Not a typical Herbie album for one BIG reason - "vocals" by Herbie himself. Why quotes? He used a voice-encoder, or "vocoder" (NOT "vocorder"). Invented by Bell Laboratories in the early 60's, this "effect" was first popularized by Wendy Carlos on her early 70's soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange, most notably in her electronic realization of Beethoven's 9th. A bit later it was used by Kraftwerk on "Autobahn" and Man Machine. A vocoder takes an input signal, such as a synthesizer (but can be anything) and filters it using a second input signal, such as a human voice. The input signal is "shaped" to the charactersitics of the second signal. This second signal can be mixed with the original (Moby did this a lot on "Play") or removed so only the filtered original is heard. This is what Herbie did here. Of course when you use a synth you don't have any of the problems associated with bad singing, like wavering pitch.
Now to set things straight: Peter Frampton never used one, he used a device referred to as a "Pig", where a tube channels the sound of the instrument acoustically to the mouth where it is then "shaped" and picked up by the microphone. This effect was also used by Jeff Beck on "She's a Woman" from Blow By Blow and on the phenomenal live album he made with Jan Hammer. It was also used by BT Express on the Function At the Junction album (how's that for an obscure ref?). Also, Cher had nothing to do with her vocoded voice on "Believe". Cher had recorded a demo of this song and an independent (and then unknown) producer used the effect on her voice, then took the track to Cher who loved it. The tune became a big smash, and for the next year every Backstreet Bumbiters and the N*Sphincs recording used him, making that producer an overnight success (can't recall the name). The process used for Believe was a very-labour intensive process of isolating just certain places in the vocal performance where she changes notes, then taking her voice out and inserting the vocoded line for just the split second of the note transition. Takes hours and hours to do.
This album was an experiment in styles from Herbie, and from the picture of his setup on the back cover it is obvious he had major enthusiasm for electronic instruments. He created a sound on the new Sennheiser vocoder that approximated his voice and wrote a few funky tunes he could "sing" on. For that alone this album is a novelty. And for the funky disco suit he's wearing, complete with medallion.
The album is actually quite good, though the tunes are a bit cliche lyrically. But you still have all the great players like Harvey Mason and Paul Jackson, Mtume, Jaco Pastorious etc etc so the music kicks no matter what. When Herbie kicks in with a solo it's pure joy as always. Even though the songs are designed to be danceable, the writing is still first-rate with lots that rewards. It's also amazing to hear these great musicians doing their best to realize Herbie's vision, even though it's not really what they were used to playing. Very professional. When Herbie had a minor hit with this album, he moved into a more commercial feel and started using guitar players like Ray Parker Jr and other musicians who came from the funk and Motown schools, like Melvin Ragin ("Wah Wah" Watson), and I believe one or both are on this album. Just keep an open mind, remembering that Herbie is an explorer, and here he's expressing something that he never quite repeated. Not a failed experiment or anything, just a unique moment in his musical development: Herbie as vocalist.

The beginning of Hancocks obsession wih vocoderized singing
starts on the monster "I Thought It Was You"-a pop early electro
funk number along with it's tital track counter tune."No Means
Yes" is a decent instrumental funk-fusion number while the
closer "Good Question" blasts back to avante-acoustic jazz smack
in the heart of VSOP territory.And theres a throwaway pop ballad
in "Come Running To Me.Trouble is-those arn't highlites;that's
the entire ALBUM-literally!Other then that,enjoy!

From the outset, I will concede that this recording may seem somewhat out of place in the Herbie Hancock collection...but maybe not so much as at first glance. While it sounds like it was influenced by its time (late 70's disco), his greatest album (in my estimation) "dis is da drum" was also influenced by a contemporary musical trend (hip hop). Unlike other reviewers, I enjoyed the first two cuts ("I Thought It Was You" and "Come Running To Me") along with the title track, "Sunlight", paticularly for the vocorder treatment of his vocals (something Cher only recently parlayed into pop-music success). While the tracks here are accessable, I found them lively, funky and touched with a bit of melancholy. This album was my introduction to Herbie, and through it, I found the gold-mine that is his discography. Whatever Herbie wants to do (play bebop, create fusion or re-work pop tunes, gershwin, even disco!) is alright with me! He's the "funky innovator," whether he's playing this brand of light funk or "blue notes with miles."

...Roger/Zappheads mostly know about the vocoder-- essentially it digitallizes the voice to give that whiney robotic feel. Stevie used it, Peter Frampton used it, Stanley Clark used it, Teddy Riley uses it...you can hear it used on anyone from Jodeci to Cher to Mary Mary. Shortly after it was popularised by Frampton on his live album, Stevie did pick it up, and keyboardist Herbie Hancock did too--who was the first of the two is a mystery, at least to me. Anyway, it seems as if Herbie laid the groundwork for Zapp with this quick issue from Columbia, circa 1976...a year or so after "Headhunters" w/ that monster cut "Chameleon". This album, "Sunlight" is classic Herbie, and indeed, a true rarity...don't let the dance influenced tracks bother you. Hancock and group were truly innovating back then...get it for some funky jazz and to see how a mastermind works....

Although I have slightly more love for his acoustic period and his early works like Takin' Off, Maiden Voyage and Speak Like a Child (best chronicled on The Best of Herbie Hancock: The Blue Note Years), I'm also very much a fan of Herbie Hancock's electronic period. Once he discovered moogs, polyphonic synthesizers, ARPs, vocoders and the like, jazz-funk was never the same again. He had his eye firmly on the streets as evidenced by "I Thought It Was You", which was a huge crossover hit back then but he ensured I wasn't totally dismayed and disappointed by providing innovative and exciting jazz numbers like "Sunlight", with that fabulous sax solo by Bennie Maupin, "Come Running To Me" and "No Means Yes". Though I have nothing against the vocoder per se, it's what Hancock does with his electric piano improvisations on these songs here that I love most of all. The album features talents like Melvin Wah Wah Watson, Ray Parker, Jr, Jaco Pastorius, Leon Ndudu Chandler, Harvey Mason, Tony Williams and Bill Summers. A true classic.

I remember reading some savage reviews from critics back then, especially those from the more purist camps, who probably missed the acoustic stuff I referred to earlier. Either that or they presumed a jazz musician had no right making being experimental and innovative. I just thought the dude was awesome. I still do.

That said, I do concede that it's possible to take an idea too far. Hancock continued his electro-funky trend with 1979's Feets, Don't Fail Me Now, (which gave me the delights that are "You Bet Your Love", the hypnotic ballad "Trust Me" and the incredibly funky "Honey From The Jar". I also liked the Ray Parker, Jr-esque tune, "Ready Or Not") but overall, I liked this album rather less than I did "Sunlight". Things went further downhill in my opinion with 1980's Monster. The only two tracks I could really get into on that, unfortunately, were "Stars In Your Eyes" and the truly beautiful "Making Love". I can even take "Saturday Night" at a pinch but that's only if I take the charitable view of this being just an r&b/soul album with jazz influences, as opposed to the other way round.

Mr Hancock finally cast all pretensions of being a jazz performer aside and took his turn on the Rod Temperton bandwagon with 1982's Lite Me Up and eventually found his chart nirvana with the massive 1983 hit "Rockit" from his album Future Shock.

I don't want to be misunderstood. I adore Herbie Hancock and get enjoyment from all the albums I've mentioned here, (especially "Feets Don't Fail Me Now" and "Lite Me Up"). I think he's one of the most creative jazz musicians I've ever heard. I just wish sometimes that he had stayed in "Sunlight" mode. I think it's on this album that he got the balance between jazz and funk just right.