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CRITIC REVIEWS
100
It’s a bold statement on what it means to be a proud and yet sometimes anguished black woman in 2016, and it’s also her most individuated work to date. Solange gets political by also making Seat stunningly personal and poetic.
100
Their restrained ornamentation and moderate tempos are perfectly suited for Knowles, an undervalued vocalist who never aims to bring the house down yet fills each note with purposeful emotion.
100
There’s a weariness to Solange’s album, a realization that the Black identity, stripped of its dimensionality and packaged for mainstream entertainment, has left us all looking like bad dudes to some degree in the eyes of others.
92
Musically, it is a lesson on how to slay, using intimate, achingly poetic groove laden candlelight funk. But thematically, ASATT is a celebration of black culture and a comforting embrace to those frustrated by the outside perception, appropriation and misunderstanding of blackness and black history.
91
A Seat at the Table shines due to Knowles’ unwavering commitment to her own complexity, both musically and personally. You won’t pin her down on the first, second, or third listen, but each listen will give you a better understanding as to why you never will.
90
A Seat demands a careful listen, and rewards it richly. This is Solange's strongest album to date.
90
A Seat At The Table – like the headlines of 2016 - is the score of black pain, black rage, black strength and black joy. And for everyone else enjoying the enticing R&B, it's for the rest of us to quiet ourselves, listen, learn and respect.
90
It’s brilliant. I can’t emphasise that enough. It’s surprising and clever and current. But its real genius resides in Solange’s radical political voice — she veils her anger in a soft, soulful sound that even her detractors will find hard to ignore.
90
It’s a record that articulately and passionately celebrates what it means to be black in America, but never runs the risk of becoming a divisive polemic, while also containing some impossibly slinky RnB.
90
If Chance The Rapper is singlehandedly carrying the torch for Black Boy Joy, it’s only right we place Solange alongside him because she is Black Girl Magic personified, especially through her newest endeavor.
90
A Seat at the Table is intensely rich and gracious in its candor, so much so that it’s quieter, painstakingly personal moments are every bit as robust as direct aggression.
90
The subdued nature of the songs means that they take a few listens to hit home, but once they do, it’s obvious that this stunning and vital record is one of the year’s best.
90
On A Seat at the Table, Solange with an expansive mix of features and co-producers, continues a legacy of Black cultural production that is not just self-referentially critical, but peaks in spiritual and emotional transcendence.
87
Even though it’s been out less than a week, it already seems like a document of historical significance, not just for its formidable musical achievements but for the way it encapsulates black cultural and social history with such richness, generosity, and truth.
80
Its delicate anger and the measured way it unpacks a host of issues means you want to give it the time it deserves rather than demanding it reveal itself immediately. There’s a unique brilliance to that.
80
Where ‘A Seat…’ excels most is in the contrast that runs through select moments. It’s both extremely personal to Solange’s experiences, and specific in its examination of black lives, but it exudes a universality that doesn’t exclude or discriminate.
80
In a volatile world increasingly defined by the brash and the crude, Solange's packaging of brutal honesty in tender, harmony-rich murmurs is both beautiful and radical.
80
These are complicated topics to address on record, but ‘A Seat At The Table’ succeeds because it’s musically soothing even when her lyrics are challenging.
80
‘A Seat At The Table’ is an expertly-curated, a near-perfect record that serves as a timely, musical manifesto on how to be black and proud.
80
Daunting and at times exhausting, A Seat at the Table is still an undeniably important work.
80
Overall, the sound of this album is not dissimilar to Solange’s previous offerings ... The difference here though, is that there’s much more substance behind her signature harmonies. Solange has imbued this album with a narrative steeped in the experience of blackness in America as well as an engaging, deeply personal insight into her own identity.
80
Solange doesn't disappoint on this elegant set of neo-soul track that mix the personal with the political.
80
It’s safe to say that though big sis Beyoncé has run her close recently, she’s once more the most intriguing Knowles sibling.
75
Here she evades definition entirely, bolted steadfast to the burden of the past, but stubbornly careening toward the future, life through death. Solange is R&B as hell.
60
Save for the chunky “Don’t You Wait”, there’s little punch or pop charm to the album, which boasts a surfeit of luscious textures and feisty attitudes, but a shortfall of killer melodies.
“…it really saddens me when we're not allowed to express that pride in being black, and that if you do, then it's considered anti-white. No! You just pro-black. And that's okay.”
This album is fucking magnificent. On A Seat at the Table, Solange relishes in her black roots, which, being half-black, sticks with me very well. It sails lightly despite packing a powerful punch, and even its cover lets you know that “we will be having these conversations”. It’s ... read more
This album is fucking magnificent. On A Seat at the Table, Solange relishes in her black roots, which, being half-black, sticks with me very well. It sails lightly despite packing a powerful punch, and even its cover lets you know that “we will be having these conversations”. It’s ... read more
I really like Solange's laid-back trap R&B style, and her voice is very soothing. But it's always the same problem on both of the albums by her that I listened to. Some of the songs have or a pretty bad beat or are just boring. But it's still an overall great album.
Favorites: Rise, Weary, Mad, Don't Touch My Hair, Where Do You Go, F.U.B.U, Borderline, Junie, Scales
Favorites: Rise, Weary, Mad, Don't Touch My Hair, Where Do You Go, F.U.B.U, Borderline, Junie, Scales
It's stupid to say that this is just music, I mean, there's so much culture, discussion and strenght in this album, like it can trascend the state of being just art and become a source for identity and history. However, if it comes down to purely what reaches the ear, Solange's A Seat at the Table finds her in a position of self-empowerment, universal access and thought-provoking lyrics. The interludes give cohesion and guide you through it all, they give you words worth on checking them out, ... read more
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Track List
- Rise
- Weary
- Interlude: The Glory Is In You
- Cranes In The Sky
- Interlude: Dad Was Mad
- Mad [ft. Lil Wayne]
- Don't You Wait
- Interlude: Tina Taught Me
- Don't Touch My Hair [ft. Sampha]
- Interlude: This Moment
- Where Do We Go
- Interlude: For Us By Us
- F.U.B.U. [ft. The-Dream & BJ The Chicago Kid]
- Borderline (An Ode To Self Care) [ft. Q-Tip]
- Interlude: I Got So Much Magic, You Can Have It [ft. Kelly Rowland & Nia Andrews]
- Junie
- Interlude: No Limits
- Don't Wish Me Well
- Interlude: Pedestals
- Scales [ft. Kelela]
- Closing: The Chosen Ones
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Added on: September 27, 2016