Critical Reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | |
| Entertainment Weekly | B+ |
| The Guardian | |
| Hot Press | 4/5 |
| The New York Times | favorable |
| Pitchfork Media | 7.3/10 |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Slant Magazine | |
| The Times | |
| Yahoo! Music | |
Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 72, based on 14 reviews. Rob Harvilla of The Village Voice called the album "bizarrely mesmerizing" and felt that some of the material's idiosyncratic and unconventional lyrics invite "inexplicable but highly favorable comparisons to Kate Bush. (Ethereal but powerful, unhinged but in total command.)" Ken Capobianco of The Boston Globe referred to the album as a "smartly executed, classy set of songs that's miles away from the hoochie pop being turned out by young female R&B vocalists these days". Pryia Elan of The Times declared the album "a modern classic". Dan LeRoy of The Hartford Courant compared her work to that of sister Beyoncé Knowles, stating "Solange combines retro warmth and current cool in ways her more commercially successful sibling probably can't." Jaimie Gill of Yahoo! Music called it a "fine, rich and extremely likeable record", and Francis Jones of Hot Press called Solange's singing "sassy and assured". Andy Kellman of Allmusic cited it as "one of the year's more entertaining and easily enjoyable R&B releases" and found it "fun, silly, slightly eccentric and, most importantly, fearless":
hroughout Sol-Angel, there is a kind of frolicsome adventurousness that is singular and undeniable ... fronted by someone who does not take herself all that seriously, someone who is slightly more concerned with raw emotion and clowning around than technical prowess and polished product ... She has inhabited the space, converting into a combination rumpus room/whimsically ornamented meadow/unmanned Hitsville U.S.A., where she can be herself, pull all the strings, and make her album.In a mixed review, Jody Rosen of Rolling Stone cited Knowles's attempts at Erykah Badu-inspired psychedelic-soul tracks such as "Cosmic Journey", as well as her vocal abilities, as "embarrassing", comparing the album's sound to "a woozy lava lamp glow." Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian called its music "savvy R&B with a gloss you can check your reflection in", but ultimately observed "a lack of both memorable tunes and the steely spined ardour that makes Beyoncé so compelling." Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani was ambivalent towards its use of sampling on certain songs, but praised "the mix of organic, old-school instrumentation and more electronic elements", which he felt make it "a loose, fun and reverent record." In his consumer guide for MSN Music, Robert Christgau gave the album a two-star honorable mention, indicating a "likable effort consumers attuned to its overriding aesthetic or individual vision may well enjoy." He cited "Would've Been the One" and "I Decided, Pt. 1" as highlights and quipped, "Frothily, defiantly, privilege's child runs through her options". Vibe's Keith Murphy cited it as one of the R&B best albums of the year.
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