There’s no such thing as an album that’s a perfect 10 – but there those that are one notch below. The 9’s is an occasional series which explores some of those records.
Released: 2016
About
Eight years on from it’s predecessor Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams, the process by which A Seat At The Table was created had come at something of a cost to the artist herself. It’s songs interspersed with seqences of powerful dialogue, the result was a conversation that spoke to the female experience for women of colour. With a raft of high profile guests and producers, this was as much a high functioning, slick R&B record as it was a social document; for Solange Knowles part, the weight of expression and refusal to compromise prompted in her strong physical and emotional responses.
Why a 9?
If it felt in 2016 like America had culturally regressed by ten years, a decade later it seems more like fifty. A Seat At The Table observationally wove dynamic threads of culture, community and identity, trying to inform and embrace a country struggling with polarisation and segregating itself by proxy. It would’ve been an instant classic released at any time, warm, intelligent, heartfelt and musically almost note perfect, but against a backdrop of intolerance and diminished understanding, the affirmations it presented were more vital than ever.
Why Is It Important?
Landmark records can often take years to establish themselves as such, but A Seat At The Table immediately gave notice as a project of vast ambition, one by contrast though in tone that was charachterised by understatement. A glossy, pop-adjacent album if that’s all you needed, for some it was equally a powerful manifesto, whilst others heard new musical forms signposting the future of a genre that had atrophied. Strictly from an observer’s perspective, whatever the personal sacrifices that went into its creation, the outcome was spectacularly worthwhile.
You Should Listen To
Cranes In The Sky, Mad, Rise, F.U.B.U
The Voice Of Unreason 