John Legend “Evolver” Review

For all the talk about how “hip hop is dead” and “hip hop needs this or that,” and “hip hop kicked my puppy,” it’s really R&B that’s been in a slump for over a decade (I could probably say “three decades,” but I don’t want some crazed Luther fan hunting me down). Stuck in an endless cycle of predictable love ballads, sassy break-up songs and hip-hoppified club jams, modern R&B is in desperate need of an injection of soul. No pun intended.

Yes, we’re lucky to have Erykah Badu, Raphael Saadiq and a few other genuinely interesting R&B artists, but they’re too niche-oriented to really facilitate a genre-wide reawakening. Amy Winehouse has too much baggage, Gnarls Barkley is great but never seems to get mentioned as an R&B act (that’s another article), Anthony Hamilton is M.I.A., D’Angelo is even more M.I.A., and no one seems to care about Van Hunt, Leela James, Martin Luther or anyone else who breaks from the formulas even a little bit (I’m probably forgetting someone great—feel free to leave a comment).

And then there’s John Legend. Listening to him sing, I really feel like he wants to be that watershed figure. He’s certainly in position to be that artist who can make R&B interesting again, who can try some new and different things and get away with it. He already has a non-traditional voice, an off-Broadway croon that is sometimes conversational, sometimes ragged, and always engaging. He already has the hip hop connections and the mainstream appeal, thanks to frequent collaborator Kanye West.

And over the course of two albums, he displayed a willingness to break from the formula. Get Lifted was a brilliant, stirringly subtle concept album, telling a single story from the first track to the last. The follow-up, Once Again, though not nearly as ambitious, was a solid sophomore effort with a number of great songs, interesting lyrical concepts and unique sonic palettes.

Evolver, his new album, betrays its title. It’s the “easiest” of all his albums, and suffers for it. It’s not a bad album, and if you’re looking for some easy listening/adult-contempo R&B music to just chill out to or prove how smooth you are, you’ll probably love it. But it’s an insufferably safe album, bordering on boring, and this is doubly disappointing because Legend is capable of so much more.

Legend retains his knack for melody, however, and songs like “Everybody Knows” and “Floating Away” are solid enough tracks. But how many ways can a genre say “I Love You,” “I Don’t Love You,’ or “I Want to Love You But There Are Obstacles” over the same smooth, polished studio production before it completely devours itself? I don’t think every singer should try to go the Marvin Gaye route and do a whole album of politically-engaged material, but artists like Sam Cooke, the Temptations, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder and others from soul music’s golden age were able to balance the love songs with songs about, well, anything else—politics, life, family, etc.

While Legend’s let’s-save-the-word jam “If You’re Out There” is a welcome break from the love songs, it’s weighed down by its own self-importance. Lyrical platitudes, a huge choir, a driving, world-music rhythm… it’s Legend’s attempt at U2, and it falls short.

It’s also buried at the end of the album, and though the song itself leaves something to be desired, the impulse behind it, focused and fine-tuned, could lead to some great material. John Legend is one of R&B’s most talented, creative artists; maybe he just needs to ditch his handlers and try something new.

Also: MSTRKRFT & John Legend on the Late Show with David Letterman