Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	7.2/10
Metacritic	79/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Blender
Entertainment Weekly	A
The Guardian
The Independent
MSN Music	A
Pitchfork	6.8/10
Q
Rolling Stone
Uncut

The Way I See It is the 2008 third studio album by American R&B singer, songwriter, and producer Raphael Saadiq. After independently releasing his 2004 album Ray Ray, Saadiq continued working on other artists' projects and developed a partnership with audio engineer Charles Brungardt, who shared the singer's fascination with historic recording techniques and equipment. In 2008, he returned from a vacation that inspired him to pursue classic soul music and recorded The Way I See It primarily at his North Hollywood studio with the engineer.

Saadiq and Brungardt disregarded their previous experience in recording production while making The Way I See It. Instead, they experimented with older recording techniques in an attempt to recreate the Motown music aesthetic of the 1960s, producing a traditional soul album draws on the Motown Sound and Philadelphia soul styles. Saadiq, whose lyrics mostly deal with romantic subject matter, described it as a series of love songs about music and remaining faithful to it despite trends.

The Way I See It was released by Columbia Records on September 16, 2008, and was initially overlooked by consumers. It sold steadily and spent 41 weeks on the Billboard 200 albums chart, reaching sales of 282,000 copies in the United States by May 2011. It also performed well in European countries such as France, where it charted for 51 weeks. The Way I See It received generally positive reviews from critics and was seen as an exemplary release of the classic soul revival at the time. It also garnered Saadiq a newer, more diverse audience as he toured extensively in support of the album, performing concerts in the US, Europe, and Asia.

After releasing his second studio album Ray Ray in 2004, Saadiq continued working as a producer, composer, and instrumentalist on other recording artists' music. He was introduced to audio engineer Charles Brungardt through production and songwriting team Jake and the Phatman, who had worked on Ray Ray. Brungardt interned at Blakeslee Recording Company, Saadiq's North Hollywood recording studio, and eventually became his principal sonic partner on projects. The two shared a fascination with historic recording techniques and equipment. They also studied the 2006 book Recording The Beatles together and had an interest in the knowledge of recording gear by engineers and technicians for English rock band The Beatles. Brungardt increased his engineering output, and in 2007, Saadiq enlisted him to engineer and mix English singer Joss Stone's studio album Introducing Joss Stone, which Saadiq produced.

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