Previewing new releases from Solange, Groove Armada, the Sea & Cake, and more. 'Star' Search 'It got to the point where I told Columbia that they were going to have to drop me,' 16-year-old newcomer Solange recalls. Not exactly something typically heard from a young artist on her first outing, but Solange is not one to cave easily. 'They said the single I had chosen, 'Feelin' You,' wasn't sing-songy enough.

It wasn't the right type of genre. It wasn't R&B, reggae, hip-hop. I said, 'Whatever you want to call it, I want it to be the first single.' I stood my ground.'

The label then tested the track, which earned resoundingly positive feedback (it's No. 3 this week on Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Sales tally). The cut has helped pave the way for Solange's full-length debut, 'Solo Star,' due this week on Music World Music/Columbia. While this may be her debut, Solange is no stranger to the industry. Her sister is Beyonce Knowles, one-third of the mega-successful Destiny's Child. Iwork 08 Download Dmg.

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'Having Beyonce for a sister has pros and cons,' Solange says. 'I've gotten the chance to experience the industry and learn a lot. But I am trying to establish myself as an artist, and that can be tough with the last name that I have.'

'Love' Everlasting 'This is definitely the least noodly record we've ever made,' says Groove Armada's Tom Findlay of 'Lovebox,' the U. Download Flash Player For S60v5. K. Electronic duo's latest Jive album. The set, the follow-up to 2001's 'Goodbye Country, Hello Nightclub,' features guest spots from Neneh Cherry, Sunshine Anderson, and Richie Havens. 'It's exposing yourself to stuff,' Findlay says of the group's change in sound, 'and just opening your ears up and exploring beauty in everything musical. This has definitely been our most white music listening period, a lot of Beatles, Nick Drake, more rocky and songy.

If you really love music it's a never-ending quest, just keep listening and listening. You're never gonna hear everything that's great in your lifetime but you might as well try.' Cherry lends her vocals to 'Think Twice,' while Anderson gets down on the orchestral 'Easy.' Havens appears on 'Hands of Time,' and rapper Kriminal pops up on 'Groove Is On.' Says group member Andy Cato of the latter, 'You think he's gonna be this big burly bloke and in fact he's quite a bookish-looking guy with glasses, very sensitive.'

'Bedroom' Eyes Chicago underground rock outfit the Sea & Cake returns this week with sixth Thrill Jockey album, 'One Bedroom.' The 10-track set is the follow-up to 2000's 'Oui,' which debuted at No. 24 on Billboard's Heatseekers chart. The group begins a North American tour March 5 in Minneapolis. 'We went back and listened to some of the old records and I was really belting it out back then, so I'd say my singing is more upfront on this one,' vocalist Sam Prekop says of the new set.

'One song is a direct result of my home solo recording; it's fairly unadorned.' Echoing drummer John McEntire's description of 'One Bedroom' as 'a bit more constructed' than 'Oui,' Prekop says the album has more in common with 1997's heavily electronic 'The Fawn.' Such tracks as 'Hotel Tell' and 'Le Baron' are driven by electronics and keyboards, while the band adds its typically breezy touch to a cover of David Bowie's 'Sound + Vision,' featuring vocals by the Aluminum Group's Frank and John Navin. 'Space' Is The Place U.K.-based electronica duo Laika has compiled album tracks, rarities, covers, live cuts, and a previously unreleased song for 'Lost in Space,' due this week from Too Pure/Beggars. The album's first disc features such album favorites as 'Breather,' 'Uneasy,' and 'Bedbugs,' a remix of 'If You Miss' for the 'Macro Dub Infection Vol. 1' collection, and the hard-to-find 'Lower Than Stars' from the now out-of-print 'Volume/Warchild' compilation. The second disc kicks off with the previously unreleased 'Beestinger,' and also includes a cover of Wire's 'German Shepherds,' three songs recorded for DJ John's Peel's show on the U.K.'

S BBC radio, three B-sides from Laika's 'Antenna' EP, and remixes by Maxwell House and Meat Beat Manifesto mainman Jack Dangers. Laika is working on its fourth studio album, due next fall. A tour will follow its release. The as-yet-untitled set will be the follow-up to 2000's 'Good Looking Blues.'

Additional titles hitting stores this week include: -- Unwritten Law's 'Music in High Places,' an acoustic album recorded at Yellowstone National Park for the music series of the same name (Lava/Atlantic). -- Scottish rock outfit the Delgados' 'Hate' (Mantra). -- Instrumental juggernaut Manheim Steamroller's 'Romantic Melodies' (American Gramaphone).

-- Jazz pianist Matthew Shipp's 'Equilibrium' (Thirsty Ear). -- Two new EPs from Swedish rock act the (International) Noise Conspiracy, 'Bigger Cages, Longer Chains' and 'Up for Sale' (Sympathy for the Record Industry). -- A new solo album from Guided By Voices frontman Robert Pollard, 'Motel of Fools' (Fading Captain).

-- A career-spanning retrospective from beloved New Zealand underground rock group the Clean, 'The Anthology' and the latest set from former Archers Of Loaf frontman Eric Bachmann under the Crooked Fingers moniker, 'Red Devil Dawn' (Merge).

DUNCAN JORDANBeach House - 'B-Sides and Rarities' album artwork Along the way certain pieces were discarded, not because they were inferior but because they didn't fit a particular record. All are collected here and they paint a fascinating picture of a band slowly building from the delicacy of earlier tracks like Rain In Numbers to the subtle complexity of tracks like Equal Mind, Norway and 10 Mile Stereo (Cough Syrup Remix).

The Drystones We Happy Few **** (Shed built) - out Friday Twenty-somethings Ford Collier and Alex Garden play folk music with attack, precision and a genuine sense of joie de vivre. The rousing opener, Treekend, and mindblowing whistle tune Green Mountain, sets the tone for an album that is high on energy. But there's real intelligence here too: the band's exploration of wartime violence and post-traumatic stress disorder on My Son John is both powerful and non-preachy. Peter Perrett How The West Was Won ** (Domino) - out A perennially wasted and skeletal figure in smudged eye-liner and a ladies' fur coat, Perrett was the iconic frontman of the Only Ones, arguably the most electrifying British rock band of the late 1970s-early 80s and now best-known for their chaotically beautiful single Another Girl, Another Planet. Forty years on, Perrett still looks and sounds unique, his slurred and druggy voice immediately recognisable.

The febrile atmosphere of disease and danger that once infected his music has now been replaced by a certain self-satisfied sensuality. Troika, Hard To Say No and Living In My Head, with its high, jangling riff and sinuous guitar solo, still have more than an echo of his past glories. PHSimon Law’s Look To The Sky album Simon Law Look To The Sky *** (Dome) As a former member of Soul II Soul and co-writer of their classic single Back To Life, Law knows a thing or two about catchy choruses and hook-lines. He works with a range of singers here, from his old bandmate Jazzie B on the title track - a rich slice of cosmic reggae - to Caron Wheeler (on the excellent Morning Love) and Maxi Priest, whose Sunshine Girl has easy-going summer hit written all over it.

There are some neat, jazz-funky touches throughout and, if the quality is not always consistent, the positivity certainly is.