Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 23/10/06
Label: Sony

From his first spot on record - playing piano on a track on Lauryn Hill's lauded debut album - John Legend has consistently been at or near the top of the new school soul tree. His major label debut, "Get Lifted", released late in 2004, made Legend - born John Stephens - a star, and while the music on this follow-up looks back to classic soul forms for its inspiration, its maker's momentum is focussed forward.

On a record created with diligent polish and instinctive panache, Legend's natural talent is channelled through his meticulous preparation. The songs here bristle with hook lines and middle-eights placed strategically, as if following a songwriting manual; the production, from a raft of superior creators including long-term patron Kanye West, neo-soul veteran Raphael Saadiq, Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am and the lesser-known but pivotal Craig Steet, is nuanced and precise, stressing melodies and moods with almost palpable deliberation. This is often a calculated record, but it is also an inspired one.

In spite of all that, it is not perfect. "Heaven", a West production slated to be the next single, is a little too jagged, its jerky unevenness undermining the melody. "Another Again", a broiling tale of lovers who continue to tryst despite knowing it's not the right thing to do, frustrates partially because its subject matter is unresolved, partially because the conceit it is based around - it follows a couple of tracks behind the more engaging "Again" - feels somewhat forced.

But the remainder is frequently staggering. That "Maxine", a sunny song bristling with infidelity's sting, is a quirky piece of bossa nova, and the McCartney-esque "Where Did My Baby Go" echoes Brill Building pop may irk some listeners, but whatever style he inhabits, Legend owns them all. And in so doing he takes the main problem "Get Lifted" suffered from - a need make the songs conform to a stylistic homogeneity - and uses his eclecticism to free himself from what seems to have been a creative straitjacket.

The resultant highs truly soar. "PDA (We Just Don't Care)" effortlessly captures the sunny euphoria of love's early blooming, "Each Day Gets Better" gives an early Marvin setting for Legend's newly enriched voice, and "Show Me", a prayer whispered in the darkness, is an eloquent treatise on the trials of faith. Legendary, indeed.

    by Angus Batey