Solange's Cranes In The Sky was my favourite single of 2016, so it's fascinating to find out how it was created.
That's exactly what you get in the latest episode of Hrishikesh Hirway's Song Exploder: A podcast where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made. Solange explains how the basic track was first recorded in 2012 - but, by the time she'd finished the lyrics and melody, the original computer files had been lost. She also delves into the mental struggles depicted in the song... and you get to hear some of those gorgeous, honey-brushed vocals in isolation.
Listen below - and subscribe to Song Exploder via songexploder.net.
Better late than never, here are my top 10 albums of the year just passed. As always, the rankings are based on my iTunes play counts - so these are the records I actually listened to, not the ones I appreciated on an intellectual level (nb: I don't have an intellectual level).
So, without further ado...
10) Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool
Depending on your point of view, Radiohead either rediscovered the joy of melody on this, their ninth album, or simply released half a dozen forgotten songs from "when they were good". Who cares, though, when the results were this magical? Boosted by Jonny Greenwood's cinematic string arrangements, the album feels epic and intimate at the same time, from the low flying panic attack of Burn The Witch to the grieving melancholy of True Love Waits - a track written as a love letter almost 20 years ago, only to be released as Thom Yorke's relationship fell apart.
9) Tove Lo - Lady Wood
Tove Lo is the pop equivalent of Just 17's sex column. "Look at this smut," she says, patting herself firmly on the back. "Isn't it outrageous?"
That attitude is writ large throughout Lady Wood, from the title (fun fact: it's a euphemism for a clitoral erection) to the vagina in the logo. Meanwhile, Tove effs and jeffs her way through the album like a teenager trying to shock her parents, but her heart is in the right place. The confessional tales of lust, loss and desperation are relatable and cathartic - and she anchors everything in a dark, minimalist house production.
She may call herself a True Disaster, but this is a blemished pop gem.
8) Clare Maguire - Stranger Things Have Happened
Clare Maguire has been through the wringer and no mistake. Dropped by her label, she was drinking litres of vodka every day until a doctor gave her two weeks to live. Miraculously (and with a lot of hard work) she turned her life around and produced this spell-binding album of classic, piano-led pop.
She's at her best when she peers into the abyss - Channelling Nina Simone on the autobiographical opening track, Faded; and delivering the best lonely hearts advert of all time on Whenever You Want It: "I just wanna have someone who laughs at my shit jokes."
Don't we all, Clare? Don't we all?
7) Michael Kiwanuka - Love and Hate
Resolutely old-school, Michael Kiwanuka's second album riffs on Marvin, Isaac and Curtis but never descends into pastiche. It finds him world-weary and melancholy, after a crisis of confidence almost persuaded him to abandon music altogether. "But when you have all or nothing to lose, you just become fearless," he told Nothing But Hope And Passion.
The result is breath-taking: A psych-soul opus backed by opulent strings and a full choir. The opening track unfolds over 10 minutes, while the bluesy Black Man In A White starts like a plantation song before picking up a funky shuffle that never quite settles into a groove - a musical metaphor for Kiwanuka's sense of unease. It took a lot of people by surprise, in the best possible way.
6) Christine & The Queens - Chaleur Humaine
I came to this far too late but that was my own stupid fault. Chaleur Humaine is classy, delicate synthpop that embraces mystery and androgyny like nothing else on this list. Lots of mainstream artists get labelled "outsider pop" but Héloïse Letissier is the real deal.
Of course, I wasn't the only person to overlook it: In her native France, Héloïse released the album in 2014, winning a cupboard full of awards and receiving endorsements from Madonna and Elton John. That it took her to re-record some of the lyrics in English merely illustrates, in the year of Brexit, how closeted and unadventurous the UK can be, even in the resolutely liberal world of pop.
5) Nao - For All We Know
In a year we lost Prince, Nao made the best Prince album this side of Musicology. For All We Know is a lurching, off-kilter, pop-funk extravaganza, where the South Londoner autopsies love (requited and otherwise) in her gorgeous, high-pitched voice. A thoroughly impressive debut.
