Artist: John Legend
Album:  Love in the Future
Genre:  Soul R&B
Label: GOOD Music, Columbia Records

“This is a new year for love,” John Legend calls out alongside a couple lonely, softly strummed guitar chords, the opening line on Love in the Future sounding more hopeless than the idealistic wish it reads like. It hits hard, and the album hasn’t even really started, the intro song serving as a 40-second prelude for what’s to come. That’s what Legend’s fourth studio album nails in: a convincing assurance from the singer of what you’re supposed to feel and when, but unfortunately his words get tangled.

With each of John Legend’s albums comes a series of well-written, well-produced, and, most of all, well-performed songs. He’s not going to waste time throwing new music on store shelves unless it’s something to be proud of. The man takes his craft seriously, and between working with The Roots in 2010 and trying to find time to meet with Kanye West, the album’s executive producer, Legend found the record unfurling slower than expected. For better and for worse, it feels slower than his past work, but it may be a needed breath his work has yet to see.

“The Beginning…” and “Made to Love” have Kanye scribbled all over them; heavy bass production and stomp-clap combos pushing Legend to the center floor to sing. On the latter, a quiet synth pools in the background with punches of bass drum and reckless female snarls prodding in. It still sounds like John Legend is crooning from a tuxedo, but the room has changed on this album. All images of oak ballrooms with older royalists and French champagne have been replaced by an upscale club with tungsten walls and aubergine curtains where guests like Rick Ross (“Who Do We Think We Are”) and Kimbra (“Made to Love”) are toasting Manhattan cocktails.

For those who prefer “Ordinary People,” his vocals on “All of Me” truck forward with an emotional simplicity. It’s too freshly open of a wound to see a spot on the radio or a slow dance at a group function, but the song is instead designed for nighttime car drives or mixtape finales. Legend gets confrontational as ever, and from the first piano chord, you know he’s writing this with that first line of the album in mind. “My head’s underwater but I’m breathing fine,” he sings. “Even when I lose, I’m winning / ‘cause I give you all of me.” Struggling to keep up a façade, his heart is full as he sings despite any pain it brings. “Wanna Be Loved” also comes close to the 2005 hit, but it takes a Frank Ocean route instead of classic solo piano. It may sound like “Wanna Be Loved” is being played out of a radio under water, but its heavy bass and down-tempo electronics create the same R&B atmosphere “Ordinary People” so effortlessly captured.

Unfortunately, several tracks peel on the edges as a result of cheap lyrics. Despite his control over pitch and tone, the very reason nine Grammy awards rest on the shelves of his family room at home, the songwriting hits a lull with “You & I (Nobody in the World),” “Hold On Longer,” and “Dreams.”  Thankfully some songs can be spared; “Open Your Eyes” rocks off-kilter piano notes to his advantage, even if the ’80s guitar solo feels fluffy and the lyrics are equally so.

Next year will ring in as John Legend’s tenth year in the industry. In a way, it feels far too long. His gracefulness seems like something present from the first record and withheld ever since then. He hasn’t had any major moments with Love in the Future, and seeing him approach his tenth year as an artist is one of those weird reminders that he, and you, are getting older; you reflect on maturity and growth, and most times it’s easier to examine it in context of who you’re listening to than your own self. Love in the Future is, surprisingly, only his fourth album, and it certainly isn’t his best work. It links arms with stronger production and beats, allowing R&B a break from his silky vocals every other track. Don’t allow yourself the easy scapegoat of saying he’s reclining too far on the La-Z-Boy– Legend isn’t taking the easy road out, or resisting maturity as an artist. Love in the Future is a deep breath in John Legend’s collection, and it shouldn’t be treated as anything but.

Score: 6.8/10

Review written by: Nina Corcoran (Follow her on Twitter)

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Nina Corcoran

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