A Seat at the Table by Solange

Untrue

Burial

Gritty but still gentle, an instant touchstone of UK electronic music.

Released in 2007, Untrue immediately became a touchstone of UK electronic music, aided by the mystique surrounding Burial’s anonymity (to this day, William Emmanuel Bevan rarely grants interviews). The album is gritty without being abrasive, with house-like vocals that lend a gentleness to the thundering, muddy bass. The album’s second track, “Archangel,” is perhaps one of the most recognizable songs in electronic music, with its pitched-down soprano sample consisting of the lines “Holding you/Couldn’t be alone/Couldn’t be alone/Couldn’t be alone.” (Bevan apparently wrote and produced the song in 20 minutes, following the death of his dog.)

On much of Untrue, Bevan sounds like he’s attempting to triangulate the sound of isolation after dark. He wrote and produced the record nocturnally, insisting on getting to work long after the sun went down. Tracks like “In McDonalds” and “Homeless” are indicative of that approach: They evoke something quietly desperate, both in their titles and their spare compositions; the result is electronic music that’s deeply human and affecting.

A Seat at the Table

Solange

Museum-worthy art that heals, homing in on the Black female experience—especially her own.

“Fall in your ways so you can wake up and rise,” Solange sings in the intro track of her third album. The line encapsulates the journey of the then 30-year-old artist—formerly known as Beyoncé Knowles’ little sister—emerging from an eight-year hiatus from music and recognized as a bona fide visionary in her own right.

“Look at the control that she has, the power in the nuance, in the quiet. That’s just as powerful as loud horns and belting.”

Lizzo

On cuts like “F.U.B.U.,” Solange centers Black empowerment; on “Don’t Wish Me Well,” she pores over personal growing pains and what is left behind. Eight interludes weave her stories together, featuring narration from her parents, Mathew and Tina Knowles, as well as Master P. Other collaborators include Lil Wayne, Sampha, The-Dream, and Raphael Saadiq, who initially sent Solange the instrumental for what would become “Cranes in the Sky” and went on to produce eight of the album’s tracks. The 21-song set is museum-worthy art that heals, homing in on the Black female experience, inextricable from Solange’s own struggles and triumphs.

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Untrue

A Seat at the Table