4) Shura - Nothing's Real
Imagine if Madonna ever experienced doubt or insecurity. That's Shura's debut album. Named in honour of a panic attack that altered her perception of reality, it follows an introverted wallflower as she navigates her way through crushes, infatuations and break-ups ("thought we'd get married and have kids and stuff," she sings of one particularly devastating break-up).
Where she doesn't lack confidence, though, is in the music. What's It Gonna Be, all staccato guitars and shimmering synths, it sounds like the theme to a 1980s teen film without succumbing to pastiche. Even better is the extended, bravura coda of White Light - the disco equivalent of 2001: A Space Odyssey's Star Gate sequence.
3) Regina Spektor - Remember Us To Life
Back after a baby-having hiatus, Regina Spektor is on fine form. Her character studies and lyrical insights are sharper than ever ("All the lies on your resumé have become the truth by now," she sings on Older and Taller), while the sombre tone smooths out her quirkier tics. Not coincidentally, this is the first time she's written a record from scratch).
The stand-outs are many: The Grand Hotel is a baroque ballad that reimagines Wes Anderson's Grand Budapest as a portal to hell; while The Trapper and The Furrier is a scathing polemic about the greed of bankers and pharmaceutical companies that starts a capella and ends with an unrestrained scream. Best of all is Sellers of Flowers - a deep blue ink blot, lamenting the fragility of memory.
An absolute treat.
2) Solange - A Seat At The Table
On which Beyonce's little sister comes into her own. Recorded in New Iberia, Louisiana, where her grandparents were fire-bombed out of their house fifty years ago, it is informed by the dehumanising acts, large and small, black people face on a daily basis. That doesn't mean it's an angry album, although anger certainly rears it's head. Rather, Solange presents a poised, nuanced portrait of the pains and joys of black womanhood.
Musically, she's found her footing, too. Gone is the lightweight R&B of her debut album, in favour of deep, dreamy R&B grooves. You'll recognise the spirits of Minnie Riperton, Marvin Gaye, Aaliyah, Janet Jackson, Herbie Hancock and Isaac Hayes dropping by to pay their respects - but this is Solange's album, through and through.
1) Beyoncé - Lemonade
Remember when everyone thought Lemonade was a record about Jay-Z cheating on Beyoncé? Turns out "Becky with the good hair" is the biggest Trojan horse since, well, that horse in Troy.
Beyoncé's tale of betrayal masked a much bigger discourse on male privilege, white privilege, police violence, female empowerment, rejection, forgiveness, anger, scorn, pain, redemption... The list goes on.
The signs were there when she turned up at the Super Bowl dressed as a Black Panther and made a video in which she sat on top of a police car as it sank into post-Katrina floodwaters. Those are pretty bold statements, especially for an artist of Beyoncé's stature. Can you imagine Elvis or Michael Jackson putting their necks on the line so boldly. No, you cannot.
But here's the thing - the message goes nowhere without fantastic tunes. Luckily, Beyoncé delivered them by the truckful. Hold Up, Sorry, All Night, Freedom, Formation - Beyoncé could have sung, "Yes my name is Iggle Piggle" over those tracks and they'd still be classics. (Note to Beyoncé: Please release this record in 2017).
So there you go... I'm gutted there wasn't space for Chance The Rapper or Childish Gambino, both of whom signposted a way out of rap's current cul-de-sac, or for A Tribe Called Quest's comeback, which did the same thing by sounding exactly like a Tribe Called Quest album from 20 years ago. I thought Ariana Grande might get a look-in, but the album squandered it's promise with a bunch of cookie cutter dance bops that had the filthy hands of major label A&R all over them.
Bat For Lashes' excellent The Bride (about a bride whose fiancé is killed on the way to their wedding) would have had a place if it wasn't so depressing to listen to, in a good way. And Frank Ocean's Blonde loses out for that godawful Facebook interlude. What a crock.
