This is part of Creative Loafing Tampa's new issue, The Year In Music. See and listen to the rest of our top albums here.
Solange, A Seat At The Table (Columbia) In a year when her sister Beyonce dominated headlines thanks to a blockbuster tour and nine Grammy noms, Solange Knowles can say that she’s standing a little taller on the album front. The 30-year-old might even win a Grammy of her own (“Cranes In The Sky” from A Seat At the Table is nominated for Best R&B Performance), but she should be most proud of her third solo LP, which she released in June. The 21-track effort rounds up an eclectic cast of collaborators (Raphael Saadiq, André 3000, ?uestlove and Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmanglij all appear in the credits) to help her piece together one of the most personal and politically charged records of the year. There isn’t anything very novel about the statements Solange and her collaborators are making on A Seat, but the arrangements sound like a reinvention of soul music. The world is changing, and if Solange is in the driver’s seat, then we’re happy to be along for the ride. —Ray Roa
**We reviewed it twice…
In an annual music cycle dominated by Beyonce's Lemonade, the pop mega-star's little sister made an understated yet incredibly satisfying statement with A Seat at the Table. While Beyonce filtered the black experience through a specific incident, Solange aimed to create a more comprehensive picture, recruiting friends to speak directly to the listener while always preserving her own voice on the record. Accompanied by a pair of beautiful music videos brimming with unique symbolic imagery, the singer illustrates how oppression comes as much from subtly aggressive daily interactions as it does from the myriad recent incidents of police brutality. Through it all, she refuses to let anger get in her way ("Mad"), yet emphatically works to reclaim the black accomplishments that have been too easily forgotten ("F.U.B.U."). Solange called this album a "punk record" in an interview with W Magazine, but it transcends the genre's easily unhinged fury, harnessing its energy to create a piece more akin to a symphony of productive, peaceful protest.— Riley Huff
This article appears in Dec 22-29, 2016.