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Solange Knowles: Lovers In The Parking Lot

By Odeisel

Solange Knowles has always made daring and interesting music. I actually bought her debut album and it was very good. Unfortunately it doesn’t matter what she does because she will always be Beyonce’s little sister. That enormous shadow is all but impossible to escape but to her credit, she keeps on keeping on and making music. This latest track, “Lovers In The Parking Lot,” is more unconventional music from the little engine that could.

This track is absent any of the trappings of contemporary R&B. No snare drums, no rap verse, no predictable retread rhythm. There’s a quite a few moving parts, a hard drum with a tiny percolation in the back ground, plunking chunk piano strikes and a digital steel drum like loop. There is a slightly menacing bassline and a keyboard undercurrent that escalates near the break.

This song finds Solange as the reluctant lover, knowing that her paramour is more head over heels than she is but still playing with his heart. Now that he’s hip to it as well and has pulled back, she finds herself missing that attention and that genuine love. That’s the way the game goes. “I played around with your heart, now I’m playing around in the dark.” Indeed. Now she wants him back. Good luck with that.

I tip my hat to the kid. She will continue to push and drop music for her fans and remain ignored by the masses. But if you are really into music, you would do well to give her a listen. There is real music here and not just the rabid dance music and chicken head anthems of her older sister. It would be interesting to actually hear a Beyonce album with this kind of inventiveness and depth and Bey’s superior voice and talent. Pipe dreams, my people. But “Lovers In The Parking Lot” ain’t a bad consolation prize. From collaboration album True with Dev Hynes (Blood Orange) dropping on the 27th of November.

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