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War & Leisure is the fourth studio album by American singer Miguel, released on December 1, 2017, through RCA Records.[4][5] The album was preceded by the release of the first single: "Sky Walker" featuring Travis Scott. The album features further guest appearances from Rick Ross, Quiñ, Kali Uchis, J. Cole and Salaam Remi, with production led by Miguel himself, alongside a variety of contributors including Happy Perez, Steve Mostyn, David Andrew Sitek. Detail, Raphael Saadiq, Jeff Bhasker, Jerry "Wonda" Duplessis and Remi, among others.

War & Leisure
Studio album by Miguel
Released	December 1, 2017 (2017-12-01)
Studio	Various EastWest Studios, Los Angeles Record Plant, Los Angeles Serenity West Studios, Los Angeles Village Studios, Los Angeles Blakeslee Recording Company, North Hollywood John Hill Studio, Venice, CA Instrument Zoo, Miami, FL Lust Studios, Vancouver, BC Platinum Sound Recording Studio, New York City, NY Weekender Studios, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Genre	R&B psychedelic funk[1] pop[2]
Length	48:02
Language	English Spanish
Label	ByStorm RCA
Producer	Miguel (also exec.) Mark Pitts (exec.) Wayne Barrow (assoc.) Arden "Keyz" Altino Jeff Bhasker Detail Jerry "Wonda" Duplessis Eyal Federman Steve Mostyn Happy Perez Salaam Remi Raphael Saadiq Sir Dylan David Andrew Sitek Sidney Swift
Miguel chronology
Wildheart (2015) War & Leisure (2017) Te Lo Dije (2019)
Singles from War & Leisure
"Sky Walker" Released: August 24, 2017 "Told You So" Released: November 3, 2017 "Come Through and Chill" Released: April 10, 2018[3]

Background

He describes the album as having "political undertones, because that’s what life feels like right now".[6] He also announced that a Spanish version of the album is in the works.[7]

Release and promotion

An early version of the song "Come Through and Chill" was uploaded to Miguel's SoundCloud page on June 23, 2016. It did not feature vocals by J. Cole, but ended up on the final version.[8][9]

The album's lead single, "Sky Walker", featuring American rapper Travis Scott was released on August 24, 2017.[10][11] The song charted at number 29 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it Miguel's second-highest charting single as a lead artist since 2012's "Adorn".[12] The song was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It was also certified gold by Music Canada (MC), becoming Miguel's first certified single in that country.

"Told You So", was released on November 3, 2017, as the second single from the album.[13]

Miguel partnered with Revolve Impact and headlined in Schools Not Prisons, along with other partners in late 2017 to spread awareness of the overuse of mass incarceration in California.[14] Footage from his Adelanto stop was used in the music video for "Now".[15][16] He premiered medleys of "Criminal", "City of Angels", and "Now" on the tour.

Promotional singles

The track "Pineapple Skies" was released on November 17, 2017, as a promotional single from the album.[17][18][19]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	7.6/10[20]
Metacritic	81/100[21]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[22]
The A.V. Club	B+[23]
Consequence of Sound	B+[24]
Exclaim!	8/10[25]
The Guardian	[2]
The Irish Times	[26]
NME	[27]
Pitchfork	8.1/10[28]
Rolling Stone	[1]
Slant Magazine	[29]

War & Leisure was met with widespread critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 81 based on 19 reviews.[21] Reviewing for The Observer, Kitty Empire noted the record's musical daring and scope, while writing that "Miguel's versatility and sureness of touch recall that of [Michael] Jackson in his pomp".[30] Robert Christgau was less enthusiastic in his capsule-review column for Vice, citing "City of Angels" and "Sky Walker" as highlights while finding the album overall to be "more leisurely than the title might make you hope, believe, or fear".[31]

Commercial performance

War & Leisure debuted at number nine on the US Billboard 200 and topped the Billboard US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart with sales 40,000 album-equivalent units in its first week of release.[32] On January 24, 2019, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for combined sales and album-equivalent units of 500,000 units in the United States.[33]

Track listing

Notes

• ^{^[a]} signifies a co-producer.
• ^{^[b]} signifies an additional producer.

Sample credits

• "Pineapple Skies" contains a portion of the composition "Sexual Healing", written by Marvin Gaye, David Ritz and Odell Brown.
• "Come Through and Chill" contains interpolations from "Crushin'", written by James Yancey.
• "Now" contains interpolations from "Where Is My Mind?", written by Charles Thompson.

Personnel

Musicians[35]

Technical[35]

Miscellaneous

Charts

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
United States (RIAA)[45]	Gold	500,000
Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

References

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