Cranes in the Sky by Solange
'I tried to drink it away... I tried to run it away...' Solange wrote her hit song looking out at the Miami skyline. It muses on themes of isolation, loneliness and depression.
Marking 25 years of the award-winning series, Soul Music features songs from the last 25 years.
“I tried to drink it away... I tried to run it away...” Solange’s hit song, written in 2008 and released eight years later, muses on themes of isolation, loneliness, and depression. She penned the lyrics to Raphael Saadiq’s instrumental in a Miami hotel room, gazing out at the cranes filling the skyline during the onset of the housing crisis and financial crash.
Solange Knowles released her debut album in 2002 at the age of 16. This single appears on her third album, A Seat at the Table. She's the younger sister of Beyoncé.
Featuring: Journalist Douglas Markowitz; music writer Kiana Fitzgerald; author of Why Solange Matters and Big Joanie guitarist Stephanie Phillips; and Rebecca McNeil.
Producer: Eliza Lomas
Last on
Broadcasts
- Sat 17 Jan 202610:30BBC Radio 4
- Mon 19 Jan 202616:30BBC Radio 4
Why Sam Cooke's 'A Change Is Gonna Come' became a Civil Rights anthem
Podcast
![]()
Soul Music
Series about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact


