# When I Get Home (album)
*When I Get Home* is the fourth studio album by the American singer, songwriter, and visual artist Solange, released on March 1, 2019 as the follow-up to her critically acclaimed 2016 album *A Seat at the Table*[1](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/solange-when-i-get-home/) • [2](https://music.apple.com/us/album/when-i-get-home/1454595364). Written, performed, and executive produced by Solange, the 19-track, 39-minute record is a love letter to her native Houston, Texas, drawing on the city's chopped-and-screwed (Houston style of slowed-down, glitched remixing of hip-hop) tradition, spiritual jazz, and Black cowboy culture while collaborating with artists from across the country[2](https://music.apple.com/us/album/when-i-get-home/1454595364) • [3](https://pitchfork.com/news/solanges-new-album-when-i-get-home-full-credits-panda-bear-earl-tyler-gucci-mane-more/).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Artist and album number | Fourth studio album by Solange Knowles[1](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/solange-when-i-get-home/) |
| Release | March 1, 2019, surprise release at midnight via Saint Records/Columbia Records[4](https://www.musicweek.com/talent/read/solange-knowles-surprise-releases-new-album-when-i-get-home/075481) |
| Length | 19 songs, 39 minutes[2](https://music.apple.com/us/album/when-i-get-home/1454595364) |
| Featured artists | Earl Sweatshirt, Panda Bear, Tyler, the Creator, Gucci Mane, Playboi Carti, Sampha, Pharrell Williams, Metro Boomin, Cassie, Scarface, and others[3](https://pitchfork.com/news/solanges-new-album-when-i-get-home-full-credits-panda-bear-earl-tyler-gucci-mane-more/) |
| Critical reception | Metascore 89 ("universal acclaim") from 25 critic reviews; user score 7.6 from 322 ratings[5](https://www.metacritic.com/music/when-i-get-home/solange/critic-reviews) |
| Year-end standing | Ranked #2 album of 2019 by TIME and Vulture, #1 by Los Angeles Times critic Mikael Wood[6](https://www.albumoftheyear.org/album/142095-solange-when-i-get-home/critic-lists/) |
| Companion film | A roughly forty-minute non-narrative film, also titled *When I Get Home*, released a week after the album[7](https://escholarship.org/content/qt2rz872gq/qt2rz872gq_noSplash_8097d373cbcdfe873efe390b19eba14e.pdf) |
## Release
Solange released the album without warning at midnight on March 1, 2019[4](https://www.musicweek.com/talent/read/solange-knowles-surprise-releases-new-album-when-i-get-home/075481). In the week before, she had teased the project with a takeover of BlackPlanet, the African-American social networking site, posting images, GIFs, a looping futuristic video, and cryptic texts about what people leave at home and what they carry with them[4](https://www.musicweek.com/talent/read/solange-knowles-surprise-releases-new-album-when-i-get-home/075481) • [8](https://time.com/5539155/solange-knowles-new-music-2019/). Label attribution differs among sources: Sony Music UK describes the release as coming through [RCA Records](https://www.edgepedia.org/rca-records)[9](https://www.sonymusic.co.uk/solange-releases-new-album-when-i-get-home/), while Music Week and Apple Music list Saint Records/Columbia and [Columbia Records](https://www.edgepedia.org/columbia-records) respectively[4](https://www.musicweek.com/talent/read/solange-knowles-surprise-releases-new-album-when-i-get-home/075481) • [2](https://music.apple.com/us/album/when-i-get-home/1454595364).
## Music and themes
The album abandons the traditional song structures of *A Seat at the Table*. Pitchfork's review described it as unhurried, ambient, and exploratory, a "Houston of the mind" that moves through vamps, one-off refrains, and improvisational breaks[1](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/solange-when-i-get-home/). Fourteen of the 19 tracks run under three minutes, producing a patchwork effect closer to stream-of-consciousness than to conventional pop sequencing[1](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/solange-when-i-get-home/). TIME, ranking it the #2 album of 2019, noted that rote song structures are replaced by wandering repetitions and clear-eyed slogans of empowerment by fragmented mantras[10](https://time.com/5736159/best-albums-2019/).
**Houston as subject and palette.** The tracklist references parts of Houston, including a freeway exit, and the samples include a clip of the Houston-born siblings [Debbie Allen](https://www.edgepedia.org/debbie-allen) and [Phylicia Rashad](https://www.edgepedia.org/phylicia-rashad)[11](https://time.com/5541541/solange-when-i-get-home-album/). "Way to the Show" sings about candy paint, the car finish of the city's slab scene (Houston custom-car culture with colorful 'candy' paint), and the album nods to Houston's chopped-and-screwed sound alongside hints of the jazz legends [Alice Coltrane](https://www.edgepedia.org/alice-coltrane) and Sun Ra and the uplift of Stevie Wonder[11](https://time.com/5541541/solange-when-i-get-home-album/) • [2](https://music.apple.com/us/album/when-i-get-home/1454595364). The lyrics carry feminist themes and celebrations of Blackness: "Almeda" lists brown and Black imagery in a chant-like flow, while "Binz" plays with a stereotype about African Americans and lateness[11](https://time.com/5541541/solange-when-i-get-home-album/). Where A Seat at the Table centered on Solange's own statements, When I Get Home instead aims to convey an emotion, expressed through dense harmonies and a seamless mix of analog and digital instruments.[2](https://music.apple.com/us/album/when-i-get-home/1454595364)
**Collaborators.** The guest list is long and deliberately varied: [Earl Sweatshirt](https://www.edgepedia.org/earl-sweatshirt), Panda Bear, Tyler, the Creator, Gucci Mane, Playboi Carti, Blood Orange's Dev Hynes, Sampha, Pharrell Williams, Raphael Saadiq, Metro Boomin, The-Dream, the jazz group Standing on the Corner, Scarface, Cassie, Abra, the Internet's Steve Lacy, and [Devin the Dude](https://www.edgepedia.org/devin-the-dude), among others[3](https://pitchfork.com/news/solanges-new-album-when-i-get-home-full-credits-panda-bear-earl-tyler-gucci-mane-more/). Keyboardist John Carroll Kirby was a chief collaborator throughout[1](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/solange-when-i-get-home/). TIME's coverage also notes production from her teenage son, Julez, and interludes from feminist writers[11](https://time.com/5541541/solange-when-i-get-home-album/).
