When I Get Home is the fourth studio album by American singer and songwriter Solange, released on March 1, 2019.[2] It is the follow-up to her 2016 album A Seat at the Table and explores Solange's hometown of Houston, Texas.
Solange began working on the album in a rented house in her hometown of Houston, after completing a tour in support of her previous album A Seat at the Table.[3] In an October 2018 interview with T: The New York Times Style Magazine, she revealed that a forthcoming album, recorded between New Orleans, Houston, the Topanga Canyon and Jamaica, was near completion. She said of its sound: "There is a lot of jazz at the core... But with electronic and hip-hopdrum and bass because I want it to bang and make your trunk rattle."[4]
On February 27, 2019, Solange released a teaser video on social media, and shared the album's track listing on February 28.[5] The video references the Houston rapper Mike Jones and his well-known cell phone number.[6] She also set up a page on BlackPlanet, a social networking website aimed at African Americans, and shared teaser images for the album on the site.[7]
AtMetacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, When I Get Home received an average score of 89, based on 25 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[16]
Reviewing the album for AllMusic, Andy Kellman claimed that "From the early moment where Solange makes like a group of harmonizing, sunlit Janet Jacksons, it sounds custom made for a basking joy ride that tops out around 20 m.p.h. and slows just enough to accommodate get-ons and drop-offs for a variable group of companions including a lover. It comes across as both spontaneous and deliberate."[17] Malvika Padin also praised the album in the review for Clash, declaring that "The album is driven by an assured sense of direction, always aware of where it's going, never losing itself even as it experiments."[24] In the review for Consequence of Sound, David Sackllah concluded, "Solange's latest mystifies and stuns, leaving you awestruck as she cements her legacy as a true generational voice."[13]
Israel Daramola at Spin wrote that the album "is expertly crafted, curated, and aesthetically dazzling; choreographed, extremely self-serious and self-absorbed; intellectualized, sonically adventurous, but often feels too rehearsed and neat."[25] Kuba Shand-Baptiste at The Independent stated that it "give[s] voice to the endless frustration of being black in the world, to be punished on that basis, and to support the urge we all often feel to push back against it all". She added that "there are melodies slow enough to sink you into a state of tranquility, and beats hard and strong enough to push you to sway and dance while that happens".[20]
Jem Aswad at Variety wrote that "When I Get Home is a challenging and satisfying follow-up to A Seat at the Table, one that will probably baffle some fans but intrigue and engage even more".[26]Jon ParelesatThe New York Times observed, "The black solidarity that was Solange's strongest message on A Seat at the Table is still there in 'Stay Flo' and in 'Almeda', where she praises 'Black skin, black braids, black waves, black days' and insists, 'These are black-owned things' over rattlesnakedrum-machine accents. But most of the album has her musing on more private, domestic matters and looking inward".[27]
The Observer's Kate Mossman wrote that "Solange has made a record that sounds at times like a collection of demos – fleeting impressions of fluid, contemporary soul songs that fizzle out the moment they're laid down, like a Snapchat album. It's in keeping with the increasingly avant-garde nature of R&B production today, which can be heard in everyone from Frank OceantoAriana Grande: songs feel like sketches; hooks and choruses matter less; and music is conceived, perhaps, with visuals in mind – in the manner of Beyoncé's Lemonade. This kind of music demands a lot of the listener – short songs are harder on the attention span than long ones. It's as though Solange is saying: here is a mood, and here is another… but perhaps, with our increasingly insular listening habits, a 'mood' is exactly what we want our music to be."[28]
In a year-end essay for Slate, Ann Powers cited When I Get Home as proof that the format is not dead but rather undergoing a "metamorphosis", with artists such as Solange utilizing the concept album through the culturally-relevant autobiographical narratives.[29]
Directed and edited by Solange, the creative vision behind the 33-minute film was inspired in part by the devastation of Hurricane Harvey in Houston. Music video director Alan Ferguson, filmmaker Terence Nance, visual artist Jacolby Satterwhite, and video director Ray Tintori contributed to the editing process with additional credit given to Autumn Knight and Robert Pruitt, according to Pitchfork.
"The film is an exploration of origin, asking the question how much of ourselves do we bring with us versus leave behind in our evolution," Solange's representatives said in a statement. "The artist returned to Third Ward Houston to answer this."[47]
The film accompanies all seventeen tracks in one continuous narrative or visual album with various aspects dedicated to Houston's history including its hip-hop scene, for instance, the chopped and screwed remix style and mixtapes of DJ Screw. The 17th track "Sound of Rain" is accompanied by a surreal, game-world animation akin to Second Life that features original artwork by Satterwhite.
Solange premiered the film in nine local venues for members of the Black Houston community including "her mother's old hair salon; Unity National Bank, the only black owned Texas banking institution; and Emancipation Gym, the only public park open to African Americans in the Jim Crow era."[48]
The film was released alongside the album through Apple Music on March 1, 2019.[49] The 41-minute director's cut of the film was released on all platforms on December 12, 2019. The director's cut features new sequences, as well as a previously unreleased track titled "Dreams (Demo 2)".[50] A limited edition DVD of the director's cut was sold on the album's one-year anniversary, among other merchandise items, through her BlackPlanet page.[51][52] On the album's second anniversary, the remastered film began streaming through the Criterion Channel.[53]
When I Get Home debuted at number seven on the US Billboard 200 with 43,000 album-equivalent units (of which 11,000 were pure album sales). It is Solange's third US top 10 album.[54]
contains a sample from "Superstars & Their Moms" used courtesy of Debbie Allen, Dick Clark Productions and Phylicia Rashad.
"Can I Hold the Mic" (interlude)
contains a sample from "BTS Crime Mob Footage" (aka "Diamond and Princess of Crime Mob Uncut!") used courtesy of Diamond and Princess.
"Dreams"
contains a sample from "No" as written and performed by Duval Timothy; used courtesy of Carrying Colour.
"Nothing Without Intention" (interlude)
contains a sample from "Florida Water for Cleansing and Clearing" used courtesy of Goddess Lula Belle.
"We Deal with the Freak'n" (intermission)
contains samples from "Turn Me On" as performed by Rotary Connection, written by Sidney Barnes and Greg Perry; used courtesy of Universal Music Enterprises.
contains samples from "Sperm Power 2" used courtesy of Alexyss K. Tylor.
"Binz"
contains samples from "Didn't Want to Have to Do It" as performed by Rotary Connection, written by John Sebastian; used courtesy of Universal Music Enterprises.
contains samples of "Vagina Power: Halloween Show" used courtesy of Alexyss K. Tylor.
"Beltway"
contains a portion of the composition "I Hope You Really Love Me" written by Charles Simmons, Jr.
"Exit Scott" (interlude)
contains a sample from "Poem to Ann #2" as written and performed by Pat Parker; used courtesy of Sinister Wisdom and The Olivia Companies.
contains a sample from "Where Would I Be Without You" courtesy of Anastasia Dunham-Parker-Brady, Sinister Wisdom and Olivia Records.
contains a sample of the recording "I Hope You Really Love Me" performed by Family Circle, written by Charles Simmons, Jr; used courtesy of The Numero Group.
^Conrad, Anna; Levelsey, David; Johnston, Kathleen; Barrle, Thomas; Pometsey, Olive (2019-12-17). "The albums that made 2019 great again". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2020-01-02.
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