Review: Solange Earns Her "Seat At The Table"
Disclaimer: I almost always change my opinion (generally towards the direction of favorability) on albums after a few listens. Thus, this initial, first-listen reaction from me should be taken with a grain of salt, as there's a good chance I will hold a different view 3 months from now.
I don't know where I first saw or read that Solange Knowles (yes, for the ill-informed, she is Beyoncé's younger sister) had released a new album. Perhaps it was Apple Music's "Latest Releases" promotion, or a blurb from a Social Media friend. One thing I know was that the album's name rang familiar when I recently perused Metacritic, my personal favorite score aggregator for music and movies, and saw A Seat At The Table listed among the highest-rated New Releases. Having never followed Solange's music closely (what with my obsession with her older sister and all), I would not have otherwise felt so inclined to listen to the album, but to see it so highly reviewed? It was necessary motivation.
And boy, am I glad for that motivation. Had I not listened to A Seat At The Table, I would have missed out on one of the best albums of the year.
It probably does a disservice to both to compare Solange's work to Beyoncé's, but when two sisters release critically acclaimed, thematically similar albums within a year of each other, it is difficult not to. So allow me to proceed with the inevitable compare/contrast portion:
The most obvious contrast is, where her sister's smash album incorporated a wide variety of musical styles, Solange keeps it fairly simple musically. Lemonade featured the usual pop music, as well as everything from wailing rock n' roll to country, but A Seat At The Table never strays too far from basic R&B. The music is laid-back, almost jazzy at times, and Solange's voice always smooth.
Lyrically and thematically, the two albums are very similar. Beyoncé garnered much media attention for the "blackness" of her newest album, but it was as personal as it was political. The exact same thing could be said for Seat At The Table, as Solange clearly grapples with racial dynamics of America and their implications for her as a person, their ramifications for her identity. Refrains like "I'm weary of the ways of the world," "I tried to let go my lover/Thought if I was alone then maybe I could recover/To write it away or cry it away," and "Don't touch my hair/When it's the feelings I wear/Don't touch my soul/When it's the rhythm I know" can all speak to the simultaneous importance of both self and society this album carries.
One final contrast between the works of the Knowles' sisters: the two albums' tones. The tone of Beyoncé's Lemonade is often aggressive, unapologetically confrontational towards the man who wronged her, and the society that suppressed her as a black woman. Solange's tone throughout is condemning, yet instructional, inviting dialogue and more often, celebratory without being divisive. This is not to say that either tone is "wrong," I should add. Discourse and edification keep the World moving forward, but that does not render the emotions or expressions borne out of prejudice and personal betrayal invaluable in any way.
All in all, A Seat At The Table is a brilliant work that has given me a sort of cognitive dissonance. I've spent the better part of the year thinking that Beyoncé's album would be unmatched, and as it turns out, it might not even the best album released by a Knowles family member this year. What's more, this record in fact dropped on the last day of eligibility for Grammy nominations, so there remains the slim possibility that the Sisters Knowles could face off for Album of the Year. What an occasion that would be!
Such head-to-head competition likely means little to Solange, however. She has proved herself with this album; a seat at the table is what she deserves and what she has undoubtedly earned.