Soluna: For All Time : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Soluna's sugary pop is almost better suited for another country altogether: Great Britain, where style is on equal footing (if not greater) with substance. On their eponymous debut, Jessica Castellanos, Christina "T" Lopez, America Olivo and Aurora Rodriguez prove why Dream Works signed them nearly three years ago -- they can sing, and they do so in both English and Spanish. Too old for the Britney-Christina crowd, not old enough to make inroads with the Celine Dion-Enya fans and possessing absolutely none of the edge offered by Destiny's Child or TLC, the women of Soluna are talents without material. Granted, Soluna's first single, "Bring It to Me" is a bouncy girl-group hit in the making, offering a tiny bit of hip-hop production against its synthesized backdrop. But when it's the first song on the disc and the best of fifteen, the album's faults are revealed early and often. Knowing Soluna's team of producers has worked with global stars -- including Ricky Martin, Enrique Iglesias, Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez and Whitney Houston -- makes it difficult not to wonder where these songs originated. The tracks seem as tossed off lyrically as the worst from any of the aforementioned artists and as musically unremarkable as the synth-heavy dance pop that floods massive clubs across Europe every summer ("Don't Want to Live My Life Without You" is less fun than an Ace of Base marathon). Soluna's debut is not the best calling card a group might choose to offer the listening public, but it's worth waiting to hear what a second album might sound like, if they make it that far.

ANDREW STRICKMAN
(May 14, 2002)