The Light Of The Sun

Music as redemption

It might be fair to say that the arrival of Jill Scott’s new album, The Light Of The Sun, was somewhat delayed. Last time the singer dropped a studio record as long as back in 2007. Could it be so that she needed another four years to develop the following CD? Jill’s career is only beginning, and at this stage, artists tend to make albums more quickly and effortlessly. But the truth of the matter is that Jill’s been lately occupied with problems hardly bound with music. She had given a birth to a child, but had to break up with the father. Despite the engagement, they never got married. If you add up her involuntary changing of labels, you can understand what she felt and what she thought when she began working on The Light Of The Sun. Nevertheless, the music has often been a true redemption to those performers who had gone through serious travails. The same happened in Jill Scott’s case.

Another Jill Scott

No doubt, several years without stepping over into the studio did not fade without leaving a trace in the career of Jill Scott who now is determined to make her new album a turning point. Even the well-known Words And Sounds line, always featured in the titles of her first three long players, is now finished with. Still, supporters of her music are not so much interested in the design or the name of her fresh product as in what it contains inside. They will be pleasantly surprised to hear their favorite singer sound on The Light Of The Sun as convincing as never before. Jill Scott’s great talent was never a question since the very start of her career, but only now can we see that she knows exactly how to make most out of her strongest skills. It is very much possible that she found that great deal of encouragement in the autobiographical nature of her latest album. And we definitely have never heard so many sorts of Jill. Depending on the various vocals she offers, we have as different instrumental backup here. In Hear My Call she is gentle and fragile, praying over the healing of her soul to the sounds of lonely piano. In Quick she is full of acrimony and contempt as her words ring in the channels of solid rhythms. In Le Boom Vent Suite she goes bluesy to recreate a touching good-bye scene.

The Light Of The Sun is a serious talk about different things

For a lot of music lovers Jill Scott is not only a favorite singer, but a close person to draw encouragement, consolation and advice from. Her voice is simultaneously strong, confident and reassuring. Her poetry is fascinating in its manner of reaching the hearts and minds. Scott has a special way with words because she started her artistic career with speech genres and now knows what powerful effect a good command of language may have. The Light Of The Sun, from time to time, unfolds Jill Scott transforming from a sensitive companion and attentive mentor to a impertinent woman who learned a lot about life. In songs like Some Other Time, or Making You Wait all her recommendation is reduced to a simple statement ‘Beware of men’. Yet whatever the tracks are about, the music of Jill Scott’s new album is top class with the singer still choosing classic soul in the contemporary wrapping. This is the soul you can hear in the single and the record’s probably best track, So In Love. Although The Light Of The Sun lasts almost an hour, Jill never affords a single dull song, not one filler. The only thing we can wish to her now is that she should not wait another four years to release another album as good as this one.