SOLANGE KNOWLES, omg the return of

Oh dang I just listened to A Seat At The Table yesterday for the first time prob since it came out. I love it so much.

https://pitchfork.com/news/solanges-new-album-coming-this-fall/

!!!

:D

nice

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/t-magazine/solange-interview.html

Great article all the way through. But re: new album hype:

Her instructors are wide-ranging and eclectic: Joni Mitchell, in whom Solange found lessons in balancing a career as a musician with the demands of visual creation (Mitchell’s first, never abandoned love was painting); Missy Elliott, whose music videos are genre-defying and imagistically striking. Solange is drawing sonic inspiration from the ’90s singer Aaliyah, the experimental 20th-century musician and composer Sun Ra, the ’60s psychedelic soul band Rotary Connection and Stevie Wonder’s 1979 album “Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants.”

Couldn't tick my "I'm excited for this" boxes much more (unless she added in Arthur Russell to the mix)...

Omg the return of

That NYT headline and subhead are fucking awful, wtf

I like Solange and have come around on the last album, but this is letting PR flacks influence copy.

I mean, as far as features go that are basically hype for an artist/upcoming work, I thought it had some interesting elements or at least a perspective to take it above standard PR copy/puff piece. The photography seemed a bit questionable to me, and I didn't even look at the headline...

i didn't find much interesting in this story but solange has been really overcovered as of late

as for the headline/framing of it... t magazine kind of exists to flatter celebrities and artists. i mean, this is for their "greats" issue or something so yeah...

really tired of the word "polymath" tho

new album (?) "when i get home" appears to be coming very soon

Oh yes tomorrow

so hype

yo

my god the synths on this

I've tried but I just don't think the Solange of these last two albums is For Me, it sounds absolutely beautiful though

my fave on first listen is "Sound of Rain"

star-studded cast:

Earl Sweatshirt, Panda Bear, Tyler the Creator, Gucci Mane, Playboi Carti, Blood Orange’s Dev Hynes, Sampha, Pharrell Williams, Raphael Saadiq, Metro Boomin, The-Dream, Standing on the Corner, Scarface, Cassie, Abra, the Internet’s Steve Lacy, Devin the Dude, and more are featured.

there's nothing as transcendent as "Cranes in the Sky" here and it's generally even more low-key than ASATT but it still sounds very pleasant overall on first listen

So far Stay Flo slaps

wow all kinds of unexpected guest contributors on here .

Just like the last one, it's so refreshing to hear so many actual (non-808) basslines.

there's nothing as transcendent as "Cranes in the Sky" here and it's generally even more low-key than ASATT but it still sounds very pleasant overall on first listen

― ufo, Friday, March 1, 2019 4:37 AM (five hours ago)

^my first impression too, though I'm already looking forward to getting deeper into it

^ pretty much the same here, upon my drowsy, inebriated first listen late last night. my first reaction was that the production is amazing, it's her best flowing album/set of songs, and excellent performances, but that the songs themselves aren't quite as distinctive as the standouts A Seat at the Table. but it's going to be hard for anyone to top those, even solange

is that really The-Dream singing on "Binz"?

The question: will this be boring in an interesting way (ASATT) or "interesting" in a boring way?

I'd say it's not boring in an uninteresting way

there are lots of cool sounds all over this record (what is that guitar tone on "down with the clique"???), and as has been noted, it flows almost too well. but it feels minor in a way that seat at the table definitely did not, despite its low-keyness.

definitely gonna listen to it again. highlights are "down with the clique," "binz," and the one with gucci, just cause it's fun to hear him try to rap in 6/8

19 songs in under 40 min, it really zips by

xp i'm pretty sure that's a moog on down with the clique. i don't think i hear any guitar on it.

maybe a clavinet in the background in places too. like everyone is saying, this album SOUNDS absolutely amazing

She has such a great + defined sound world over the last two albums. The drum machines + otherwise live-sounding keys and bass, with such a great sense of space.

xp i'm pretty sure that's a moog on down with the clique. i don't think i hear any guitar on it.

― J. Sam, Friday, March 1, 2019 11:46 AM (fifteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i hear that now, i thought it could've been just a very flanged out guitar

shades of franco battiato, see about 50 seconds in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhUdyOnzSmc

also early sun ra moog solos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_IOhhABIos

this album feels like one continuous piece to me

maybe it really is? Are there any breaks between the tracks?

viewing this in the context of her post-seat at the table artistic pursuits i can see where she was going... it feels very much inspired by her foray into installations etc to me. it's much easier to imagine this album being performed in a non-traditional space than a concert venue

i like it the more i listen to it... i think there's enough moments where my ears really perk up that i can accept the album on its own terms from a structural POV. i do hope she loosens up for her next record tho & doesn't get wholly swallowed up by art world pretentiousness

also sonically it's of a thread w a seat at the table... it feels like the other side of the coin, exploring the same themes & sounds but burrowing more inward

so in that sense i sorta dig it too even if there's only like... 2 "songs" i can even really remember

don't touch my snare

There are a lot of 2-in-1 tracks where it switches to a very different thing near the end, which really helps blur the line between the tracks.

i do hope she loosens up for her next record tho & doesn't get wholly swallowed up by art world pretentiousness

Really, this record seems defined by looseness! Who knows how much writing and re-writing it took, but it certainly has the feel of jamming over loops a lot of time. I think shooting for hits & hooks would be the opposite.

I do hope that this is a grower though, in terms of individual songs.

yeah i guess by looser i just mean more limber

This is so groovy!

that's a first!

I think I might prefer this to ASATT.

It's pretty good.

it's much easier to imagine this album being performed in a non-traditional space than a concert venue

or as an album/film:

https://pitchfork.com/news/solange-releasing-new-when-i-get-home-film-tonight/

Might be a grower but my first listen (on a train, admittedly) left not a huge impression other than that the first track was frustrating and irritating. INterested in the film though.