Solange’s cathartic “Cranes in the Sky,” off her new album, A Seat at the Table, is about getting over something. The singer tries dancing, music-making, alcohol, sex—anything to help her move on. But what exactly is she trying to deal with? Going with a theme of the album, is it the oppression of black people? Or going with the video, is it specifically the oppression of black women?
In the fifth verse, she talks about breaking off a relationship in order to get past this problem:
I tried to let go my lover
Thought if I was alone then maybe I could recover
To write it away or cry it away
Don’t you cry baby
But what if a relationship was the issue? In an Instagram post on Tuesday, Solange revealed that this song, which was co-produced by Raphael Saadiq, was actually penned in 2008:
Timing. I wrote ‘Cranes in The Sky’ 8 years ago. It was 8 years ago @raphael_saadiq handed me a cd with a few instrumentals. One was just drums, strings, and bass. I went home and wrote ‘Cranes’ that night in my hotel room. When I finished writing and creating #aseatatthetable in a little house in New Iberia, Louisiana…..I revisited ‘Cranes’ once again. I called Raphael that night and asked if he would help me to elevate the production on a few of the other songs of the album to see their fullest potential. I am so happy 8 years later Cranes is finally out in the world.
According to a 2014 interview Solange did with Harper’s Bazaar, 2008 would be the year after the 30-year-old artist and her first husband, Daniel Smith, got divorced. “Just going through a marriage and a divorce—which I essentially did by 21—will give you an insane amount of perspective on life,” she said.
So it would make sense that “Cranes in the Sky” was inspired by Solange’s split with Smith. In 2008, she was as free as a bird, not to mention in-the-zone creatively—that year, she released her sophomore album, Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams. Maybe “Cranes in the Sky” was originally intended for that LP? Either way, the album and video add possible layers to what the song is about.
You can read all of the lyrics to “Cranes in the Sky” on Genius now.
