It's safe to say that with the slight surprise release of her third album, A Seat at the Table, Solange dominated any musical conversation had over the weekend. The set has been almost universally praised, with many commending its focus on blackness, especially its celebration of Black women. While we've all been listening to the grooves, we couldn't help but imagine what the visual accompaniment to some of our favorite tracks would be. For two tracks, "Cranes In the Sky" and "Don't Touch My Hair, we have to imagine no longer as Solo has dropped a double whammy with visuals for both tracks, both co-directed by the singer and her husband Alan Ferguson.
The clip for "Cranes In the Sky" finds the singer/songwriter luxuriating in glorious simplicity. Though she's joined by several other women throughout the course of the video, it mainly focuses on Solange as she sings the song's melancholy lyrics about trying to outrun a pain that she can't escape. As she sings about drinking, dancing, sexing and shopping it away, we see her in all her regal glory as she models looks both simple and couture in mostly empty spaces, echoing the loneliness of the lyrics. Then the singer eventually emerges, dipped in gold, the shimmery look almost denoting a brand new outlook as she shows off a bit of her vocal range at song's end.
The isolation isn't felt in the video for "Don't Touch My Hair." The song, a study in microaggressions and what they mean to Black people, has resonated with many and Solo delivers visually. It starts with her shaking her braided and beaded hair back and forth. Seconds into the video, however, she's already changed up her look as she (and a group of the clip's male dancers) rocks perfectly laid fingerwaves — and later long wave and straightened tresses — showcasing the versatility not just of Black hair, but Black people in general. Solo also shows how versatile she is, hitting a few counts of choreography both solo and with a crowd of dancers and onlookers. By the way, in case you were wondering, that's song collaborator Sampha that joins her during a few choruses as the two rock flowy, futuristic all-white outfits
Solange continues to prove that she's worthy of her own spotlight and forge a path uniquely her own while exuding #BlackGirlMagic, Black Excellence and Black Pride. Check out both clips right here, and be sure to pick up her A Seat at the Table, which is available now on Amazon, iTunes and Google Play.
