By Jenessa Gonzalez
John Legend has been known for his accompaniment to famous singers including Alicia Keys, Kanye West and Jay-z, but the singer-songwriter has changed his status of featured artist and has emerged into the spotlight as a solo artist with his quality new album, “Love in the Future.”
Already entitled to nine Grammy Awards and one Starlight Award, Legend’s fame and success payed off. Since 2004, Legend successfully released 4 albums and established himself in the music industry.
His newest project, the album “Love in the Future”, shows the progression of Legend’s love life combining a stylistic sound mixed and interbred with a retro vibe that go hand-in-hand. The album shows the roller-coaster journey through sweet melodies in order to create tracks that sound sophisticated; however, some songs seemed to have been musically neglected in certain parts of the album.
The album’s innocent take on love is evident in every song as Legend bases them on his fiance Chrissy Teigen. Legend incorporates different beats, soft, crooning lyrics, and instrumentals in order to make the album eccentric without discarding original R&B sounds.
Legend’s best songs exemplify his feelings of love in a mature fashion while keeping the lyrics virtuous. Legend’s “Made To Love” is a favorite among fans for its uplifting beat and use of harmonious mimicking; creating a catchy song that is easily danceable.
“Who Do We Think We Are” is a perfect example of how Legend incorporates old-fashioned soul music with present-day R&B. With an appearance from rapper/songwriter Rick Ross, rap and soul have never sounded more together and collaboratively genuine than in this particular song. The song also creates a powerful and strong sound that has an addicting beat.
Probably one of Legend’s most well-known songs from the album “All of Me” slows down the lively songs preceding it and creates a soothing, pianistic sound. The lyrics “Got my head spinning, no kidding, I can’t pin you down” shows a different emotion as the song portrays a break from the overwhelming affection in his other songs, showing clarity in the album’s diversity.
However, songs were not carefully placed in the album as it felt scrambled and out of order and it seemed that more effort was placed in certain parts of the album because of the number of songs within it.
His weaker songs such as “Save the Night” and “Tomorrow” unfortunately sounded effortless and neglected and had the potential of becoming great hits. Specifically in the song entitled “Dreams”, Legend overplays certain words throughout the whole chorus and overall sounds repetitive.
Overall, Legend created a whimsical album contributing many contrasting intonations that magnifies his vision on his love life. Dreamers, hopeless romantics, and love-inducers can easily relate to the songs in Legend’s album because of the soft acoustics and gorgeous melodies.
“Love in the Future” was released on Sept. 3 and is available in stores nationwide and digitally for $13.99.
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