Sollars – “S.O.S.” / “moonlight”

Sollars – “S.O.S.” / “moonlight” – Singles Review

Ohhhhhhhhhhh Sollars.  What are we gonna do with you my friend?

For real homie – you makin’ music for the people, or for the algo bro?  What’s it gonna take to get a three & half-minute tune outta this guy?  I had to scroll back through his Spotify list to 2024 just to find one!  Dude keeps it super short with his material…which, don’t get it twisted…I don’t actually give much of a fuck about that.  Make more music is the bottom line for me, that’s all I’d tell ya if I wasn’t kidding around…if it’s a minute or five, it doesn’t matter – just make more of it and keep them skills of yours as sharp as you can, and hopefully they’ll continue to be a bit sharper than they were the day before.  I just can’t help but think of things from the other side of the equation…like…I’ve made songs – I know exactly how much effort it can take to make’em, and just because you’ve got a longer one doesn’t always make that side of the scenario that much tougher.  You can spend a lifetime tweaking one track back and forth no matter what size it is…so I’m like…sitting here scratching my head trying to figure out where the line would be…as in like…how much time are you supposed to put into a song that’s less than two minutes long?  It’s still going to take way the heck longer to make than it is to listen to, you feel me?  If you’re the type of person that doesn’t really love the journey & only pays attention to the results, goddamn would makin’ music on the shorter side not be the right thing for you.  That ain’t Sollars though…so we pretty much have to assume that he’s into putting in that O.T. despite however long his tunes are gonna be.  In that sense, you gotta appreciate the work he’s doing and the commitment he brings to every moment.

So where am I at with these two latest singles…let’s see, let’s see.  I mean, I’d love to be the guy to tell ya that just because someone’s putting in the work that that directly equates to perfect tunes, but that’s obviously not always the case.  We’ve heard some fluctuation in this dude’s catalog over time, but I feel confident in saying he’s on pretty solid ground this time around.  Ultimately, a lot of the reason for that assessment is largely due to the main hooks in each track…I don’t know that I can vouch for everything on each tune, but the main hooks are so strong that I’m certain people will come back for more in both cases.  “S.O.S.” has got at least a couple goin’ on that work in its favor.  The concept itself, “S.O.S.” = Sick Of Stressing…I dig that…that’s smart – and it clearly proved to be the right blocks for Sollars to build with from there.  “Struggling for me to find some things that I find interesting” is another moment of pure slickness on the m-i-c for the young man – the rhythm in that line and the way Sollars rolls right with it is one of the top most enticing reasons to tune in for “S.O.S.” for sure.  And I guess that’s what I was getting at earlier on…either he got lucky and the inspiration hit’em quick to create that line, or he took the time required to craft and cultivate the metering, cadence, and melody in that lyric, which would end up likely being way longer than the 1:51 in total length for “S.O.S.”  At the end of the day, when you put in the work, the results should come pretty naturally to ya…which I feel like they have for Sollars here.  I’ve got no real substantial complaints to make about “S.O.S.” – it’s a strong single, he puts in a quality performance, and hey, I know 1:51 ain’t a long time, but he hasn’t overlooked anything as far as I can hear.  If keeping the time tight helps accomplish that, then hey, that’s worth it, wouldn’t you say?

As far as I’ve been informed, his other single “moonlight” will arrive for ya this Friday as we head on into October…so you’ll just have to take my word on things for now until you can hear things for yourself.  The first thing I can report on, is that the low-end building at the start of this song sent literal chills down the ol’ spine over here…it’s got that specific type of vibe that genuinely sounds like you’re about to be in-store for something special – you’ll physically FEEL it, which is the beauty in working with texture and sensory atmospheres like this single possesses.  I think Sollars really hit the mark once again with the main hook that you hear at the very start, and it works brilliantly with the beat when it kicks in alongside it.  I am…hmm…I dunno…I’m a bit torn on the verse that follows if I’m being honest with you.  For the most part, Sollars is fully in line and on point…but there is noticeable variation to the tangible qualities of the melody he’s working with.  Here’s the thing though – we accept a LOT of that as listeners…so I don’t really think it’s going to be much of a factor for many folks out there.  Like, to me, what you’re hearing from Sollars on this track vocally is highly comparable to the same kind of fluctuation you’d have heard on a record like 808s & Heartbreak back in the day…you know, that album where you probably loved every damn song in the lineup.  It wasn’t like Ye was coming out with every line pitch perfect either – there was fluctuation, there was variation, there was ups and there was downs, but it was also at a time where people were vehemently claiming that auto-tune solved all those problems, and it proved that tonally, it in fact, did not.  It actually takes an extraordinary amount of skill and patience on both sides of the studio boards for a piece here and there to not come out sounding completely flat.  In most instances, what ends up happening, is you simply call game – rather than spend that lifetime adjusting things back and forth for days on end to correct a couple of seconds in a song, we tend to just let it go…and I’m not even saying that’s not the way to do things, but I am saying you kinda gotta live with the results if that’s the method you go with.  Most listeners are going to hear the 95% going right and render a positive verdict in the court of public opinion…and shouldn’t that be enough?  I see no real harm in that, but I do recognize that the artist, producer, and critics out there will quite likely still hear that other 5% that could have been tweaked just a little bit more, or that they should have spent more time on.  Then there’s this whole other like…jeez…it’s a whole psychological conversation that revolves much more around the listening side of things, but look up stuff like ‘the mere-exposure effect’ or ‘hedonic adaptation’ to get an idea…’habituation’ is part of it as well, or you could simplify things by boiling it down to ‘familiarity’ or ‘acquired taste’ – essentially, it’s like I was telling you earlier – we accept a lot as listeners, but with added repetition, you’ll discover it’s strange how much more we’ll accept as we keep listening beyond that initial spin.  Anyhow.  I’ve already written you a novel here, so I’ll let you research all that fun stuff on your own, but it’s well worth doing that because the relationship you have with music will definitely cross paths with these terms and their effects more than once in your lifetime, I promise ya.  “moonlight” is a quality track by any definition and measure…the main hook is absolutely bulletproof, and the vibe of this song really grabs onto you hard, practically demanding your attention is paid in-full.  A highly stylistic single that you can pretty much see the visual effects and video that could come along with it in your mind as you listen…don’t misread my words y’all, Sollars has something here without a doubt.  Sure this dial or that dial could have been twisted this way or that way, and maybe things might have come out five or ten percent better…that’s all highly possible.  It’s also possible that doing that could have taken freakin’ days to accomplish…and on a song that’s only a tiny 2:25, like I was saying…sometimes you’ve just gotta call game and move on to the next.  I’d be happy with the way these tracks came out if I was Sollars…and encouraged that there’s always going to be room to continue leveling up.

Find out more about Sollars at:  https://linktr.ee/sollars

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