Anyway, let's not end on a sour note. Here's a playlist of the best tracks from those Top 10 albums. If you find something you like, why not buy it and single-handedly save the music industry?
I'm emerging from blog hibernation to post my annual Top 10 list. Hopefully this will prompt a bit more posting in the new year... Fingers crossed.
As usual, my Top 10 is compiled using the play counts in my iTunes library, keeping me honest about the songs I actually listened to, rather than the ones that sound cool. So here they are, in reverse order...
10) Muna - I Know A Place
Brand new girlband Muna put on one of the best shows I saw this year, deep underground in London's Notting Hill - and this was the highlight: A great big exuberant hug for the LGBTQ community (lead singer Katie Gavin wrote a moving essay about the lyrics in Time Magazine, which is well worth a read).
Played live, it's one of those coming together moments, where the whole club - from the cloakroom to the drum riser - jumps up and down in unison. The recorded version loses some of that energy, but emerges as a terrific singalong, nonetheless.
9) Zara Larsson - Lush Life
When I first heard Lush Life, I thought it was Rihanna. But apparently she only does life-affirming pop songs for Calvin Harris these days, leaving an open goal of Zara Larsson to score one of the year's biggest breakthrough hits. Looking forward to the album next year...
8) Shura - What's It Gonna Be?
This would have made it into the Top 10 for the John Hughes-inspired video alone. But luckily What's It Going To Be is also a perfect happysad pop banger in its own right, so everybody wins.
7) Ariana Grande - Into You
I wished Ariana Grande's Dangerous Woman album had been a little bit more... well, dangerous. Imagine if she'd fully committed to the promise of the title track, recording a dozen dusky showtunes, draped over a piano like Michelle Pfieffer in The Fabulous Baker Brothers. It could have been a classic. But then we'd never have gotten this - a sexy, synthy prelude to an historic romp under the sheets.
For once, old cat ears sounded like she just might start purring.
6) Selena Gomez - Hands To Myself
"I mean I could, but why would I want to." It's the sort of line Lauren Bacall would have said to Humphrey Bogart in the 1940s, but in a pop song. Amazing.
5) Drake ft Kyla and WizKid - One Dance
Confession time: I can't stand Drake. His drowsy, monotonous voice is my own personal chloroform. And yet... and yet... One Dance is just so deliciously moreish.
Maybe it's Kyla's coy, come-hither hook; maybe it's that outer space piano; or maybe it's the sinewy, arabesque guitar line. But it gets me every time.
4) Grimes - Kill v Maim
According to Grimes, "Kill v Maim is written from the perspective of Al Pacino in The Godfather Pt II. Except he’s a vampire who can switch gender and travel through space."
Amazingly, it comes close to matching that description; while the visuals look like a Manga cartoon and a sweet shop threw up over Michael Jackson's Bad video. A signpost for the future of pop. In 2187.
3) Christine & The Queens - Tilted
A dance track about being so awkward, your feet won't do what you tell them. A work of genius in both the English and original French versions.
2) Justin Timberlake - Can't Stop The Feeling
Total fluff. A flimsy song for a flimsy film. But put Justin Timberlake in the same room as Max Martin and you're guaranteed some pop magic. Listen to the playful way JT elongates the word "aaaaaaand" in the chorus; Or the casual way they throw in a gargantuan sing-along hook in the last 20 seconds, forcing you to rewind and start again, just to get more of that exquisite sugar rush.
1) Solange - Cranes In The Sky
My favourite single of 2016 was, in fact, written in a hotel room in 2008. An essay on depression and escapism, it was kept in a drawer for eight years, until Solange dusted it off and used it as a template for A Seat At The Table. Like the rest of the album, it's an elegant, dignified response to harrowing experiences, and a truly exceptional song.
I couldn't resist it - and nor could my kids (which might explain the higher-than-expected placing in this countdown, to be fair).
It was a good year for singles. So, if you're interested, the next 10 would have been:
I have four tabs open on my browser, three of which contain a sophisticated, innovative slice of futuristic soul. The other one has a new song by Prince. They're all worth a listen...
