{"id":1401,"date":"2016-12-28T05:30:48","date_gmt":"2016-12-28T10:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/?p=1401"},"modified":"2016-12-30T01:53:04","modified_gmt":"2016-12-30T06:53:04","slug":"what-i-missed-in-2016-solanges-a-seat-at-the-table","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/2016\/12\/28\/what-i-missed-in-2016-solanges-a-seat-at-the-table\/","title":{"rendered":"What I Missed In 2016: Solange’s A Seat At the Table"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since I launched this blog in March, I have tried to write about as many wonderful things as I can, in essays, the podcast, and every Friday in the New Release Roundup. Try as I might, I can\u2019t write about all the good stuff coming out. This will be my annual attempt to correct that. For the next ten days, I\u2019ll be highlighting albums I missed in 2016. To cast an even wider net, I\u2019ve enlisted some talented friends to write about some of their favorites this year. Look for that Friday. <\/p>\n

Solange<\/a> \u2013 A Seat At the Table <\/em><\/strong>
\nI had not read any reviews or interviews about this one before I sat down to listen to it. I had liked what I\u2019d heard from Solange in the past. There is joy in her singing. I was surprised to find A Seat At the Table<\/em> was a kind of concept album about racial identity, told through elegant R&B songs interspersed with interviews that serve as a kind of narrator for the experience. The first words you hear are \u201cFall in your ways, so you can crumble\/Fall in your ways, so you can sleep at night\/Fall in your ways, so you can wake up and rise\u201d from \u201cRise.\u201d Juxtapose that message of self-worth with the next song, \u201cWeary,\u201d which warns, \u201cBe leery \u2018bout your place in the world\/You\u2019re feeling like you\u2019re chasing the world.\u201d There\u2019s more than one battle going on here. There\u2019s an internal struggle and a struggle with the rest of the world, and it\u2019s hard to fight on two fronts at once. That\u2019s the soul of this music. How that should resolve is addressed by Master P on the spoken word \u201cThe Glory Is In You.\u201d He says, \u201cAs long as you find peace in what you doing, then you successful. And that\u2019s what people don\u2019t realize.\u201d Easier said than done, as the rest of the album adds more personal stories and history to that fire. Solange has been working on this album since 2008, and the care she put into it shows. This must have been mentioned in other reviews, but it reminds me of Marvin Gaye\u2019s What\u2019s Going On<\/em>, a statement on modern times with a groove that gets into your bones. <\/p>\n