About.com Rating

On her fourth studio album, The Light of the Sun, singer and poetess Jill Scott solidifies her status as one of the more talented performers in all of R&B, while at the same time expanding the parameters of her distinctive style. Light of the Sun, released in the U.S. on June 21, 2011 is a very adventurous album musically; in addition to her usual R&B/Soul and spoken word styles, she also offers up a healthy dose of modern-day hip-hop attitude, old-school rap sonics and even Broadway play-style vocals.


The results aren't always perfect, but they're still better than the vast majority of the other music made today.

Positive Energy

Sometimes when Jill Scott sings, you can practically see a wide, pleasant grin covering her face. And this is definitely the case on the opening track on The Light of the Sun, "So Blessed," where she vocalizes about how glad she is to be fortunate enough to have a happy life and beautiful family: "I woke up in the morning feelin' fresh to death, I'm so blessed, yes-yes/I went to bed stressed, woke up refreshed, I'm so blessed, yes-yes." The song, which is bristling with positive energy, is a prime example of why Jill is so popular with her wide and devoted fanbase. And so is the following song, "So In Love," a beautiful, fun and romantic duet with another of R&B/Soul's most talented modern-day vocalists, Anthony Hamilton.
But after the opening couple of tracks, the album becomes more experimental musically, flirting with rap and hip-hop, mostly. The most obvious evidence of this is the single "Shame," which features the rapper Eve and singers The A Group.

The braggadocious song, which samples the song "I'm the Magnificent" by late '80s/early '90s rapper Special Ed, is an ode to positive self images and a kiss-off to people who don't know what they're missing. "I can stand on my own, I'm the magnificent," she sings. "I'm a queen on a throne, I'm magnificent."

Softer, More Tender

The self-confident nature that Jill displays on "Shame" and other tracks doesn't run through the full album, however. She manages to display her softer, more tender side throughout the album's latter tracks, and particularly the nine-minute "Le BOOM Vent Suite," a sensual track where she sings about needing to be held and loved. "Tired of being strong all day," she sings at one point. "Hear My Call," a Broadway-style letter to God, and the brief song "Quick" are also winners, particularly the latter, where she sings about a broken relationship, most likely the one with her son's father, which lasted less than two years and ended two months after the child was born: "I loved ya, I really loved ya, I can't believe that it's over, I can't believe that we would ever split."
Although much of the album's experimentation clicks, not all of it is on point. Particularly, "All Cried Out Redux," which features human beatbox Doug E. Fresh, is disjointed; Doug E.'s vocal fireworks don't mesh well with Jill's smooth voice, which doesn't match the sad lyrics. And "So Gone (What My Mind Says)" is an odd collaboration between Jill and Houston rapper Paul Wall. But although The Light of the Sun has a few clunkers that prevent it from being a consistent, quality listen all the way though, it's still easily one of the better releases of 2011.