A Seat at the Table

A Seat at the Table
Studio album by Solange
Released	September 30, 2016 (2016-09-30)
Recorded	2013 – June 21, 2016 (2016-06-21) (New Iberia, Louisiana) (2013 – June 21, 2016 (2016-06-21) (New Iberia, Louisiana))
Genre	Funk psychedelic soul neo soul R&B
Length	51:43
Label	Saint Columbia
Producer	Solange (also exec.) Raphael Saadiq (also exec.) Troy R8dio Johnson (assoc.) Raymond Angry Questlove Majical Cloudz Sir Dylan David Longstreth Bryndon Cook Dave Sitek Patrick Wimberly Sampha Kwes Olugbenga Adelekan Adam Bainbridge Sean Nicholas Savage John Kirby Rostam Batmanglij Q-Tip
Solange chronology
True (2012) A Seat at the Table (2016)
Singles from A Seat at the Table
"Cranes in the Sky" Released: October 5, 2016

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	8.5/10
Metacritic	89/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Chicago Tribune
Entertainment Weekly	A
Financial Times
The Guardian
The Independent
NME
The Observer
Pitchfork	8.7/10
Rolling Stone

A Seat at the Table is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Solange. It was released on September 30, 2016, by Saint Records and Columbia Records. While recording the album, Knowles released an EP, titled True (2012) and launched her own record label named Saint Records. Writing for the album began as early as 2008, while the recording sessions took place from 2013 to June 2016. Solange enlisted the variety of collaborators with American rappers Lil Wayne and Q-Tip, and fellow American singer-songwriters The-Dream, BJ the Chicago Kid, Kelly Rowland and Tweet, and musicians Sampha, Kelela and David Longstreth, among others.

The album was widely acclaimed by music critics and became Solange's first number-one album on the Billboard 200 in the United States, debuting with 46,000 copies sold (72,000 with additional album-equivalent units). The album's lead single, "Cranes in the Sky" was released on October 5, 2016, and won the Grammy for Best R&B Performance, becoming Solange's first Grammy nomination and win.

In 2009, in an interview with MTV, Knowles revealed that she was determining the type of sound for the follow-up to Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams. Knowles rented a house in Santa Barbara, California to get into a certain state of mind while writing and making music. In an interview with Vibe on July 7, 2010, Knowles said she suffered "a little bit of a breakdown" while recording her new album: "I literally gave up my sanity for a while to do this record. [...] We literally were waking up in the morning and just making music all day and all night. [...] It just started to wear on me in so many different ways. I started having these crazy panic attacks." Knowles explained how she made sacrifices "mentally, emotionally and financially", and continued, "It's more than an album to me. It's a transitional time in my life." While still working on her third studio album Knowles released an EP titled True, for digital download on iTunes November 27, 2012. On May 14, 2013, Knowles announced that she had launched her own record label named Saint Records, which she will be using to release her third full-length album and future music projects distributed through Sony.

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Wikipedia