When Solange's critically-acclaimed A Seat at the Table (2016) was released last year, I paid more attention to the explicit social commentary that Solange was making with respect to how African Americans were being treated in the United States. "Cranes in the Sky", which earned Solange her first Grammy (for Best R&B Performance) this year did not fit as neatly into the interpretation of her work as a form of 'sonically peaceful' protest (even if the music video certainly did).
I had initially mistook the song's title to refer to the bird and not the construction machine, making it harder to make sense of its lyrics. Solange has explained the conception and inspiration for the song in great detail, on Song Exploder and in an interview with her own sister Beyonce:
"Cranes in the Sky" is actually a song that I wrote eight years ago. It's the only song on the album that I wrote independently of the record, and it was a really rough time. I know you remember that time. I was just coming out of my relationship with Julez's father. We were junior high school sweethearts, and so much of your identity in junior high is built on who you're with. You see the world through the lens of how you identify and have been identified at that time. So I really had to take a look at myself, outside of being a mother and a wife, and internalize all of these emotions that I had been feeling through that transition. I was working through a lot of challenges at every angle of my life, and a lot of self-doubt, a lot of pity-partying. And I think every woman in her twenties has been there—where it feels like no matter what you are doing to fight through the thing that is holding you back, nothing can fill that void. I used to write and record a lot in Miami during that time, when there was a real estate boom in America, and developers were developing all of this new property. There was a new condo going up every ten feet. You recorded a lot there as well, and I think we experienced Miami as a place of refuge and peace. We weren't out there wilin' out and partying. I remember looking up and seeing all of these cranes in the sky. They were so heavy and such an eyesore, and not what I identified with peace and refuge. I remember thinking of it as an analogy for my transition—this idea of building up, up, up that was going on in our country at the time, all of this excessive building, and not really dealing with what was in front of us. And we all know how that ended. That crashed and burned. It was a catastrophe. And that line came to me because it felt so indicative of what was going on in my life as well. And, eight years later, it's really interesting that now, here we are again, not seeing what's happening in our country, not wanting to put into perspective all of these ugly things that are staring us in the face.
Solange, Interview Magazine
Solange's gentle harmonies and Raphael Saadiq's warm bassline and airy strings sonically create the transcendent euphoria that Solange yearns for (one much-needed in the challenging economic and political climate), as she engages in a variety of coping mechanisms to deal with the void in her soul: sleep, sex, partying, drinking, self-reinvention through style and fashion, shopping, work, reading, moving around, and attempting to leave her lover. And yet, the literal symbols of gentrification and relentless construction remain as eyesores in her line of vision, representing the difficulties faced in her quest for healing and effective self-care:
'Well it's like cranes in the skySometimes I don't wanna feel those metal cloudsYeah, it's like cranes in the skySometimes I don't wanna feel those metal clouds'
Lyrics: Genius
It seems fitting that the song had been 8 years in the making - genuine catharsis might, after all, take a long time to achieve.
