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John Legend has the trappings of one of those overnight sensations who has actually been playing on the fringes for years. Legend, Legend, born John Stephens, hop scotched his way from his Springfield, Ohio birthplace to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for college, where he built a fan base created, in part, by his piano playing on Lauren Hill’s “Everything Is Everything.” Legend subsequently moved to New York City, working the clubs and slowly but surely becoming an A-List session musician and composer for luminaries as diverse as Alicia Keys, Twista, and Kenye West. GET LIFTED, Legend’s major label debut, demonstrates his diverse mastery of the r & b genre while boldly carving out his own considerable niche.
GET LIFTED begins with a few bars of casual piano noodling over Legend’s cocktail vocals, leading a casual listener to believe that they’ve accidentally wandered into Arthur Prysock territory, into what in a less enlightened age was somewhat disingenuously referred to as “smoke music.” After a minute or so, however, things begin to coalesce into “Let’s Get Lifted,“ the CD’s title track, with different elements --- Legend’s almost offhand vocals, a spare and lovely instrumental arrangement with Legend’s piano work walking fine point, and an extremely catchy morse code riff popping up throughout --- bringing one to the realization that there is something special going on here.
GET LIFTED explores different facets of r & b, from the blue-eyed soul of Hall & Oates (“Let’s Get Lifted”), to the more energetic fringes of Jagged Edge (“Used To Love U”) and Stevie Wonder (“She Don’t Have To Know” and “Number One”). The secondary key here, behind Legend’s considerable, immediately obvious talent, is the production, which remains relatively spare while providing a surprise here and there (the horn tracks in the middle of “She Don’t Have To Know”) but ultimately keeping Legend front and center. The common thread running through all of the tracks on GET LIFTED is the gospel under even on the more secular tracks (“All Right”). Yes, there are a couple of obligatory rap tracks; “Number One” features Kenye West, but “I Can Change” goes the other way, faintly reminiscent of a lost O’Jays gem, despite a guest appearance by a somewhat out of place Snoop Dogg. These tracks however, are followed by “Ordinary People,” a surprise track on a CD full of them. “Ordinary People” features just Legend and his piano, sounding like a cross between Stevie Wonder and Seal; there’s noting to hide behind, just Legend bringing all of his talent to ear on a quietly powerful track which is, perhaps, the CD’s standout. There are more surprises, however. The eerie, spacey “Let’s Get Lifted Again” is not a reprise of the title track but a totally reworked song, featuring Legend on a haunting falsetto. I don’t know if I would want to hear him doing this on other tracks, but here it’s just fine, damn near perfect actually. “Refuge (When It’s Cold Outside)” hearkens back to the 1960s, with echoes of The Drifters or Jar-Mels as they might sound if they’d been brought together fifty years later. GET LIFTED closes with “Live It Up,” possibly the most lushly produced track on the disc, with a bit of understated funk propelling it and a surprising but appropriate solo from jazz violinist Miri Ben Ari.
GET LIFTED was released so close to the cusp of the new year that it could easily be considered one of the last releases of 2004 or one of the first releases of 2005. It certainly deserves a place, however, on the Best Of lists for either year. Legend’s talent runs deep and is diverse. I can’t wait to hear more.
Price: $11.49
Buy at: Amazon.com
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Joe Hartlaub is in private law practice, specializing in entertainment law. He is the music editor for SavvyInsider.com
For a complete bio, click here.
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