"Saw Lightning" is a song by the American musician

Beck Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his Experimental music, experimental and Lo-fi music, lo-fi style, and became ...

. It was released in 2019 as the first single from his fourteenth studio album '' Hyperspace''. It was co-written by Beck and

Pharrell Williams Pharrell Lanscilo Williams (; born April 5, 1973) is an American record producer, rapper, singer, and songwriter. Alongside close colleague Chad Hugo, he formed the hip hop and R&B production duo the Neptunes in the early 1990s, with whom he ...

. Aside from vocals, Williams also plays drums and keyboards in the song.

Background

Beck said: "I was making a record called '' Midnite Vultures'' and while we were making it… I remember

the Neptunes The Neptunes are an American songwriting and production duo composed of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, formed in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in 1992. Williams often provides additional vocals on records and appears in the duo's music videos, ...

harrell's production duohad just come out, and I said I'm gonna do the next record with the Neptunes, and here we are 20 years later".

Reception

Daniel Kreps of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' wrote that the song "melds the jangly acoustic guitar of Beck's folksier work with the dancefloor-ready programmed beats prominent in his 2017 LP '' Colors''". UDiscoverMusic wrote of the song: "A classic slice of cross-genre boundary-breaking, 'Saw Lightning' sees Beck taking an about-turn from the euphoric pop of ''Colors'' to assemble a junkyard-

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

- hip-hop confection featuring rapped vocals" and "some '' One Foot in the Grave''- style blues harmonica".

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{Beck 2019 songs 2019 singles Beck songs Songs written by Beck Songs written by Pharrell Williams Capitol Records singles