John Legend
Once Again
(Good Music/Sony Urban)
Even if it didn’t have Kanye West listed as executive producer, Once Again would be a substantial record. The showcase here remains John Legend’s vocals, which often sound like labelmate Jarvis Church or Gerald Eaton of the Philsopher Kings. Throughout Once Again Legend reanimates the R&B tradition laid down in the late ’60s and early ’70s within a modern musical milieu. To start, “Save Room” opens the record with killer soul-pop. He reaches peaks again and again—“Show Me,” “Where Did My Baby Go”—and stumbles only once (the R.Kelly-like “Another Again”). As Legend lives on, he’ll do some impressive things and we’ll all forget that D’Angelo never made it back.
—Sean Flinn
This article appears in Dec 6-12, 2007.
LOL good one :). I was parked in one of the many Christian churches waiting for my son to exit his friend’s house when I was approached. Knowing I would be kicked off the property, I immediately asked about the “church fair” they posted on their sign. I engaged this guy long enough to wait out my son and thanked him for the free parking, but informed him I was an agnostic :P.