Sollars – “Take Out” / “May 2 May”

Sollars – “Take Out” / “May 2 May” – Singles Review

“So what’s the play?”  Good question homie, good question.

Don’t get it twisted & don’t get me wrong, Sollars is an undeniable talent in this music scene we share, and he’s already proven that in a variety of ways through the versatility he’s shown as I’ve been listening my way through his material this year.  He put out incredible single-worthy vibes on “Dragon,” took things to a deeper level on “Pieces,” showed us a thought-provoking cut with “Exhausted,” and nailed bulletproof bars on “Rap Kicks” – the latter of which became his current top track on Spotify with tens of thousands of listeners tuning in from around the globe.  Dude’s put in the work and been achieving results…word on the street is that he’s got something along the lines of a quarter million hits or more throughout the course of 2023, and if you’re into numbers & all that, obviously that’s a good thing.  I’m not that dude personally…I just wanna hear ya at your best and bringin’ it to everything that you do.  If that happens to get ya five clicks or five million clicks, chances are I’m sleepin’ the same way every night.  I’m always happy to hear people being excited about momentum in their career, that’s another great thing too…but numbers are dangerous thangs for motivation and can be real fickle indicators of what’s actually goin’ on y’all…don’t get too caught up in’em.  The only number that really counts is your own; as long as you know you did the best you can with whatever that latest track is, then right the fuck on I say.

Anytime you live up to the strengths of the highest standards you’ve set along the way, you put yourself in the conversation…you give yourself a legitimate chance to have created another fan favorite or a new gateway into your music.  The key is to be able to recognize when you’re missing the mark, when you could do things a bit better in this or that, and understanding that every career has peaks and valleys no matter what ya do.  Sometimes you gotta ride out the storm in the court of public opinion, and know that if you’re still giving everything you’ve got to everything you do, things will balance out eventually.  That’s it, that’s all…if you’re doin’ all that, any artist is ready to live with the results, pass or fail, because the rest is simply personal taste and opinion…another aspect that can go either way like the wind blows.

Which brings us to these two new singles from Sollars.  Like I said earlier, the man’s a proven force to be reckoned with, but there’s also no doubt that he’s still on the early side of a long career to come.  Ups & downs are gonna happen…that’s the nature of the game & how it goes sometimes.  If you were to ask me about the strength of his performances on either “Take Out” or “May 2 May,” I’d readily tell ya that the man is firing on all cylinders and giving these songs the best that he’s got in that regard.  If you were to ask me about the strength of the material itself, we’d be having a completely different conversation as far as my own personal opinion goes.  I’m not hearing quite the level of accessibility or potential in these two new singles compared to what I’ve experienced in any of the four cuts prior.  You might very well disagree with that…heck, maybe by now he’s already got numbers to prove that y’all completely disagree with that – and that’s okay!  Like I’ve been tellin’ ya…he’s given each of these singles a stellar performance that shows his passion, commitment, and conviction in-full…and anytime that you do that, you give a song the opportunity to reach the top of someone’s playlist out there.  The worst kept secret in a critic’s career is that we actually WANT to like everything that we experience…but the reality is that ain’t always the case.  I’m used to it.  All I wanna hear is that you’re giving everything you do the best you can, and Sollars hasn’t let me down in the slightest with respect to that.  As far as the material itself goes…I think “Take Out” is a bit too reliant on repetition, and I think that what’s repeated isn’t as strong of a hook as he likely intended it to be.  His personality in the way he performs his verses ends up being a much larger asset to “Take Out” than anything that’s actually written into it.  I like the bass & the beat in the music, but as to the main melodic sample…I’m kind of the same mind…there’s not quite enough there.  My worry in terms of a track like “Take Out” would be that, if music is like a puzzle for our minds to solve, we’d hear something like this single and feel like we got the full picture right away, you get me?  The main reason he’s supplying to return to this track, aka the hook, he’s supplied so much throughout the course of three & a half minutes, that he’s put all us listeners in the position of being stuffed too full.  It’s memorable & there’s no doubt about that…but there’s an argument to be made repetition always is.

“Steadily, steady at it” – that’s all it needs to be y’all.  Whether or not I love something or I don’t, or the fans do or they don’t – none of that really matters when it comes to what should ultimately motivate any artist out there.  Do what you do because you love to do it…if people dig it, then right on, bonus.  “May 2 May” is a bit stronger than “Take Out” from my perspective, though again, I’m not entirely sure that it quite rises up to the strength of the material I’ve heard this year from Sollars so far.  Performance-wise, I genuinely think the dude’s firing it up at an all-star level now…and that’s probably going to be the main breakthrough that leads him to the next.  My commentary would be similar about “May 2 May” overall…I think it’s the personality of Sollars that gives the material the best shot at reaching people, but I’m feeling like substance-wise, these two cuts have likely come out a bit thinner than they should & I’m not all that convinced these tracks are gonna be the ones that hold up over time.  I’m also fairly well-known for pushing the artists & bands in this scene of ours to reach their best and be as objective as they can be with their material too though…so you know…take anything I say with the appropriate grain of salt of course – I ain’t saying either of these tracks are bad, I’m definitely not saying that Sollars has dropped the ball at all when it comes to the way he’s performed them, and I still hear positives in each that are encouraging too.  Can he do more?  Yes.  I’m not gonna bullshit him about that like I wouldn’t bullshit any of the rest of ya…I do think he’s got more in him than he is showing us here on “May 2 May” or “Take Out” – but I’m equally confident that any setback only leads to greater things when it comes to an artist that is as potently dedicated & remarkably gifted as Sollars is.  As I was saying from the drop…peaks and valleys happen in any career…sometimes we push ourselves too quickly, and sometimes we get caught up in the moment/the excitement of a new song and it affects our objectivity surrounding the strengths of the material.  Sollars is learning and trying all kinds of things this year, and the more that he does, the stronger he’ll become in everything he’ll do – you can bank on this guy to go straight back into the lab and start cookin’ up something new that’ll probably blow your mind next time…he’s clearly always up to something and much more determined than most.

Find out more about Sollars from his official page at Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/sollarsmusic

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