Wine and Cheese: Amy Winehouse and Solange
The drastically different soul-inspired styles of Amy Winehouse and Solange complement each other to create a listening experience you won’t want to miss.
It’s your dream collab. The artists you add back-to-back to the queue. The pairing you can’t get enough of. You know they sound good together, but why? Welcome to Wine and Cheese, a series investigating the why and telling you all about it.
Written By Aidan Comiskey
Photos courtesy of Island Records and Refinery29.
It might seem strange to talk about the interplay between the music of Amy Winehouse and Solange. After all, their years of peak creativity barely overlap, they have wildly different vocal and musical styles, and their target audiences certainly don’t seem to be the same — but maybe they should be. Both Winehouse and Knowles draw from the broader tradition of African-American music, but what they do with it is very different. Winehouse’s style hearkens back to traditional American soul, filled with powerful and consistent vocals, rough edges and growls included. While Winehouse’s style spans a few genres — namely soul and jazz — it remains centered, almost conservative.
Solange, like Winehouse, draws on these genres, but she doesn’t stop there. Knowles has proven to be a master of eclecticism, her musical style a patchwork of diverse genres ranging from psychedelic rock to R&B and beyond. The result is a sound that is adaptable, changing between albums and even individual songs. Her ‘80s pop-esque sound on the track “Some Things Never Seem to F-cking Work” is immediately followed by the R&B-reminiscent “Locked in Closets” on her 2012 album True. But this transition is not as simple as a genre jump. Solange’s musical style is never just one thing: even when one aspect dominates, the others are always there, informing her work in one way or another. Consequently, her musical style is uniquely her. Solange’s style is thus on the other side of the spectrum from Winehouse’s — experimental and forward-thinking, rather than rich and traditional.
But musical style is not the only point in which the two differ — Winehouse and Knowles have very different vocal styles, in many ways reflective of their overall work. Winehouse’s voice is distinct to the point of being immediately recognizable. It radiates power, a paradoxical combination of grit and smoothness, allowing her to impart every word she says with raw emotion. Solange’s voice is similarly tuned to her musical style, with a sense of clarity and smoothness over a wide range that allows her to drift seamlessly among different genres.
This isn’t to say that one artist is better than the other. They’re almost too different to compare. Yet, they complement each other in the best way possible. Despite all their differences, Winehouse and Solange largely sing about the same themes, often about romantic relationships through highs and lows. And while their vocal and musical styles differ quite a lot, they go together well, almost as if they are two sides of the same American-soul coin. Bu, perhaps where the two are most similar is in their willingness to be different. Winehouse’s traditionalism stands out precisely because she refused to evolve with the rest of soul, becoming one of the few artists continuing to perform in her style, the musical embodiment of a ‘60s time capsule. Solange’s uniqueness is derived from the fact that she’s ahead of the curve — her music is innovative and experimental. It’s refreshingly new and constantly evolving. In this difference we see just how the two work together so well. The two are almost opposites — Winehouse is a comfortable piece of nostalgia, while Solange is a strange burst of excitement.
Like wine and cheese, Amy Winehouse and Solange work through different flavors, delighting different aspects of the palate. Their combination becomes a full meal in and of itself, satiating the listener. Whether you’re a Solange fan, a Winehouse fanatic, both, or neither, try playing them together. You might just be surprised at what you hear.