Solange covers the Boards of Canada instrumental
I am a huge fan of Solange Knowles. Some say that she is famous for being Beyoncé’s younger sister, but there is so much more to Solange than the relation to her older, global sensation of a sister. At first, I never paid much attention to her because I assumed that her glow only came from the off-cast refraction of her older sister’s spotlight.
Silly me, how wrong was I?
I took a chance and began to listen to Solange’s music in the fall of 2008, and I have not stopped listening since. Solange Knowles is a five-edged sword: she is a singer, songwriter, actor, DJ, and dancer. As far as I am concerned she is an artistic genius.
Her music is kind of a paradox. It can be very relaxing to a point that it is almost hypnotic, yet it still has the ability to awaken parts of you that weren’t alive before. I listened to Solange’s sophomore album “Sol-Angel and the Hadley Street Dreams” and her music had the latter effect on me. Some songs made me nod my head, others made me belt along, others had me laughing and crying, and all of them made me want to dance.
Solange Knowles waited five years before releasing that sophomore album, and she is currently testing the patience of her fans with another four-plus year wait. She has yet to release singles from a new album, and I have been trolling music websites for any new music that I can find. I happened to stumble upon her cover of Boards of Canada’s “Left-Side Drive.”
One of my friends, a former hater of the Knowles sisters turned avid listener and devoted fan, posted the song on her blog. It had been a long while since I had heard anything from Solange, and it is an understatement to say that I was excited about hearing something new. I was also excited that she was covering a Boards of Canada classic.
Although many viewers on YouTube admitted to having other “recreational purposes” for instrumental portion of the song, Solange wrote an abstract song about the complexities of love and relationships.
The lyrics are ambiguous; I believe it was intentional so the listener could take his or her own impression of the song. The relationship she speaks of is a romantic one, the “during” stage of love. In western media, the guy likes the girl, the guy gets the girl (with minor obstacles, of course), and the guy lives happily ever after with the girl (of course). This may also be the case with the girl liking the guy. Who talks of the struggle for the woman, the work, and the ugly side of love?
Love does not always come in pre-packaged frozen dinners—there are ellipses in a relationship; it is a slow-simmer at times.
Such is also the case with Solange’s next studio album, but I am patient. I am reluctant but willing to wait.
