When I Get Home - Solange

When I Get Home is quite possibly the most beautiful and creative album I have ever listened to. Solange uses everything from ambient sounds to spiritual jazz to Gucci Mane in order to craft an elegant ode to her hometown of Houston, Texas.

When I Get Home is unhurried, ambient, and exploratory. I have seen it described as being ‘psychedelic soul’, ‘new-age trap’ and a ‘drowsy funk throwdown’. Solange invokes a soundscape of her hometown with exceptional songcraft and production.

I think Pitchfork Journalist, Anupa Mistry, said it best. “It’s not literal objectification of the past so much as a future memory of the city, an ephemeral mental grid. See-sawing bass booms from phantom slabs, wood-grained and candy-painted (per local tradition). Synthesizers and samples ricochet off the tall, empty office buildings of downtown Houston, reverberating to the heavens. Black cowboys gallop through the dusk—the clip of hooves a drumbeat. Space refuse is treasure. And snatches of vocals from hometown rappers Devin the Dude and Scarface float like murmurs from passing car windows” .

The album also features vocal contributions from several high-profile musicians, including Tyler, the Creator, Beyoncé, Playboi Carti, Gucci Mane, Metro Boomin, Pharrell Williams, Steve Lacy, Earl Sweatshirt, Scarface, Sampha, and Blood Orange, who all offer their own personal flair to the album as a whole. To put it simply, Solange utilized some of the greatest creative minds of today to create this album.

The first time I ever played this album in its entirety, I laid back in my bed and closed my eyes. I let my mind wander and watched the ‘mind movie’ the music created for me. I was so blown away that right after When I Get Home was done, I looked up a pirated version of the equally as stunning and creative accompanying short film, with the same name, and watched it, in its entirety, twice.

The fact that Solange can create such a phenomenal album AND produce a 45 minute movie to go along with it, I think, says enough on its own about the quality of her work and creative process.

If you like Lauren Hill, Erikah Baydu, SZA, Frank Ocean, Summer Walker, or many of the aforementioned artists, you'll love Solange’s When I Get Home.

Although I believe every song is gorgeous, the most accessible tracks are:

Almeda

Stay Flo

Binz