1) Solange Knowles - Cash In
A slinky, soaring love song, this is Solange's first new material since last year's groundbreaking True EP. It takes a while to get going, but when the harmonies kick in at the 2-minute mark, all the hairs on the back of your neck will go "ping".
Cash In is the last track on Saint Heron, the alt-R&B compilation Solange has curated for Saint records. For some reason, it's not available on iTunes or Amazon in the UK - but you can download it from Fairshare Music, which gives all of its profits to charity, so you can feel good about spending your £7.99 even if the rest of the album is rubbish (NB: it isn't).
2) Mapei - Don't Wait
Stockholm's Mapei mixes Djembe drums with sitars and doo-wop finger clicks on this propulsive love song ("if it wasn't for you, I would be on my own"). For the first three minutes her voice is fed through a vocoder (sounding very much like Imogen Heap's Hide And Seek) and then, suddenly, she breaks into a Double Dutch skipping chant.
On paper, it shouldn't work. In your ears, it sounds incredible.
3) Neneh Cheery - Blank Project
After 16 years away, Neneh Cherry is readying a new solo album for next year. One track features Robyn - but sadly we can't hear that yet. Instead, this is the title track. Produced by FourTet, you're in for some simmering electrojazz and a chorus that seems really slight, then sticks in your head for the rest of the day.
4) Prince - Da Bourgeosie
Prince isn't kicking the ball as far forward as the other artists on this post - but this is a fantastically funky old-skool studio jam, nonetheless. Reminiscent of goofy, spontaneous Vault tracks like Cloreen Bacon Skin and Movie Star, Prince seems to be making it up as he goes along - riffing a lyric that about a "bearded girl at the 'caba-ray charles'" over a delicious Paisley guitar riff.
"No mammals were harmed during the recording of this track," noted Prince on his 3rdEyeGirl Twitter account, shortly after giving the song away as a free download. What a nice chap.
Solange's beautiful True EP is nearly 10 months old, which is a perfect excuse to revisit it's seven tracks of sultry, sexy soul.
To get you in the mood, Ms Knowles has released a video for the standout* track Lovers In The Parking Lot, in which she dances around an abandoned video arcade in an array of fashions previously worn by the audience for Going Live with Philip Schofield and Sarah Green.
Remember at the turn of the millennium years ago when R&B was the dominant genre on the radio? Back in the days of Destinty's Child and Usher and Aaliyah - when every pop star worth their salt went to the Neptunes for a crossover track, and even Sisqo was taken seriously. It was a time of wild invention: From Beyonce speed-singing on Bills, Bills, Bills to Aaliyah sampling a baby gurgling on Are You That Sombody.
When it fell apart, it fell apart bad. From about 2003, Missy Elliot and Eminem started expressing a fascination with British club drug Ecstasy (it makes you dance, it makes you fall in love, it makes you have panic attacks - yay drugs!). But, aside from Missy's 4 My People, they never experimented with house music which, at that time, was still a minority interest in the US, popular in the urban gay scene but ignored elsewhere.
Will.i.am changed all that - teaming up with David Guetta for I Gotta Feeling and opening a floodgate of crap that swept up Rihanna and Ne-Yo and Nicki Minaj and pretty much everyone else making chart-orientated R&B. And that's how it's been for the last four or five years, unless you were Alicia Keys and her magic piano.
But something changed at the end of 2012, when Frank Ocean looked down his kaleidoscope and pronounced "I have been listening to Marvin Gaye and I wish to become him, only more conflicted about my relationships". Then Solange popped her head round the door and said, "Is that so? Well, I'm going to put out an EP of rump-shaking R&B that's so devastatingly great my sister will scrap an entire year's worth of recordings and look like a twit."
And so they did. And each of their albums had monochromatic sleeves, which was probably a coincidence but you never know.
