Solange Knowles Previews 3rd Album

Solange Knowles, younger sister of Beyonce, is putting the finishing touches on her currently untitled 3rd album. SoL-Angel And The Hadley Street Dreams, Solange's last album, took many people by surprise with its catchy hooks and 60s and 70s influenced songs. That album included production by Cee-Lo Green and Mark Ronson, and featured Bilal. She stated in an interview shortly after her second album's release that she intended to have her third album a similar sound to the track featuring Bilal, Cosmic Journey. She has stuck to her word with her new song, 'Left Side Drive.' Listen to the track and get more information on the recording experience below.





Now free from the Interscope-Geffen-A&M record label group, this album was recorded, financed, and will be released, independently. Solange shared writing credits on the singles 'Get Me Bodied' and 'Upgrade U' off her sister's second solo album, B'Day. She revealed in an interview with Vibe that while writing her latest effort she suffered a mental breakdown. She explains:

" I literally gave up my sanity for a while to do this record. To the point to where I started doing it in Santa Barbara and I had to relocate to L.A. because I was losing it. We literally were waking up in the morning and just making music all day and all night. We left the house maybe three times! It just started to wear on me in so many different ways. I started having these crazy panic attacks. I can say that I totally sacrificed so much mentally, emotionally and financially to get this record the way I wanted it to be. It’s more than an album to me. It’s a transitional time in my life. This is a dance record, but the lyrics can get pretty dark at times. It brought me closer to my family, my dude and my son.

Well, the thing about this record is I really call the experience being a part of music commune. There was never this concept of a producer coming in and producing it. Basically, there were five of us who all recorded day and night and slept in this house. We even ate together. ... There were some crazy moments. One of us would start strumming something on guitar in the morning and I would come in and hear a melody and then someone would lay some drums down to it. Then someone would add some keyboards and someone else would start blowing into a beer bottle. We were experimenting in a very jam session kind of way. We would record our jam sessions, take a break, eat lunch on the lawn and then start the evening by listening to those jam sessions with a clean palette. Then we would break down the songs and give them structure."

Two of Solange's tracks, Would've Been The One and I Decided - Pt. 2 are currently available as free downloads on Amazon.com.

Sources: Vibe