As a true Beyoncé stan, I can't say that I have ever been the largest fan of Solange's music in the past. It wasn't so much because I didn't believe that she made good music. I mean, she's a Knowles, there is no way she didn't have musical talent. But the few songs I had heard simply didn't touch or move me in the way that I like the music that I'm listening to do. Until recently.
This past Thursday, Solange Knowles dropped her third studio album, A Seat at the Table, which shows the many feelings behind the Black existence. A masterfully created union of so many things "Black" -- pride, pain, expression, anger and more, A Seat at the Table is a window into the "trauma" embedded deep within Black American right now. Not only does A Seat at the Table take listeners on a journey of healing and empowerment, but it also has moments of celebration of Black people, Black achievement, and really simply Blackness.
The sprawling 21 track artwork is filled with meditations on loss, identity, self-care, depression, and growth, aided by interludes from Solange's parents, friends, and even Master P. The auditory aesthetic of the album is diverse, as Solange softly croons to us on "Cranes in the Sky" and "Weary" but transitions to a darker sound on "Don't Wish Me Well." There are more upbeat tracks that personally make me bob my head up and down, like "Mad" and "F.U.B.U." At a time when the Black existence can be scary, disparaging, or just downright saddening, for me, A Seat at the Table is a safe space to deal with the internal struggles of my Black experience, as well as celebrate and love the other aspects of my Black experience that I may not readily live or experience all the time.
This album is a true reminder that Black people are amazing. Through interludes like "Chosen Ones" by Master P, listeners are reminded "We come here as slaves / but we're going out as royalty / enables us to shower that we are truly the chosen ones." The album in its entirety elaborates upon how we as Black people are indeed the chosen ones.
Black people have been and are living in fear, something expressed in "Where Do We Go." Solange opens the song by singing directives that explain how to safely maneuver through places that we used to call "Home." In spaces that Black people used to feel some degree of comfort, we are now feeling the need to go further out of our way to make sure that we remain safe from those who have taken over our space. The song also explores how the loss of that home might make one feel, hence the question of "Where do we go?" Following the same theme of painful reality, Solange created quite possibly one of the most beautiful songs on the album, "Cranes in the Sky." This track describes Solange's attempts at avoiding the feelings of dissonance, loss, and rejection experienced by Black people, but especially as a Black woman, in America, as she fails to fully assimilate into the world around her. She tries to find coping mechanisms to distract herself from the glaring lack of acceptance and respect that she encounters. She uses the simile of "cranes in the sky" because they are large, omnipresent, inescapable structures which loom over spaces doing hard work. This relates to her feelings of rejection and sadness because those feelings are also large, omnipresent, and inescapable. She sometimes doesn't want to feel those metal clouds because the emotional work that she is trying to do to counteract these negative feelings can be too much. How did Solange manage to read my life, and the lives of so many others, without even knowing us?!
Even so, the album doesn't linger on simply the negative, sadder aspects of Black living. We all know that is a piece of our existence. However, Solange is providing us with a sonically appealing reminder that it is not the only, nor the most important piece. There are tracks of happiness and Black pride, found in "Don't Touch My Hair" and "F.U.B.U.," both of which can be thought of as powerful pledges of personal identity. "Rise" urges us to stay true to ourselves in times of success and failure. "Don't You Wait" prompts us to keep pushing forward--even if it means leaving behind people who are not trying to make the journey toward your best and highest self with you. Various interludes such as "The Glory Is In You," "The Moment," and "I Got So Much Magic, You Can Have It" serve as interjections of greatness throughout the album. I love that the title of an interlude is "I Got So Much Magic, You Can Have It" because the Black Girl Magic is real and in full force throughout this album.
To think, I was never going to listen to this album simply because I didn't think I really liked Solange's music. Boy, was I wrong. A Seat at the Table is yet another album that has dropped this year that is, in its own, unique way, reclaiming and reworking one version of the Black narrative and experience. But don't take my word for it, because maybe this album will give you something different than what it gave me. Even so, I have a hunch that it will definitely give you something. A Seat at the Table is available on Spotify, Apple Music, and iTunes.
