War & Leisure Miguel

• 1Criminal04:34
• 2Pineapple Skies04:41
• 3Sky Walker04:20
• 4Banana Clip03:21
• 5Wolf03:29
• 6Harem03:13
• 7Told You So03:10
• 8City of Angels04:18
• 9Caramelo Duro03:33
• 10Come Through and Chill05:22
• 11Anointed03:53
• 12Now04:09
• Total Runtime48:03

Info for War & Leisure

After months of hinting to fans that new music is on the way, today Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter Miguel announces the release date for his highly anticipated fourth studio album, War & Leisure.

Following the critically-acclaimed success of his previous albums Wildheart, Kaleidescope Dream and All I Want Is You, Miguel returns with War & Leisure, a meditation on the duality of our times that Miguel has described as his “most upbeat” album. Earlier this summer, Miguel shared the first single “Sky Walker” featuring Travis Scott, which has seen over 62M streams worldwide and continues to climb the charts at radio. Miguel recently performed an acoustic cover of “Sky Walker” and previewed album cut “Come Through And Chill” on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.

„Miguel’s fourth album has a kinetic sexual and political energy. With less digital funk and more reverbed-out guitar, his R&B psychedelia for uncertain times shows his maturation as a songwriter.

Miguel’s ascent into the position of freaky-deaky, celestial sex mystic has been inevitable. Prince Rogers Nelson paved this path so guys like Miguel could thrive, and in Prince’s absence the parallels between the two are even starker and more urgent: a rich voice and richer songwriting extolling eroticism as a balm to heal the vicissitudes of our time and get through this thing called life. Flange and echo pedals are their shared sensual vessels. There’s always going to be a place in contemporary American music for musicians like Miguel, a stony guitarist with an innate sense of the desire behind R&B psychedelia. It’s escapism as a stand-in for freedom both spiritual and actual, a way to shake loose within ever-lusher soundscapes. As Miguel sings on War & Leisure’s homage to his Purpleness, “Pineapple Skies”: “Can we look up, look up, baby/There’s pineapple purple skies/Promise everything’s goin’ be all right.”

Like his musical predecessors—Prince, Hendrix, collaborator Lenny Kravitz—all deepened their erotic pull with a sense of justice and moral fortitude, War & Leisure would imply Miguel’s got more than your body on his mind. He’s said as much, at least; in early November, he told Billboard that War & Leisure “is intentionally about the ethos right now, that we are right in the middle of all this.” This would imply a more overtly political album than, say, 2015’s sublime Wildheart, which made Congressional lobbying and the 42nd President into a slinky simile for a come-on, and parsed the feeling of being misplaced in a rigid society; or more political than “Candles in the Sun,” his 2012 call for peace and harmony.

But Miguel is a savvy songwriter, and so he swerves on those expectations. His allusions to “the ethos right now” are so far mostly visual, with the video for “I Told You So” featuring clips of Trump protests and earthly ills like nuclear missile launches and glacial melt, as he croons to “baby” about the freedom and pleasure in his love. (In October, Miguel also debuted “Now,” War & Leisure’s most overt social-conscious joint, at a benefit for Schools Not Prisons, a California public education campaign). Instead of offering the more woke/political album he’s been suggesting, this fraught moment has infused Miguel with a kinetic energy that is still mostly centered in his sacral chakra, a pelvic mind concern. It’s juiced-up sex Miguel but with a fire in it, less digital funk and more reverbed-out guitar, a virile, wavy palette and a clear step forward in his maturation as a writer. He’s weaved an album that’s taut and economical, like a featherweight champion landing smoothly choreographed jabs in the form of powerfully raspy harmonies and tight, lusty blues runs. …(Pitchfork)

“As much as War & Leisure is about desire, it’s also a reflection of this woke moment, a statement about seeking refuge from the world in the comforts of love.” – TIME

“Miguel cements his status as the ultimate mixer of R&B, funk, electronic, pop and rock with this latest record, perhaps his most dynamic and upbeat album yet.” – PAPER

“It’s an equal parts stirring and uplifting message, showing an artist who is unafraid to use his voice as he continues to evolve.” – USA TODAY

“His voice, particularly when drowsily tossing out raps or soaring in its upper mid-range, is a beautiful instrument that always ties the groove together.” – THE GUARDIAN

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