After three years of waiting, John Legend came out with his fifth full length album, Darkness and Light. The album was released on Dec. 2 and features a wide range of musical styles, but still holds on to the R&B roots we’ve all come to expect from him.
Darkness and Light consists of 12 tracks that all have slower tempos and focus on highlighting Legend’s vocal ability, but it’s hard for me to say I was bored throughout any part of the album. Legend does a great job of bringing in more niche variety and showing the audience that this album is more than just R&B.
Although most of Legend’s vocals remain constant through the record — only changing through auto-tune in “Same Old Story” — he has a voice that I don’t mind listening to for an extended period of time. Legend’s lyrics make the constant vocal style even more enjoyable. Most of the tracks deal with love, but Legend makes sure to explore every situation of love and really nails the ups and downs of the subject.
“I Know Better” centers around embracing past mistakes, “Love Me Now” discusses making the most of diminishing love and “What You Do to Me” is about the negatives and positives of a relationship. However, it doesn’t end there. Legend also includes social commentary in “Penthouse Floor” and “Marching into the Dark.” With lyrics that fluctuate through themes and sub-themes, the whole album feels fresh through the 12 tracks.
Along with versatile lyrics come equally eclectic styles of R&B, folk and even electronic music that are also scattered throughout Darkness and Light. The album features multiple tracks with classic elements of R&B, but Legend inserts subtle aspects of other genres into them to differentiate similar songs. Folk strings, gospel organs and jazzy saxophones and trumpets makes every track unique and really easy to listen to for the audience.
What I really enjoyed was the different bass lines in the album. “Overload” features a funky bass line that keeps the pace of the song constant, “Surefire” keeps it traditional with a deep double bass and “Same Old Story” embraces an electronic synth bass line. This goes to show how willing Legend is in embracing both old and new styles of music, which goes along well with the album’s theme of darkness versus light.
Darkness and Light has a few featured artists that join Legend in the album. Chance the Rapper and Brittany Howard add some depth to “Penthouse Floor” and “Darkness and Light,” respectively. However, my favorite feature — and one of my favorite songs on the album—is Miguel in “Overload.” This track is great because it is performed as a duet where Miguel’s higher pitch compliments Legend’s lower pitch perfectly. What we’re left with is a very balanced track with deep dimension of vocal talent.
Overall, I really enjoyed Darkness and Light. Legend’s voice, the versatile music production and the strong features make the album worth listening to. I give Legend’s latest full-length album a nine out of ten.
Contact CU Independent Arts Staff Writer Alvaro Sanchez at alvaro.sanchez@colorado.edu.
