A Seat at the Table Review

The discipline is astonishing. Every arrangement is stripped to a few elements, an electric piano, a bass, a horn line, and vocals doubled into soft harmony, so that when a lyric lands there is nothing between it and you. Cranes in the Sky is the best song of her career, a list of everything she tried in order to avoid a feeling, each verb landing like a small defeat. Don't Touch My Hair states a boundary so plainly that argument becomes impossible.

Mad, with Lil Wayne, is about being permitted to be angry and takes its time. F.U.B.U. is unambiguous and unbothered by who might overhear. The interludes, mostly her parents and Master P speaking, are the connective tissue and among the best used spoken passages on any record. Raphael Saadiq's bass playing anchors the whole thing. It is beautiful, quiet, furious, and it works equally well as a document and as an hour of music.