Muted piano and breathy, genuine vocals, softly gospel-tinged harmonies, and a cavernous reverb that lets the whole track capture the essence of soulful expression from an empty room. Sali Clinton’s So Long is an enchanting piece of stripped-back acoustic R&B, intimate and alluring in its solitary, organic presence; a song that shines with unquestionable brightness, and is best experienced alone, through high-quality headphones.
So Long is a 2022 release from Sali Clinton, the Northampton-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist originally from Southern Nigeria, whose catalogue ranges from warmer Afro-fusion to quieter acoustic R&B. So Long sits in the quieter half, and is one of the more personal songs he’s put out, written after a long stretch away from music, during what he describes as a period of emotional and physical distance from family and from his own guitar.
When he picked the guitar back up, So Long was what came out.
The track was later picked up for the 2023 feature film Flaws, available internationally on Amazon Prime Video. It fit so naturally that many viewers assumed the song had been written for the film. Lines like “It’s been so long that I felt your touch”and “How long does this desert last?” carry a universal ache of distance and longing, and Clinton’s controlled falsetto, backed by delicate layered harmonies, does most of the heavy lifting.
You can hear the gospel roots in those harmonies, without any overt church inflection in the song itself.
There’s a healing quality to the song’s brevity. It’s just under two minutes long, and Clinton’s politely expressive voice suits that kind of contained intimacy rather beautifully. So Long doesn’t reach for more than it is, and it’s that honesty and restraint that makes it stay with you; long after the music has ended.
Find Sali Clinton on Instagram.
