My favorite John Legend album. Almost like Voodoo, for me, that it’s mature, timeless, and fluid in its artistry. It was also similarly in how he shed the simplicity and/or hit chasing for straight up timeless good music.
I liked “Love in the Future” too. It’s hard to listen to his debut after “Once Again” dropped. It was like that “Brown Sugar” to “voodoo” or “Baduizm” to “Mama’s Gun” artistic leap. It felt like this stuff was more natural for him to do instead of the canned “bad boy of r&b” he had to do on “get lifted”. Ordinary people” is still a classic though.
“Get lifted” put him on the radio but he would have been long forgotten if he stuck to that formula. I’m glad he grew into “Once again”, that’s the album that cemented him as an artist, and someone I should always give a chance when they drop a project. I can’t stand a “stuck in the box” ass artist. I prefer when they really shed the bullshyt and really grow, and be creative and fluid.
I liked “Love in the Future” too. It’s hard to listen to his debut after “Once Again” dropped. It was like that “Brown Sugar” to “voodoo” or “Baduizm” to “Mama’s Gun” artistic leap. It felt like this stuff was more natural for him to do instead of the canned “bad boy of r&b” he had to do on “get lifted”. Ordinary people” is still a classic though.
“Get lifted” put him on the radio but he would have been long forgotten if he stuck to that formula. I’m glad he grew into “Once again”, that’s the album that cemented him as an artist, and someone I should always give a chance when they drop a project. I can’t stand a “stuck in the box” ass artist. I prefer when they really shed the bullshyt and really grow, and be creative and fluid.
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