As a result, R&B got a massive kick up the bumparts. Now everyone is making seedy, soulful grooves with unsettling bass notes and fantastic tunes. Even the new Jason Derulo song isn't 100% hateful, despite being called Talk Dirty. But the latest singles from Drake (Hold On We're Going Home) and up-and-coming LA singer Banks (Waiting Game) are even better. Check out all three of them below.
So welcome back, R&B. We missed you a lot.
Now, if someone could just make the 21st Century End Of The Road, that'd be perfect.
1) Solange Knowles has a new single called Looks Good. 2) It features Kendrick "not that Lemar" Lamarr. 3) I am in Cannes, on a dodgy 3G connection. 4) But it's bound to be amazing, right? 5) RIGHT?!
PS Solange has done a cover story with Complex magazine, where she says lots of really meaningful things like: "the idea of convention versus non-convention or mainstream versus indie or any of those quote-unquote ‘conflicts’ has never crossed my mind." You can read it here.
A semi-regular round-up of songs I haven't had time to blog about during the week, which is by no means a comment on the relative merits of those songs, although it sort of is when you think about it, isn't it?
I had to wade through 23 Bond films to compile this ridiculous / brilliant / ridiculously brilliant infographic for the BBC News website last month. So I completely sympathise with the utter madness that went into this five-minute mash-up of Bond music from the past 50 years. Best bit: Mixing between the all-time best and all-time worst Bond themes at 2'45".
A selection of headlines about this video:
"The xx go underwater". [Spin]
"The xx hit murky waters" [Consequence Of Sound]
"The xx get wet" [What's Hot]
In other words, you don't need GCSE art studies to fathom (ha!) the basic visual motif.
Over the years, Ciara has been blown about like a wasp in a musical sandstorm. When she's good, she's the master of utterly filthy slow-jams (Ride, Goodies, Love Sex Magic). When she's bad, she makes utterly filthy slow-jams with all the erotic charge of a weetabix (Like A Surgeon, with the inexplicable lyric 'my love's like anasthesia').
Luckily, her new single is in the former category - and it comes with some top-notch choreography-in-a-desert. Watch her kicking up the sand below.
After The Staves, Haim are my next favourite sibling vocal harmony trio of the year.
Their music is an indescribable mix of R&B and folk, with an unexpected Max Martin twist. "I know the dance routine to every Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys song," eldest sister Este Haim told the BBC a couple of weeks ago.
So perhaps it's not too strange that their next single is being released by uber-hip boutique pop label Neon Gold (which launched Marina, Ellie and Gotye in the States). The label announced their new single in a tiresomely breathless blog post this week, describing it as "a breathtaking sunny-side-up megajam pooled from our '80s fever dreams, all morning glory hooks and syncopated goodness."
Didn't I blog about Solange's excellent new single already? No? That's weird. I really thought I had.
Ah well, Losing You fully deserves your attention. It's a beautifully lachrymose ballad, fastened to a scrappy hip-hop loop that sounds like the future of R&B. The video, directed by Melina Matsoukas, features the dapper Congolese gentlemen known as Les Sapeurs.
But I don't feel guilty for waiting so long to discuss the song, because it means I get to post this delicious remix by Cyril Hahn, which drops the vocals down two octaves and gives the song a deep house makeover. It'll be on repeat all weekend at Discopop Towers.
And that's it for this week.... I'm off to celebrate my birthday for a couple of days, after which I've been seconded to the BBC's six o'clock news bulletin for a month. If the blog posts dry up slightly during November, I apologise in advance.
Solange is notable for two things. First, she has a name that almost rhymes with "orange". Second, she's got remarkably weird taste in music for someone raised in the same household as Beyoncé.
A couple of years ago, she turned in an amazing cover of Dirty Projector's deliberately obtuse Stillness Is The Move. Now, she's written a melody over the top of Left Side Drive, by minimalist Scottish experimentalists Boards Of Canada. Wistful and forlorn, it is a thing of exquisite beauty.
