''Volcanic Sunlight'' is the fourth solo studio album by

Saul Williams Saul Stacey Williams (born February 29, 1972) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, musician, poet, writer, and actor. He is known for his blend of poetry and alternative hip hop, and for his lead roles in the 1998 independent film ''Slam'' ...

. It was released by

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

in 2011. The album features a different approach than his previous albums, embracing a

dance-pop Dance-pop is a popular music subgenre that originated in the late 1970s to early 1980s. It is generally uptempo music intended for nightclubs with the intention of being danceable but also suitable for contemporary hit radio. Developing from a ...

direction, with various influences from

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...

, '60s

garage rock Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or 60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of rock and roll that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals. The sty ...

, new wave, and dubstep.

Critical reception

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 73% based on 6 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Alexander Heigl of ''

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...

'' gave the album 6 stars out of 10, calling it "a solid, finely-tuned album that reveals new turns and tricks with every listen." Dylan Grier of

Okayplayer Okayplayer is an online hip-hop and alternative music website and community, described by ''Rolling Stone'' as a "tastemaker" and "an antidote to dull promotional Web sites used by most artists". The community was founded by The Roots' drummer ...

gave the album an 85 out of 100, writing: "this album is, in many ways, much simpler than many of his previous offerings, but may leave listeners more confounded than ever."

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from liner notes. *

– lead vocals, songwriting, arrangement, guitar (3), bass guitar (13), keyboards (2–5, 7–11, 13), percussion (3) * Renaud Létang – production, arrangement, keyboards (1–8, 10–13), guitar (1–5, 7, 8, 10–13), bass guitar (1, 2, 4, 8, 10, 12), percussion (3, 6), tambourine (13), piano (13), mixing * David Sztanke – keyboards (1, 5–11, 13) * Vincent Taeger – drums (1, 2, 4–9, 12, 13), tambourine (13) * Vincent Taeger – percussion (1, 12) * Lippie – backing vocals (2) * Julien Chirol – brass (2, 9, 10, 13), trombone (3), flute (3) * Lionel Segui – brass (2, 9, 10, 13), trombone (3), tuba (3) * Misha Cliquennois – brass (2, 9, 10, 13), trumpet (3), horn (3) * Mamané Thiam – percussion (3, 4) * Denis Teste – keyboards (4) * Saturn – backing vocals (6, 8) * Deep Cotton – backing vocals (12) *

Janelle Monáe Janelle Monáe Robinson (; born December 1, 1985) is an American singer, rapper and actress. She is signed to Atlantic Records, as well as to her own imprint, the Wondaland Arts Society. Monáe has received eight Grammy Award nominations. Mon� ...

– backing vocals (12) * Thomas Moulin – recording *

Howie Weinberg Howie Weinberg is an American audio mastering engineer with over 2,257 mastering credits, three TEC Awards, 21 Grammy Awards, two Juno Awards, and one Mercury Prize. Career Weinberg mastered Herbie Hancock's 1983 album ''Future Shock''. Other m ...

– mastering

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 2011 albums Saul Williams albums Columbia Records albums