Welcome to Ear 2 Da Sky! Each week, I will be going over topics within music culture and reviewing albums and EPs across genres, eras and artists that are submitted by readers like you, and listeners of my radio show, ear 2 da ground, every Wednesday at 11 p.m. on WHUS 91.7 FM! For this week’s submission, I got the chance to sit down and listen to Solange’s “True” EP.
“True” was Solange’s first EP, which was released on Nov. 27, 2012. This EP sort of acted as a bridge between her 2008 album “Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams” and her 2016 album “A Seat at the Table.” The project clocks in at just under 28 minutes with seven tracks, which took three years to fully produce. Production was done by Dev Hynes, who is more popularly known as Blood Orange.
It took three years for a multitude of reasons, one of those being Solange’s mental well-being. It was said that she suffered multiple breakdowns throughout the recording process due to everything she was pouring into this project. In a 2010 interview with Vibe, she said that she “literally gave up [her] sanity for a while to do this record.”
After sitting through this EP a few times, there’s a lot of introspection paired while positing itself with dance-album-type production. This is incredibly apparent in track one, “Losing You.” It’s the most popular song on the project, as it was released as a single prior to the EP and has seen an internet resurgence with the help of TikTok. Solange opens the song by asking a simple but loaded question: “Tell me the truth, boy, am I losing you for good?”
Throughout the track, she fights with coming to terms with the end of her relationship with her lover while reminiscing about what they used to have. In the final chorus, she interjects her own singing, sort of acting as a verbal push and pull. One version of Solange is blaming him while the other is blaming herself.
Track two is “Some Things Never Seem To Fucking Work,” a staunch reminder of the thematic darkness of the lyrics and bright pop sound. This song is about the butting heads of young love, personal growth and the eventual drifting apart. The track is assumed to be about Solange and her ex-husband Daniel Smith’s relationship as they got married at 17 and 19, respectively.
The chorus follows a decline in the relationship where they are longing for simpler times, followed by verse two where Solange talks about the simplicity in young — and possibly blind — love. “Remember when you kissed me / At Jimmy John’s when I was 17 / Convinced myself you were the shit / Convinced myself you loved me.” Towards the end of the song, Dev Hynes is featured delivering a spoken-word-esque piece contemplating this past relationship, echoing sentiments like: Was it worth it? Was it just boredom? Was it all a mistake?
Getting the opportunity to reflect on this album, there was a lot that stuck with me. I wholeheartedly believe that Dev Hynes and Solange could have been an unstoppable force in 2010s music if they didn’t fall out. I say this as you can get bits and pieces of “True” throughout all of Solange’s works after the EP.
Another thing is the juxtaposition between production and lyrics. Obviously, I have not made anything on the level of Solange — or either Knowles sister as a matter of fact — but I do understand the desire to satirize your emotions to be able to sit with them comfortably. In this case, it’s depressing lyrics over a beat you would hear in the club.
While it is hard to make a truly “timeless” album, I would like to say that this project is definitely a sound of the time from the overall sound to the way Solange’s vocals are mixed, but that doesn’t stop it from being a good album. I don’t think art has to be timeless to be good, but I think great art is. “Losing You” toes the line of both. It’s just so refreshing.
Rating: 3.5/5
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