She introduced the song on Twitter, saying: "Wrote this over the amazing, Boards of Canada 'Left side drive' a couple of years ago. It’s completely unofficial, and was just inspired by the song which i have had a deep love affair with for years. I am a huge Boards of Canada fan, and got the chance to work with them on Sol-Angel on 'This Bird'. Still feel honored to this day." – Solange
You can read this two ways: On one hand, it's deliberately sabotaging Beyoncé - whose attempt to layer a melody over Major Lazer's Pon De Replay has left fans dumbstruck (although I personally think it's superb). On the other, Solange is curating her sister's tastes in alternative music... with results like Run The World (Girls).
Either way, the result is this song - which I am positive you'll love.
Hey, has anyone heard of this cool new band from Brooklyn called Dirty Projectors? They make weird fluttery art-rock then genetically splice it with dreamy R&B melodies, to create a mutant musical hybrid that will MAKE YOUR BRAIN MELT LIKE AN ICE CREAM ON A CAR BONNET IN KAZAKHSTAN (but why would you leave your ice cream there? Why?!)
But wait... What's that you say? They've released five albums already? And their latest, Bitte Orca, is at the top of most critics lists for 2009? Oh, poo. I am rubbish at being trendy and ahead of the times.
Someone who is ahead of the curve, however, is Solange "don't call me Beyoncé's sister" Knowles. Despite parting ways with Interscope (ie being dropped) earlier this year, she's gone into the studio to record her own version of Dirty Projectors' supernaturally good single Stillness Is The Move.
Neither version should work. The melody is slippery, drifting in and out of focus next to a flickering guitar line. Conventional harmonies are completely discarded - but the exotic siren song that replaces them is dreamily beguiling. Slowly, the disparate elements crystallise into a delicate, shimmering snowflake of a song. It's beautiful, but you if you get too close, you're likely to destroy it.
Solange's version keeps the mystery of the original, but beefs up the Princely R&B elements, sampling Bumpy's Lament by Soul Mann & the Brothers, which was sampled by Dr. Dre on XXplosive and Erykah Badu on Bag Lady (it says here).
I still can't decide which I like best. What do you reckon?
Pressed for time today, but here's a little clip of Solange Knowles covering Bjork's cover of Betty Hutton's It's Oh So Quiet. Changing up the arrangment somewhat, Beyoncé's little sis performs the song as a waltz!! Amazing scenes.
Beyoncé's little sis Solange, like so many pop siblings (Dannii Minogue, Daniel Bedingfield, the other Jonas Brother) is the victim of a huge cosmic joke, whereby she is given 80% of her sister's talent, looks and charisma, and then expected to try to live up to the reputation of her surname.
Her s last single, I Decided, stalled at an embarassing number 27 despite a terrific remix from The Freemasons. Her new one, Sandcastle Disco, isn't going to do any better.
Everything about it is almost brilliant. The FX-laden primary colour video is charming; the Motown-inspired beat is groovesome; the vocals shimmer like water playing on the mediterranean sea. But, ultimately, the melody is so flimsy it evaporates like an ice cube in a heatwave.
Luckily, we have found one use for the would-be soul diva - and it's a guaranteed way to make a living if you're an underperforming sibling (just ask LeToya Jackson) - The "naughty little sister" interview.
What kind of drunk are you? I am a Miss-Tina’s-in-the-back-of-my-head kind of drunk.
You mean, your mom. What is she saying? "Girl, you better have some panties on!" My mom’s so reserved — last year, for my 21st birthday, she was like, "You can have one glass of champagne, and that’s it." I said, "First of all, I haven’t lived last with you since I was 17. Second, I’m divorced. And third, I have a kid. I am drinking tonight."
Hey, has anyone heard of this cool new band from Brooklyn called Dirty Projectors? They make weird fluttery art-rock then genetically splice it with dreamy R&B melodies, to create a mutant musical hybrid that will MAKE YOUR BRAIN MELT LIKE AN ICE CREAM ON A CAR BONNET IN KAZAKHSTAN (but why would you leave your ice cream there? Why?!)
Beyoncé's little sis Solange, like so many pop siblings (Dannii Minogue, Daniel Bedingfield, the 
