Now Playing: Solange – ‘Losing You’

Solange - Losing You

Now Playing – twice every week, a roundtable of our writers will give their views on some of the recently-released new tracks. It’s as simple as that! If you want to tell us what you think of the song, feel free to leave a comment below.

Track: ‘Losing You’ by Solange

Average grade: 5.8

Tom: Beyoncé’s sister Solange sounds like Madonna c.1989, but with something missing.  This could be ‘Like A Prayer’, with all the melodrama ruthlessly stripped away, or ‘Dear Jessie’ without bothering with a melody.  In fact, there’s no other way to say this: it’s lazy, derivative and pointless. 2/10

Kenny: Rather pointless me reviewing this as not my scene at all so I’m not going to bother with a a mark out of ten. I do though reckon it to be forgettable pap with no hooks whatsover that could be by any female ‘R&B’ singer of the last twenty plus years.

Greg: Produced by Blood Orange, aka Dev Hynes, ‘Losing You’ has much of Hynes’ love of retro genre-aping and wistful melancholy. Meanwhile, Solange plays it cool with her vocals, nicely understated and tightly harmonised. I like it – a subtle, smooth antidote to more recent producer-meets-singer combinations (Calvin Harris and Florence Welch take note). There have been better pop singles this year, definitely – but this hits a sweet spot. 8/10

James: Wasn’t looking forward to listening to this one to be honest and when the club tropicana-esque sample kicked in I wondered if I’d found the right track. Not a huge fan of the Madonna style going on and was looking for of a big finale chorus but she’s done well to not tread on her big sister’s tracks. 4/10

Anna: Her voice is nicely smooth but the tune is pretty bland and old-sounding, and don’t even get me started on that looped yelping. Seriously, don’t. 4/10

Linda: *too busy dancing through the room to write a comment* 8/10

Russell: ‘Losing You’ has exactly two hooks, and not many more lyrics. But it’s all it needs to be the best straight up pop song of the year. It’s simplicity of melody is its greatest asset, working in perfect tandem its thrillingly on-the-pulse production – all whistles and throbs – resulting in a song which turns played out pop tricks like age old yearning and double tracked vocals into the year’s most addictive and replayable single.  9/10

Stef: I do like some elements of this. The loop in the background is kind of nice (aside from that yelp, which starts to grate at one point), and I like the mix between the Madonna vocals and the more R&B side of it. With that said, it does sound like the vocals are pasted onto the music, which is something I had hoped not to hear, especially knowing how musical she really is. 5.5/10