With the new album release of “Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams”, Solange Knowles has decided to step out of her very famous and talented sisters’ shadow and tell the world her own story in her own words. Funny thing is, we’re not hearing this story from the little sister we once knew when she dropped “Solo Star.” It’s a new day and a new climate in the music industry and Solange is all grown up now.

You can drop the surname Knowles because “Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams” has made her a bona-fide star and there’s no looking back. How does such a young soul at the tender age of 22 create an album that defies the sound elements of what the younger generation is adapt to listening to? This is one time where Solange was following her heart and, the music in the studio. The track “Ode to Marvin” takes you straight down memory lane without skipping a beat, and is an instant classic. You don’t have to read the title to the track; you just feel Marvin’s spirit when you play the song. She absolutely threw out the window the corporate philosophy about target markets.

Solange and her team of writers and producers crafted this album just the way I like it, in a story form. She tells a great story from beginning to end. Every track is like turning the page to her diary. I felt like I was sitting in the bedroom in Houston where she grew up. No one is around and you want to hurry up and finish before someone discovers you. After you’re done, you risk being caught just to take another peak. Solange is truly a soulful angel like she states on her track F- the industry on her mix tape using Kanye’s “Everything I Am” beat, “my soul got a soul”. And you can hear it on all 14 tracks. On August 1, 2008 in her journal on www. Hadley Street Journal.com she states: “In this journey I have been so blessed to come across many faces and spaces that have shown so much love. I hear so many folk who love that the record is a departure from most of the traditional things out right now. I get people who love my steez and encourage me to be me and I Thank You!!! Unfortunately I’m in an industry where diversity is not celebrated the way it should be. When some people see and hear something different it feels foreign to them and they don’t like that. Everyone has a choice of what they like and that’s a beautiful thing! But record labels, managers, publicist, journalist, media etc., have a tendency to see something work and try to recreate that with another artist thinking that’s what makes success. To me what makes success is letting people be truly who they are”. Well, Solange you are truly being your self. And that is what makes this album a breath of fresh air and literally, a work of art. “God Given Name” unapologetically strips away the categorizing and judging that most critics do. “Tony” is a track that shows her insecure side, but lets you know that she is not naive to what her boyfriend is doing. But at the same time she is caught in this back and forth game in what seems to be a strange relationship with “Tony”. She realizes she has to move forward if she’s ever going to fall in love, and she acknowledges she would have been in love by now if it wasn’t for “Tony”. “Dancing In the Dark” was penned by M. Grasso, C. Thomas, S. Sanz, S. Knowles, H. Kiessling, and produced by Square and Mr. Familiar. This track is a time capsules it encapsulates a sound of that 70’s funk with a tad bit of 50’s trumpet. It definitely sends you on a be-bop dancing rampage in the dark.

“Would’ve been the One” is the track that keeps the up beat party going describing how a guy who thinks he’s a Casanova, but instead of being another notch on his belt she schools him and the other chicks by saying she “Would’ve been the One” if she wasn’t hip to his game, hence the title. “Sandcastle Disco” is a beautifully written song by Soulshock, K. Karlin, T. Callaway, S. Knowles, and this one is my favorite. In the chorus she explains that she realize how he is to other women, but she exposes all of her feelings and lets him know that she is fragile and can easily be hurt so don’t blow her away. “I Decided”, “Valentine’s Day”, “6 o’clock Blues”, “I Told You So”, and “This Bird” are stringed along wonderfully with a, mixture of R&B, pop, soul, funk, hip hop soul, and dance-pop like a string of white shiny pearls down the road of Solange’s “Cosmic Journey”. She is not Beyonce’s little sister any more! I highly recommend this album because Sol-Angel has touched my soul and given me food for thought.