the way, she is releasing independently. There’s the electro-funk mash-up, “Warrior 4 Love”, produced by beat-maker of the moment Jim Jonsin. And the swooping melodies of “Generation” is right in Solange’s lane, filled with jazzy vocal inflections and a beat that swings and snaps.
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At this stage in the game, maybe it’s unfair to compare the younger sister to her older sister. After all, no one related or not, is going to match Beyonce’s iconic take over the modern-day pop universe. But still, the two Knowles women are always going to be embedded in a battle of sibling rivalry by their fan bases.
Can someone like both? Sure, but such a stance is no fun. Just because the two of them get along famously in the press, doesn’t mean we the consumer can’t debate which we would prefer to listen to. That’s why I’m drawing a line in the sand right now, and saying once and for all, when it comes to a playlist of music between little sister and big sister, I’m st