## The companion film
A week after the album, Solange released a companion film, also called *When I Get Home*, a roughly forty-minute non-narrative visual work that functions as a continuous music video encompassing the whole album[7](https://escholarship.org/content/qt2rz872gq/qt2rz872gq_noSplash_8097d373cbcdfe873efe390b19eba14e.pdf) • [12](https://thepointmag.com/criticism/when-i-get-home/). Days later she brought the film back to Houston's Third Ward, hosting nine simultaneous screenings at sites including S.H.A.P.E. Community Center, Emancipation Gym, and Unity National Bank, the only Black-owned bank in Texas, founded in 1963[13](https://www.vogue.com/article/solange-when-i-get-home-film-texas-houston-third-ward).
## Reception
Critics received the album with near-uniform approval. Metacritic assigned a Metascore of 89 based on 25 reviews, 23 of them positive and two mixed, with none negative; the user score was 7.6 from 322 ratings[5](https://www.metacritic.com/music/when-i-get-home/solange/critic-reviews) • [14](https://www.metacritic.com/music/when-i-get-home/solange/user-reviews). [Entertainment Weekly](https://www.edgepedia.org/entertainment-weekly), NME, and the Los Angeles Times each scored it 100, and Pitchfork gave it 8.4[5](https://www.metacritic.com/music/when-i-get-home/solange/critic-reviews) • [1](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/solange-when-i-get-home/). Recurring praise centered on the album's cohesion and sense of place; recurring criticism, from The Guardian and Pitchfork among others, noted the haziness, the short tracks that fizzle out, and the absence of a signature tune or thesis statement[15](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/mar/01/solange-when-i-get-home-review-pharell-williams-sampha-tyler-the-creator) • [1](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/solange-when-i-get-home/). Pitchfork's verdict, that "the album rewards repetition, in listening and in execution," matched the general reading of a record that asks to be returned to[1](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/solange-when-i-get-home/).
## References
1. [Anupa Mistry (March 5, 2019). "Solange: When I Get Home Album Review." Pitchfork.](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/solange-when-i-get-home/)
2. [When I Get Home – Album by Solange, Apple Music.](https://music.apple.com/us/album/when-i-get-home/1454595364)
3. [Evan Minsker (March 1, 2019). "Solange's New Album When I Get Home Full Credits." Pitchfork.](https://pitchfork.com/news/solanges-new-album-when-i-get-home-full-credits-panda-bear-earl-tyler-gucci-mane-more/)
4. ["Solange Knowles surprise releases new album When I Get Home." Music Week, March 1, 2019.](https://www.musicweek.com/talent/read/solange-knowles-surprise-releases-new-album-when-i-get-home/075481)
5. [Critic Reviews for When I Get Home – Metacritic.](https://www.metacritic.com/music/when-i-get-home/solange/critic-reviews)
6. [Critic Lists That Contain When I Get Home by Solange – Album of the Year.](https://www.albumoftheyear.org/album/142095-solange-when-i-get-home/critic-lists/)
7. [University of California eScholarship paper on When I Get Home and the "Texas Film."](https://escholarship.org/content/qt2rz872gq/qt2rz872gq_noSplash_8097d373cbcdfe873efe390b19eba14e.pdf)
8. ["Solange Knowles Teases New Project With Mysterious BlackPlanet Takeover." TIME, 2019.](https://time.com/5539155/solange-knowles-new-music-2019/)
9. ["Solange releases new album 'When I Get Home'." Sony Music UK, March 1, 2019.](https://www.sonymusic.co.uk/solange-releases-new-album-when-i-get-home/)
10. ["The 10 Best Albums of 2019." TIME, 2019.](https://time.com/5736159/best-albums-2019/)
11. ["Breaking Down the Influences and Themes of Solange's New Album When I Get Home." TIME, 2019.](https://time.com/5541541/solange-when-i-get-home-album/)
12. [Nicholas Whittaker (December 19, 2021). "When I Get Home." The Point Magazine.](https://thepointmag.com/criticism/when-i-get-home/)
13. ["Solange Brought Her When I Get Home Visual Album Back to the Third Ward." Vogue, 2019.](https://www.vogue.com/article/solange-when-i-get-home-film-texas-houston-third-ward)
14. [User Reviews for When I Get Home – Metacritic.](https://www.metacritic.com/music/when-i-get-home/solange/user-reviews)
15. [Kate Mossman (March 1, 2019). "Solange: When I Get Home review – lose yourself in Knowles' hazy vision." The Guardian.](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/mar/01/solange-when-i-get-home-review-pharell-williams-sampha-tyler-the-creator)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Musical works and recordings › Albums and recorded releases › Studio albums › R&B and soul albums › 2000s and 2010s R&B albums*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license